User Reviews of Ambien

I am 53, I was prescribed Ambien for a sleep disorder. I had a total ankle replacement 2 years ago and have had sleep problems since then, I have experienced depression because of my diminished mobility and even once thought about suicide. But those thoughts have gone away and I have been pretty stable.

I took an Ambien one night about a month ago. My wife and I had a wonderful evening, I wasn’t upset about anything, I remember taking the Ambien , going to bed and turning off the TV.

I woke up in the emergency room! Apparently, I had gotten up, gone to our entertainment cabinet and pulled down a bottle of wine, drank the whole thing , and then decided to take the remaining 14 pills left in the bottle, and then went back to bed.

My wife (who is an ER nurse) woke up because I was laying on top of her, I was unresponsive and had urinated on the bed. She called the ambulance, and I don’t remember a single bit of it! Kind of scary! I really don’t know what to say about this other than, I”m glad the bottle of Ambien wasn’t full!!!

My doctor prescribed 10mg Ambien 5 years ago after I had surgery and treatment that made restful sleep difficult. I have both the problem of falling asleep and staying asleep, though I don’t take the CR version. I’ve experienced many of the same issues others have reported: extreme hunger within about 30 minutes of taking the pill, crazy behaviors like cooking or cleaning if I take it and don’t go immediately to bed, phone conversations I don’t recall. My routine now is to have a glass of water on the nightstand and the pill bottle in the drawer so I take it ONLY once I’m ready to sleep and in bed. Several weeks ago I decided to wean myself off Ambien, hopefully for good, but I realize I may need to use it again now and then when traveling. The process I’m using is to first cut down from 10mg to 5mg per night and now I’m supplementing 1mg of melatonin about 1 hour before bedtime. This combination has helped so far to provide what seems like more restful sleep as well as less grogginess the next day. I also have one of those Philips light therapy goLight Blu energy lights on my desk that I turn on each morning to resemble sunlight. What I first noticed when I lowered the Ambien dose was a severe headache for about a week. That has since gone away. I’m about to reduce the dose in half again, to 2.5mg, which is a challenge as the pills are so small and splinter even with a new pill splitter. The pharmacist I spoke to yesterday told me that there is no real physical addiction to Ambien, but rather it’s all psychological; that’s what they were taught in school and what the company told them….He also added that the drug is entirely safe and there are no problems if someone takes it as recommended for less than 3 months. I reminded him that I’d been taking it for 5 years, and he just repeated what he’d already said. I smiled, thanked him, and walked away. He heard nothing of what I was asking. My doctor doesn’t have a problem with me taking this drug for perpetuity. Am I the only one in this mix that gets it? Bad things have happened to me as a result of this medication and I want to be free of its shackles. But, only I can do this and I appreciate the comments of others who have posted on this site. Be well and good luck!

I was on Ambien for three years prior to February 1st, 2011. After experiencing delusional thinking [believing my husband was cheating on me and poisoning me], and asking my doctor to help me get off of it, and him telling me to ‘stop playing doctor,’ I abruptly quit. That would instantly throw me into a psychotic rage. I wasn’t suicidal or homicidal I just didn’t care. I felt like I just wanted to climb out of my skin. I didn’t realize what I had done and believed someone had drugged me. I had my daughter drive with me to the hospital (one of three) and at the ER I told them that I wanted to be tested for poisoning. I was given every test that I asked for (Toxicology Screen, Urine test, ECG and a CT-it was assumed I was crazy). After all tests were negative they tried to stall me while they could figure out what to do with me. There was no psych ward at that hospital and I learned later they were trying to have me transported to the nearest hospital that did. I left and had my daughter drive me to another hospital that could run the same tests and give me the results. To shorten this: after that hospital held me for eight hours and under city police guard they had me taken by ambulance to another hospital that had a psych ward. I was placed on a fifteen minute suicide watch, subjected to male and female patients walking in and out of my room, and on one occasion an apparent alzheimer male patient entered my room and wouldn’t stop advancing towards me, I picked-up a metal trashcan and put it between us. I was able to push him back with it until I could get around him and out into the hallway to yell for a nurse. My rights were completely ignored. I spent eighteen days being held against my will, in fear of not knowing what I was going through and how that happened to me, to be told by a thirty-two year RN that I was an addict and was experiencing withdraws. After two probate hearings (taken there by deputies shackled and handcuffed), two attorneys, two psychiatrist, and one judges ruling later I was released. The fear I felt while being held there came from seeing patients suicidal attempts bandaged and covered with bands, grown men allowing their depends diapers (stained) to fall to the floor, and hear patients rantings to be silenced by nurses and guards running to take them off and inject them. Which I was also subjected to after I learned my uncle died that morning and I was crying. Not out of control, not ranting just trying to tell the nurse he died. She yelled at me twice to be quiet then injected me. If anyone reading this believes that the hypnotic drug Ambien could not have caused any of this, as the psychiatrist tried to force me to believe, think again. I am very sorry to read above of the lives that Ambien has taken . I have been ‘labeled’ a Paranoid Schizophrenic, Bipolar, Poly Substance Abuser and Dilusional Disorder, and all because I took Ambien and after three years took myself off of it. Lesson learned TAPER or better never start. I am now one year free of the hypnotic Ambien.

My wife of ten years told me today that we should not be together. Six months ago she was having a FB and txt affair with another man while the whole time lying to be and not expressing her feeling to me about anything. For the last six months I have tried everything I can to get her to talk to be but I get nothing. Now today just a few days after our ten year anniversary she said its over. We have four childrren that I love with all my heart and they are my life. I can’t stand to be away from them. I don’t think I can live without them. I have spent the last nine years building our dream hone all the while working six and seven day weeks at my job 12hours a day. I have put everything into making a home for my family. Before we were married I had spent five years remodeling a house only to sell it so we could move to make her happy. I put all that money into our home. Now I will have nothing. 15years of my life gone. I can’t stand the idea of getting use to seeing my children a fees times a month. I need them in my life everyday. Putting them to bed is the highlight of my day. I work the graveyard shift so I tuck them in then go to work. I have been working seven days a week for almost two years straight now. My wife is a stay at home mom. I work on the house in my off hours plus do the dishes and clean the kitchen every morning when I get home from work. She thinks its not enough. The house is always a mess even though she has all the day while the kids are in school to clean and she gets mad when I say something about it. She says its my fault she feels this way. As I said I love my children but I can’t live my life seperate from them. I have a whole bottle of ambient that I am thinking about taking. Either that or slit my wrists either way I think it will be peaceful. I know my children, brothers and father willow not understand and I hate to cause then pain but I don’t see a choice here. The debt could be resolved by selling the house that I have worked so hard on and maybe we could start sperate lives but she said no to that. Why is it ok for her to take my hone and my children from me? I don’t see many choices here. I don’t want advise I don’t want help just wanted to vent I suppose. I don’t believe in hell. That’s just a way of controlling primitive people. But I am still scared. My mother died a few years back. Maybe I can be with her.

I am going through an extreme serious issue with depression and alcohol, drugs myself over the last 10 years and the last 2 years have have found ambien to be the solution to my stress. I have built up a tolerance so much that Im takeing about 10 a day at least. 4 10mg before bed, 1 or 2 when I wake up with a red bull and every 4 I am going through an extreme serious issue with depression and alcohol, drugs myself over the last 10 years and the last 2 years have have found ambien to be the solution to my stress. I have built up a tolerance so much that Im takeing about 10 a day at least. 4 10mg before bed, 1 or 2 when I wake up with a red bull and every 4 hours 2 with a red bull or dr pepper. The 4 at night make me sleep. The others during the day keep my mind at peace and stress free all day. Several issues Ive had the past 6 months is a horble pain in my stomach and lower back that is extrememly painful if I dont take ambiem. Within 10 minutes of taking ambien the pain is comepletly gone. Ive had multiple colonoscopys and catscans and drs cant find anything wrong physically. Ive been scared to tell the drs how many ambien Ive taking up until recently I did and was sent to a specialist in drug addictions and was told it was stress related from withdrawal from the ambien if I quit taking it or not take it like I have been. Serious problem and have taken 30 several different times at once with a pint of vodka, but didn’t do it to try and kill myself. Happened just starting of with 4 or 5 and then a few drinks, then a blackouts only to wake up the next day with empty pill a vodka bottles. On one occasion in the hospital. The turning point that has led me to a final decision to go several states away to a ambien rehab facility is the car wreck. I had a week ago. I remember picking up 1 of my many perscriptions of ambien at the parmacy and getting a phone call from a friend as I got in my truck. I took a couple on the phone with him then recieved another phone call and took a few more, still at the pharmacy parking lot. Well 5 turned into the whole bottle somehow and and dont even remember leaving the parking lot as I blacked out. I awoke the next day in a hospital bed really bruised and banged up. I was told I hit a cement construction blockade and flipped my truck 3 times. Had to be cut out of the car with the jaws of life by fire depatrment and careflight to hospital because I was unconcious. I was so very lucky and blessed by God have not been killed or have killed anyone else in that accident and no charges filed against me cause it was just my vehicle involved. No broken bones or anything serios, just lungs brused bad so hard to breath and really bad black eye and few other scrapes and bruses, but nothing major. I went and looked at my truck in the tow yard after I got out of the hospital with my family and was just in tears the way it looked. Totally beyond destroyed. Everyone said I should have been dead very very amazed at only just the minor bruses I came out with. Life changing experience. Needless to say, I will be going to hopefully one of the best rehabs in the country in 2 days and pray to God they can help me get off this evil ambien stuff. Ambnien is nothing to play around with ,I kid you not. I would highly recomend not taking it, but if you do, never more than one and right before you go. To sleep, but unless you really have to I am going through an extreme serious issue with depression and alcohol, drugs myself over the last 10 years and the last 2 years have have found ambien to be the solution to my stress. I have built up a tolerance so much that Im takeing about 10 a day at least. 4 10mg before bed, 1 or 2 when I wake up with a red bull and every 4 hours 2 with a red bull or dr pepper. The 4 at night make me sleep. The others during the day keep my mind at peace and stress free all day. Several issues Ive had the past 6 months is a horble pain in my stomach and lower back that is extrememly painful if I dont take ambiem. Within 10 minutes of taking ambien the pain is comepletly gone. Ive had multiple colonoscopys and catscans and drs cant find anything wrong physically. Ive been scared to tell the drs how many ambien Ive taking up until recently I did and was sent to a specialist in drug addictions and was told it was stress related from withdrawal from the ambien if I quit taking it or not take it like I have been. Serious problem and have taken 30 several different times at once with a pint of vodka, but didn’t do it to try and kill myself. Happened just starting of with 4 or 5 and the a few drinks, then a blackouts only to wake up the next day with empty pill a vodka bottles. On one occasion in the hospital. The turning point that has led me to a final decision to go several states away to a ambien rehab facility is the car wreck. I had a week ago. I remember picking up 1 of my many perscriptions of ambien at the parmacy and getting a phone call from a friend as I got in my truck. I took a couple on the phone with him then recieved another phone call and took a few more, still at the pharmacy parking lot. Well 5 turned into the whole bottle somehow and and dont even remember leaving the parking lot as I blacked out. I awoke the next day in a hospital bed really bruised and banged up. I was told I hit a cement construction blockade and flipped my truck 3 times. Had to be cut out of the car with the jaws of life by fire depatrment and careflight to hospital because I was unconcious. I was so very lucky and blessed by God have not been killed or have killed anyone else in that accident and no charges filed against me cause it was just my vehicle involved. No broken bones or anything serios, just lungs brused bad so hard to breath and really bad black eye and few other scrapes and bruses, but nothing major. I went and looked at my truck in the tow yard after I got out of the hospital with my family and was just in tears the way it looked. Totally beyond destroyed. Everyone said I should have been dead very very amazed at only just the minor bruses I came out with. Life changing experience. Needless to say, I will be going to hopefully one of the best rehabs in the country in 2 days and pray to God they can help me get off this evil ambien stuff. Ambien is nothing to play around with ,I kid you not. I would highly recomend not taking it, but if you do, never more than one and right before you go. To sleep, but unless you really have to take them think twice please. I am really so scared about the detox stage and not being able to sleep, but maybe this story will have a good ending. Im praying for it anyway

Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint! them think twice please. I am really so scared about the detox stage and not being able to sleep, but maybe this story will have a good ending. Im praying for it anyway

Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint! 2 with a red bull or dr pepper. The 4 at night make me sleep. The others during the day keep my mind at peace and stress free all day. Several issues Ive had the past 6 months is a horble pain in my stomach and lower back that is extrememly painful if I dont take ambiem. Within 10 minutes of taking ambien the pain is comepletly gone. Ive had multiple colonoscopys and catscans and drs cant find anything wrong physically. Ive been scared to tell the drs how many ambien Ive taking up until recently I did and was sent to a specialist in drug addictions and was told it was stress related from withdrawal from the ambien if I quit taking it or not take it like I have been. Serious problem and have taken 30 several different times at once with a pint of vodka, but didn’t do it to try and kill myself. Happened just starting of with 4 or 5 and the a few drinks, then a blackouts only to wake up the next day with empty pill a vodka bottles. On one occasion in the hospital. The turning point that has led me to a final decision to go several states away to a ambien rehab facility is the car wreck. I had a week ago. I remember picking up 1 of my many perscriptions of ambien at the parmacy and getting a phone call from a friend as I got in my truck. I took a couple on the phone with him then recieved another phone call and took a few more, still at the pharmacy parking lot. Well 5 turned into the whole bottle somehow and and dont even remember leaving the parking lot as I blacked out. I awoke the next day in a hospital bed really bruised and banged up. I was told I hit a cement construction blockade and flipped my truck 3 times. Had to be cut out of the car with the jaws of life by fire depatrment and careflight to hospital because I was unconcious. I was so very lucky and blessed by God have not been killed or have killed anyone else in that accident and no charges filed against me cause it was just my vehicle involved. No broken bones or anything serios, just lungs brused bad so hard to breath and really bad black eye and few other scrapes and bruses, but nothing major. I went and looked at my truck in the tow yard after I got out of the hospital with my family and was just in tears the way it looked. Totally beyond destroyed. Everyone said I should have been dead very very amazed at only just the minor bruses I came out with. Life changing experience. Needless to say, I will be going to hopefully one of the best rehabs in t the country in 2 days and pray to God they can help me get off this evil ambien stuff. Amnien is nothing to play around with ,I kid you not. I would highly recomend not taking it, but if you do, never mote than one and right before you go. To sleep, but unless you really have to take them think twice please. I am really so scared about the detox stage and not being able to sleep, but maybe this story will have a good ending. Im praying for it anyway

After 25 years of sleeping no more than two or three nights–and literally thousands of dollars spent on supplements, vitamins, herbs, i.e., “natural” stuff–I finally (!) found a doctor who prescribed Ambien. 5 mg a night and I sleep, or at least am unconscious for six hours a night. I’m no friend of the pharmaceutical industry, but they pale in comparison to the lies, hype, and marketing of the “all natural” crowd. What I have found fascinating is that despite the histrionics over how doctors are “all” a bunch of pill pushers, I’m sitting here now–and like many have said–wishing only that this painful thing called life was simply over. But the doctors I’ve talked to all reduce it to one thing: “Function.” Yes, as long as I can “function”–go to work, pay bills, and buy stuff–nothing is really “wrong”. The depression, the fear, the rage, and the anger are all acceptable ways of life, so it seems. The world is what is out of whack and not everyone accepts it with the same apparent grace and strength. So I get nothing for all those real side-effects of daily living. I’ll be fine because at this point, I’d prefer to keep on living just to be a pain in the ass to a world that doesn’t give one damn about you or me or anyone else except to the degree we, again, “function,” play our little parts in a world in which nothing else matters except money. To hell with all of them.

My doctor put me on Ambien 5mg about 3 weeks ago. The first night I took it, 1 1/2 hrs later, I felt slightly sleepy, no where near enough to fall asleep though. I even tried increasing it to 10mg & the first time I did it worked decently but not since. Most nights I get 3-4 hrs of sleep before I’m awake & tossing/turning the rest of the night trying to fall back asleep. Tonight I took it 1 1/2 hrs ago too…yet here I am…awake & online.

My name is Rachel and this Christmas morning my life changed forever. My mother was a beautiful, smart, loving and amazing person. She had her doctorate and was As. Dean at Barnes Jewish College of Nurse here in St. Louis. From the outside she had it good for a divorced mother 2. But only me and my sister knew what happened behind closed doors. It was just me and mom who lived in our house. She started taking Ambien when I was around 14. That was the first time I knew she abused it, cause I found her passed out in the family room. Through the years the abuse got worse and worse, and she started mixing Ambien with Xanex and alcohol. My sister and I always tried to talk to her about it. That what she was doing was bad, that her youngest daughter shouldn’t be putting her own grown mother to bed every night, and that she was smarter than that too. But she never listened. I started just to view it as a joke after so long. My friends would come over and we could hear loud crashes upstairs, and I would just say “oh mom took her pill again.” And a few hours later we would find passed out in some weird position some where. She never went to bed once she took, like you should. She would start cleaning the house, would make dinner at 1 a.m, work out but worse of all take a bath. I started finding her passed out naked in tub in the past two years. I got to the point where I would just drain the tub and leave her there. So she could wake up and see how stupid she looked. I sat her down many times and told that there would be that ONE day that ONE night I wouldn’t come home and check on her, and she would drown in the tub. She would just brush it off, because she would never do that. One night I came home and my boyfriend and I found in the tub. The bathroom was a mess everything was spilled everywhere and me and my boyfriend had to get her out. Cause I was worried she would wake up and slip. When we told her the next morning she was horrified. And the pill popping, and drinking slowed down. Then I woke up Christmas morning 2011, and saw that nothing had changed. I went to bed early cause I had just gotten surgery. Soon I woke up to my moms’ dog barking at me, I got up and saw all the lights on, the t.v was on and the radio. She took her pill again I thought. Then I saw the lights on the bathroom, I walked in and saw her pill bottle out and a glass of wine. I saw her in the tub, her head was slumped down and her body was lifeless. When I went to her I saw no movement. I picked her head up out of the water. Her lips were dark blue and blood was coming from her nose. I stared slapping her checks yelling “MOM MOM WAKE UP!” In my head I knew she was dead. I drained the tub and ran to grab the phone to dial 911. I pulled her lifeless body flat in the tub and started CPR. But it was too late. The cops and Emts came in and they tried too, but they said she had been died for a while. I went numb, I just couldn’t believe all this happened. She took her damn Ambien and had a glass of wine and drowned in the bathtub on Christmas morning. I lost my only parent I had left that day, and my last view of her was seeing her lifeless body get carried out in a body bag. All of this could have prevented. But she had a secret addiction to Ambien, because it made her forget the all bad things that had happened. On her death certified it says Drowning: due to the consumption on Ambien and Alcohol. This little pill does so much more than help you sleep. It can ruin peoples life, and the people around them. That pill led to the death of my amazing mother. And my life will never be the same ever again! RIP MOM LOVE YOU!

OMG, these stories are eerily familiar. I have a DUI that I’m going to have to defend, thanks to Ambien. I don’t blame my Doctor, he was just trying to do the right thing by me. I’d heard about some of the side effects, but always assumed it was a drug interaction, and since none of the meds I was on had a known interaction, I was sure I was safe–wrong. I was on it for over a year, NO PROBS. Then one night it turned on me like a vicious dog. I went to sleep and woke up in the back of a cop car, with no memory of what happened. The police report sounded like another person I didn’t know. I have an attorney and am praying for a just outcome. Please pray for me, I’m praying for all of you and everyone else who has been deceived by this drug.

I used to experience the same sypmtoms. I’m currently on two pills of ambien right now. 12.5 MG. I just want to sleep as well. I’m 18 years old and I already take something everyday for my blood pressure. when I lay down at first the ambein will tell me a fery realistic story before sending me off to lala land when I can dream some strange dreams, but the scary thing, the more and more I take this, the more and more I want to kill myself. I’ve thoght aabout it before this this, but this product just makes it so much worse

Reading many of these stories makes me know I’m not alone. That being said it has come to a point in my life where living is no longer rewarding. I am about to become homeless due to being denied unemployment benefits, job searching for months has been of no use, I’m down to my last $1000 from my 401k, I am the black sheep of my family so no one will help me out…my mom died less than a year ago and I was never there for her, I live alone have no real friends and have become pretty much a recluse. My health is deteriorating, I have given up caring about anything, even the thought of my children does not deter me. Medication and therapy does nothing for me…I am at the end of my rope. I have a full vial of both Ambien and Xanax here…after a last weekend spent in NYC with my gf I plan on getting very drunk one night soon and taking both vials and just going to sleep and never waking up…I’m done. It helps me that I am not alone in thinking like this. What lies beyond this life I don’t know but I can’t carry on like this any longer.

Allen
beerluvr1@juno.com

My dearest, oldest friend died from an overdose of ambien. Her husband reported that she suffered from terrible hallucinations when on it. She had sleep apnea, asthma, insomnia and a history of depression and never should have been prescribed that poison in the first place. Don’t take ambien and warn everyone you know to stay away from it! RUN from a doctor who tries to give it to you.

Lost both my patents ten days apart in 2010. Gave birth to a.beautiful baby boy Michael 2010. His father is a jerk and is very stingy on letting me see him. I take anywhere from 6 to 12 mg of klonopin daily for anxiety. Tonight I am adding 100mg of trazadone. So done with the bs. I have no family

jonistarrayt@gmail.com

So, the drug is perfectly safe as long as you don’t keep it anywhere near where you are sleeping, don’t mix it with ANYTHING, don’t take it every night, talk to someone if it makes you super depressed and suicidal, etc. etc. etc? Follow these simple 10 steps and you’ll sleep great and probably won’t die? Awesome. Let’s legalize heroine and meth, too.

Makes the room spin a the pretty colours show <3 I wish you would just stop fighting, listen to some dope tune and be happy! I love my ambien. I’m 17. Fuck off.

After reading all of these horror stories I think that it is pertinent to talk about my experiences with Ambien over the past few years. I really think that the drugs effects are strongly dependent on a patients lifestyle, mood and any other prescriptions or habits.
The first time I was put on ambien, I was also taking Klonapin and Seroquel. That ended poorly. I was very depressed and anxious and getting out of a seriously abusive relationship. Under those circumstances, I sometimes too ore than the prescribed about took it every night and experienced side effects ranging from vomiting and nausea to hallucinations, fighting with friends and memory loss. I never tried to drive or do anything especially weird in my sleep but would sometimes wake up in costumes and avant garde makeup with only vague memories of dressing up. However, after contracting swine flu I was running a high fever and ened u taking a half dozen ambien oer the course of the night, which the doctors say made me a lot sicker and unable to get medical attention until it was almost too late. I had to have my roommate call a ambulance when I woke up vomiting and running a 105 fever with a swollen heart. I stopped taking everything when I realized that the drugs were probably making my life worse and have been working hard on recovery for a few years.
Unfortunatly I have been an insomniac since I was 11. The last time I wen to the doctor about it was because I was starting a great new job and couldn’t afford to go in tired all the time. I was wary when he prescribed ambien but this time things have worked out much better. I am not taking any other drugs outside of supplements prescribed by my herbalist. I do yoga and exercise and eat obsessively well. I take 5 to 10 mg most nights and the only time I ever hallucinate or get any weird mental effects is if I dont take it for a few weeks and start back with 10 mg immediately.
This drug can be very very helpful. I am really happy with my life right now and feel like I couldn’t be doing as well without it. As I have had experiences both terrible and beneficial, I just wanted to outline how to take the drug to its maximum beneficial effects:
1. LAY DOWN after you take it. Dont stay up laying ont he computer talking on the phone or watching TV. It is supposed to help you sleep so in the words of Sammy J, go the f* to sleep!
2. Do not take it if you are drinking heavily or taking BZDS. Honestly from all of the stories that I hae read on here, it might not be okay to mix ambien with anything else!
3. Dont put the bottle by your bed. keep it somewhere away from where you sleep. MAybe even portion it out into daily pill bottles.
4. Make sure you hae at least 7 hou or so to sleep. You dont want to wake u in an ambien haze for work.
5. Dont take every night. MY doctor told me specifically to only take it when I felt like I needed it. I only take it on nights when I have to work in the morning.
6. If you are feeling deressed, go see someone. IT doesn’t have to be a professional. Everyone gets depressed sometimes. Talk to friends, call your sister, go to a site for other people experianceing the same problem and dont try to solve it with drugs. if you think its the pills call your doctor and discuss other solutions.
7. Dont take on a full stomach. Takes longer to digest i.e. longer to kick in and will stay in your system longer.
8. Take with plenty of water.
9. Give youself enough time to wake up in the AM. Oh, and set multiple alarms. A nice run or quick 10 minute cardio set will clear your head before you have to drive to work. Vitamin B12 helps me a lot too on those rough mornings.
10. Eat better.

These are just things that have helped me use this drug better this go round. I have struggled with depression before and it really can get better. Take time to wok on yourself. You really can fix your problems. After embracing the utter absurdity of existence and deconstructing first order principals I was taught defined meaning I feel better. Als not drinking to excess or doing street drugs.
Good luck. I know that you can get through it. each person has something to offer the world. Everyone matters to someone. We make the world around us. Now get some sleep and do something delightful when you get up!

The question that keeps getting asked is “how many Ambien will it take for a lethal overdose?” To answer that question, you have to know that deaths from Ambien poisoning are the result of respiratory failure. Basically, this is the fatal version of sleep apnea — the tissues in your airway go slack, making it harder and harder to breathe, until you just stop. Then your heart stops and, eventually, your brain becomes starved for oxygen and dies.

So if you’re looking to overdose, bear in mind that failure can make you brain damaged. Beyond that, it really depends on your own body’s propensity to keep breathing. A young fit person is going to be more resistant to Ambien than an older person who already has sleep apnea. Taking Ambien with other respiratory depressants will increase its effect, as will environments that cause rebreathing or hypoxia. The longer it takes for someone to find you, the longer the drugs have to work.

I can tell you for sure that 600 mg is enough to kill someone. Maybe not everyone, but I woke up on a ventilator. In retrospect, I’m glad I did wake up. One of my doctors told me that suicidal thinking is your brain’s way of telling you there’s something really wrong, just like chest pain is your body’s way of telling you you’re having a heart attack. I would never tell anyone to look on the bright side or remember God loves you or any of that crap. But I would encourage people who want to die to make one more phone call. Call 1-800-SUICIDE or 1-800-273-TALK. Probably you feel like it’s not going to make any difference, and maybe it won’t. But you don’t have anything to lose, and you can always kill yourself tomorrow.

BEWARE OF AMBIAN SIDE EFFECTS!

After taking this medication as prescribed for 3 months, I was told by my Doctor that Ambian is notorious for causing sleep-walking, sleep-eating, sleep-driving, calling, texting, emailing, etc, with no memory of your actions when you awaken. This drug is also shown in studies to cause depression, & parkinson’s over long term use. Thanks a lot! This was prescribed to me as I was going thru the change of life, and simply wanted to get a good nights sleep. I exhibited apparant symptoms of the above actions while sleeping on ambian, as I woke up last week, fully dressed in bed with keys in my hand, (scary!!!)… I also woke up with dirty dishes in the sink in the morning, when I always clean the kitchen before going to bed, and was advised I called a friend of mine in the middle of the night, and just mumbled… This drug should be taken off the market!

I was told a more natural alternative… Melatonin, (which you can buy over the counter without a prescription), can be taken 5 mg to start, graduating up to 10mg every evening with dinner, or 2-3 hours before bed, & will help you sleep through the night with no side effects. I was told it slowly builds up in your system, getting good relief after 1-2 weeks.

Whatever you do, STAY AWAY FROM AMBIAN!

I have felt this dark cloud over me since i was fourteen. i have been on a few meds, but to me none of them have made me feel better. I feel that i am lost and alone. I know i have all these people around me who love me and care about me, but yet i feel numb to there love. I have been struggling to be happy for years, self medicating myself with drugs and alcohol. I mean i know its not the best way to handle things but its the only thing i know. I have Ambien prescribed to me, and have thought alot about taking them all. I am scared but i feel that this is the only way i will be happy.! I don’t wanna leave all my loved ones behind but feel that it would just be better if i wasn’t here anymore.! Alot of my family wants me to go to impatient treatment but i’m scared. i don’t wanna go.

can someone help me before it’s too late.? I just need someone to talk too…. I am lost.

mclean.shanise@gmail.com

After a week adding Ambien (10mg) to my regular daily 20mg of Prozac, I’ve had a major depressive episode. Haven’t experienced anything like this since SFX from taking Effexor. I don’t care how sleep deprived I am, I won’t be taking Ambien ever again. This has been scary, although I feel like I’m starting to improve after skipping the Ambien and staying up almost all night.

I have 44 ambien at 10 mg each, I have 53 seroquel at 100 mg each, I have at least 200 xanax at 1 mg. I have been unemployed for 18 months, everything I do is wrong, I cannot find a descent job, we used to have a life. We were married at age 15/17–first child at 18/20 second at 23/25. Married 33 years. Both kids out of house before we were 40! We planned it that way to have a life afterwards-now, my being unemployed causes fights every single day. I don’t know what to do-I made 50k a year…now IF I can find a job, it will be @9,000. My husband is very critical of me-what I do, what I buy, where I go, he hasn’t had anything to do with me in months. We both have health problems, although people care about his–mine is never mentioned, we cannot afford them. I do have a life insurance policy of a few hundred thousand. I am so tired of everyday being a disappointment to myself and my husband. I have no friends, I hate my relatives, I am so very alone. I was in therapy but stopped b/c I wasn’t getting any ‘tools’ to help, yet going once a week and spending money. I cancel dr. appt because we can’t afford them and afterall–it’s HIS coverage. I can think of no other way–the ONLY concerns I have are:
A. I DO have an implanted ICD device-which is a three lead pacemaker plus defibrillator surgically implanted in the chest wall-just this past June. I Hate IT!! plus I have adhd-taking 60 mg a day of adderall along with the xanax, lisinopril, seroquel and spironalate (sp?)
B. Do I have enough medication to end this once and for all, I don’t want to be a vegetable and I don’t want my implant to ‘save me’ Please just give me the facts, I have am looking for the usual–please don’t, there is always an answer…I am tired of hearing it, waiting for it and just want it over. Thank you in advance, I appreciate your comments.

bobbieminard@gmail.com

I am a 56 year old transgender female. I grew up in a time when being transgender was treated as a mental disorder. I grew up in a very large catholic family I was the middle child of nine. My father was emotionally unavailable to his crazy son. At age 15 he drove me to a state mental hospital and dropped me off and never came to visit. In fact he tried to have the state declare me an encouragable child in order to have me taken away.
He never touched me unless he was beating me with a belt. An older brother love to get his amusement by sitting on my chest with his knees on my hands and holding a pillow over my head till I passed out. I soon became terrified to be alnone with him.

During the months at the state mental hospital I endured days locked in a room alone with only my own thoughts, misuse by those charged with my care, forced injections of some sort of medications and threats of Electro shock therapy. I lived in hell and survived barely. Afterwards I learned to hide who I was inside and learned to appear as macho as I could possibly appear.

I eventually married and fathered two children, all as part of the persona of protection I had built around me. My children grew up with a dad who was always sad and depressed. Who though he did love them could never ever fully connect with them. I was in and out of mental wards for a long time. In the mid 80′s I attempted suicide a full bottle of an anti-dpressant (Trazodone) 500 mg tabs. I spent a few weeks in ICU afterwards was tranfered to a mental hospital and was there several months and suffered several severe grand mal siezures. A temporary after effect from the suicide attempt.

A year and a half ago I finally found the courage to announce to my children and my family my intention to transition. This was the last time and communication with any of them occurred. Though this greatly saddened me I continued along and have been living successfully as a female ever since.

That is of course till recently. The memories of the past have come back with a vengence. The pain and confusion, the hurt and terror of those times have become as fresh as they were then. I am trapped here, with no one who cares. My life has been one long nightmare. It’s time to stop it now. I have 24 vicodin 5/500mg and 20 ambien 10mg along with a 90 day supply of metformin 500mg.

I just want someone to know the pain I intend to leave behind.

Downward Spiral
by: Priscilla Millano 01/06/2012

On a downward spiral my life has been;
With this pain and despair I’m trapped here within.
To not be the one you are deep inside
And, to know from all others you must always hide.
This daily game of hide and seek
Soon one’s hope of tomorrow becomes so, so bleak.

I’ve fought so hard to gain control of my life,
Yet, I’m left trapped here with this pain and misery and even strife.
All those around me say, “Its forward, forward you must go!”
But, in this direction I just can’t go.
I’m tired of acting, and no longer want to pretend,
I want this pain and misery just to come to an end.

Yet if I go by the plan I’ve contrived,
What will happen to the one who hides here inside?
See she’s never experienced the true joy of life
It’s her existence that’s caused everyone’s strife
They hate her, despise her and wish she was gone.
And wish she would see not another dawn.

I am her and she is me
Why, oh why can they not see?
I am invisible the one without form
Yes of my existence there just is no norm!
So many things that I have done,
to get the attention of even one.

But they do not see me that I am here
And never acknowledge my behavior severe.
I’ve run out of options, to find my life
And now I’m trapped here in pain, misery and strife.
So what happens next I do not know
But, from this place, I must surely go.

My friend died yesterday morning. She had been on Ambien for several years and I had discussed with her the problems she was having, but because she couldn’t remember them happening, she didn’t take me seriously. She was driving without lights the wrong way on a one-way street and had a head-on with a much bigger vehicle. Slight injuries to the other people; very dead friend. I consider the pharmaceutical companies, that continue to make this product, murderers.

I just started taking Ambien 2 months ago. In that time I have experienced debillitating depression, anxiety, heart palpitations, memory loss and general fuzziness or brain fog. I quit one of my jobs because I couldn’t socially interact with my clients because I was so “raw” emotionally. I started going to therapy because I couldn’t figure out what happened, why I was so untethered. Thought maybe it was early onset of menopause. Just this week realized that it coincided with taking the Ambien. Will be stopping right away to see how my mood/mental function/depression changes. Would rather not sleep than feel this way. Good luck to you all.

I have been taking ambien on and off since February 2011 after having a hysterectomy. I began to notice and finally made mention of not being able to sleep to my gynecologist. He 1st prescribe ambein 5 mg and it did nothing. Then he prescribed 10 mg and it allows me to sleep pretty well however, I have noticed a change of some things. I have a lot of nightmares, I have gained about 30lbs, my lobito is low,I sweat whent I sleep (not sure if that’s due to my hysterctomy) and my bones ache. I am not sure that my bone ache because of the extra weight I have to carry or because of some type of deterioration going on with my bones. I do know that before taking the ambien I was not experiencing these things. I have gained too much weight. I am 48 yrs old and have never been so heavy, even when I was pregnant. I do, however carry it well (not flabby weight gain)I have always been pretty active. I understand that as we grow older our bone do the same, but the daily pain I experience is hard to beleive that it’s from aging. I hurt when I stand, walk, type..my back, knees, hands and wrist, etc.. FYI– Only if I take 2 pills (that’s when I really can’t sleep) do I experience amneisia. I am trying to lose weight but I hurt when I exercise and that’s why I decided to really start doing some research on ambeim which is what led me to this page. I have an appointment with an orthopedic specialist and and will update you guys on the results of my eximination. If anyone is experiecing the anything similar with you bones please let me know.

I had taken Ambien in the past because I worked the night shift. I haven’t taken it in about 8 months due to my change in shift. I recently had my 3rd miscarriage (I’m 41 and have no children, so this was devastating) and the day of my D&C I called my primary doctor to refill my Rx because I wasn’t able to sleep for 4 nights since I was told. I took 10mg every night. I was very sensitive to it since I hadn’t been on it for a while. I was sluggish and down, which I believed to be a normal response to my situation. A week later, I got worse news. That next week I went from being down to being depressed. Staying in bed until the afternoon, impatient (I’m the most patient person in the world), short tempered (I’m a people-pleaser), anxious, tearful, hopeless, I didn’t care if something bad were to happen to me, I was overwhelmed, everything was a big deal. My voice was different (slow, down) and I lost my smile. I was ready to go to counseling and then I stopped taking Ambien because my husband was leaving town and I had to get used to a normal schedule for work in another week. All of a sudden my mood changed, daily getting better. My best friend noticed the quick transformation and asked what changed. I thought that maybe my hormones were getting back to normal and maybe it was a normal phase that I was going through. I later realized that I started feeling less depressed and more to my positive, hopeful self after I had stopped taking Ambien. Though I didn’t sleep much, I had more energy and motivation. Was it the Ambien? hormones? the miscarriage? maybe bad combination of them all. Would I have handled everything differently if I hadn’t taken the Ambien? All I know is that I was able to manage and function better when I stopped it.

I am seventeen,I suffer from seasonal depression,but it’s a getting used to it thing.I began taking Ambien this summer,and I still take it every now and then,I’m on it right now.I’m unsure if I want to die,but I enjoy the feelings Ambien gives me,I like the idea of blocking out parts of my past,life is easier that way.

I feel the same way sometimes. I lost my husband three years ago. He was the love of my life, and my very best friend. I waited a year before allowing myself to meet someone new… I even spoke with him over the phone for more than 2 months before choosing to meet him. When we met, he idolized me, then slowly , but surely he wittled away at my self confidence and self respect. He is a drunk… He refuses to admit it, because he drinks only beer… But he drinks an 18-30 pack a day. I was initially brought up on a pedestal, then slowly, the “eveil twin” introduced himself to me, by throwing me across the table, twisting my ankle ~ almost to the point of breaking, then my wrist, to my neck & to having bruises all over my body… Yes, he beat me up, twisted my leg, grabbed my neck, & got within inches of slamming my face in the door, because I said the wrong thing while he was drinking. I hate myself for allowing myself to fall in love with Craig, and simply want the bad stuff to go away. I want it to be over, & stop feeling this way. My Mom needed me, and I let her down, because this man was at the edge of his rope, and wanted to give up… But I know now I cannot help him, and in trying, he broke me down. I am sorry, but the pain of giving one’s heart to another, while letting go of the goals I had to help my mother, is all to much for me. I failed my Mom who needed me, just to try to heal the pain of someone who no longer knows how to love. I am so tired, and lost, and feel so guilty for thee choices I made, it is simply time to go.

My best friend had a few back operations over the last 5 years. He was having problems sleeping and was prescribed Ambien. We lived in different towns and kept in touch with weekly telephone conversations and twice yearly visits. On October 13, 2011 he had out of town friends stay with him and they went to a Jacksonville Jaguar game. At about 3:00 AM he went into his den loaded his gun and committed suicide. His story sounds the same as a lot of them on this website. There are too many related stories for there not to be an issue with Ambien.

As a former Ambien user of 11 years, I understand the hell of insomnia…I have been a flight attendant for the better part of 20 years and successfully killed my circadian rhythm (wake up in CA…go to sleep in NYC…land in Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, Lagos…NOT GLAMOUROUS, I assure you)…while I am still struggling to find sleep, there are people on this earth that would suffer unenduring pain if you were to depart this realm…there is hope, I struggle with it everyday, but find strength in those who love you…I too feel at the end of my rope (especially at this time of the year), but you are loved and needed…and cannot be missed…you are not alone

I am at the end of a two year experience with sleep medication, benzo’s and anti-depressants. I came through hell and today I feel awesome. Whoever reads this and might be thinking of suicide or feels like this will never get better… it will get better.
In the fall of 2009 I started taking OTC sleeping pills. Pretty much every night for 3 or 4 months. I am a teacher and I usually have some sleeping issues when school starts up. So I didn’t think it was a big deal. I woke up one day mildly depressed in Dec of 2009. I didn’t relate it to the sleeping pills. Over Christmas break I went to the doctor and he prescribed Lunesta. I told him I was depressed….he didn’t think it would hurt. Within 3 days I was extremely depressed. I finally started to see that the sleeping meds were making everything worse. But when you have a bad sleeping problem you are willing to do just about anything to get sleep… including taking more sleep meds. So I went back to the doctor. He even prescribed Ambien, as well as anything else I wanted to try, I actually tried a couple of them. I would get maybe 2-3 hours of sleep with the meds. I went back to my doctor. He said, “now we will try the big dogs.” He gave me a script for Ativan. Loved the stuff at first…. slept like a baby, and it didnt seem to make me depressed. In fact I felt better the day after taking it. This made me scared of it. I didnt want to get hooked. So I developed a plan to only take it once a week or so. Eventually it didn’t do the job anymore anyway. I knew that Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson were on some or all of this stuff at some point – you naturally build a tolerance to it and need more and more of it to sleep. This really scared me so I refused to up the dosage of any of it – even though Im sure my doctor would have been fine with it. Oh, I also had started on Lexapro in January of 2010. I thought often of taking my own life, I missed a week or two of school but somehow dragged myself back to school. I would sit there at my desk… the clock never moving. I would spend hours on the computer searching for answers to my misery. My episodes seem to take about 6 months to clear up. I found the website “The Road Back.” This program helped me taper off of Lexapro and probably everything else. Slowly over the course of Feb-June of 2010 I felt better and better and began sleeping. I stopped taking all meds as I tapered off of Lexapro. The final stage of my education occurred in May of 2011. I had been off of everything for months and felt great. I got a bad sinus infection and took Nyquil for a week or so in late April early May of 2011. That was stupid. I didnt sleep much for two nights after this…. I freaked out, added a good dose of worry to it and was in the midst of another battle of depression and anxiety. This was horrendous. I diagnosed myself with generalized anxiety disorder and believed that I would suffer forever. It was horrible. I was taking lots of lunesta, back on lexapro. One night I took trazadone (cause I asked for it) and benadryl. Very strange reaction. I can’t even describe the horror that I was feeling. For the month of May and most of June I would have the most horrible bouts of tension – agony. All I could do was pace and writhe in agony on the floor. I contacted a lawyer about disability because I thought I would never work again. I thought about suicide everyday. This was the summer of 2011. I finally stopped taking all sleep meds during the summer of 2011. By August I was able to feel like I could work, and feel a little like myself again. Its January 2012 and I feel great. I have absolutely no depression, tension or anxiety. I have tapered down to 5 mgs of Lexapro and will be off of it in the next month. Now I know that I can never ever take any form of sleep medication… something happens when I take it and it takes 6 months to recover from it. I take some supplements now that I think helped me heal, and keeps me healthy. I would suggest reading everything on The Road Back website. Medication, drugs, alcohol, etc all harm our nervous system and our neuro transmitters. My doctor admittedly didnt know what to do for me, and the psych I saw was not much better. He prescribed more anti depressants on top of lexapro after I told him I felt fine. (I didnt fill that script) While I cant deny that Lexapro may have helped me, I do get off of it as soon as I think I feel fine. I try to eat healthy and take supplements. I did gain a lot of weight both times I took Lexapro but that could have been from me not caring about what I was eating because I was just trying to keep from killing myself.
Don’t give in to ending it…. life is awesome…. learn from your struggles, pray your brains out, cry out to God for help and answers – don’t make things worse with drugs or alcohol. Your body and brain need to find a balance. Just keep searching.

My wife has had chronic insomnia for 3 1/2 years. Currently she is going to the Stanford University Sleep Clinic. They have her shorten her time in bed to force her to only sleep during those hours. She was told to go to bed at 11pm and get up at 5am. They wanted her to go to bed at midnight but she said she couldn’t do that. So she started at 11. She had her cell phone set on vibrate alarm for 5am which seemed to work OK. She’s been getting off of Zyprexa too which made the insomnia worse. Now she’s going to quit the Ambien and hoping she can do that. Her doctor made it sound like she could just quit taking it. We’ll see.

To the lady who just lost her 34 year old husband. I lost my wife when we were 40 and I can tell you that you can and will get over this. You really do not even have to try, it will happen, it does for everyone, really. There is not one shred of evidence that you could meet your former husband in an afterlife, or that there is an afterlife. Your children are your purpose in life, your job is to prepare them to live as adults. You cannot leave them. You can research this, but Freud discovered that children of suicide parents lose there innate fear of suicide. If you killed yourself, you would be opening a naturally closed door on your children killing themselves. Hang in there, it will get better and some day, your kids will thank you and you will thank yourself that you did not choose a temporary solution to a temporary problem. If you are hell bent on suicide, set a date to do it 10 years from now, the fact is, you will not want to do it.
Don’t you want to meet your grandchildren? What would your previous husband have wanted you to do? Orphan your kids? I highly doubt it.

I have taken ambien on and off over the years. I have really been struggling with sleep. I have taken it for 6 weeks straight and I am having severe anxiety, depression and heart palpitations, which is REALLY extremely unusually for me. Even when I went through a job loss and divorce, I never have experienced this cascade of symptoms before. I am will no longer take this and I want to let people know.

Ambien is a dangerous drug, it nearly ruined my life. Note that the FDA advisory panel last year recommended to the FDA comissioner that Ambien be reclassified as a schedule 2 drug, right up there with OxyContin. This was refused, and Ambien remains a schedule 4 drug. My personal story is a long one, a person does not realize he is addicted until it is too late. I took Ambien for at least 13 years, the withdrawal symptoms became horrible, very physically as well as mentally. This was with the help of a friendly pharmacist, and soon I was spending $400 a week and taking 200mg per night. This would easily kill a first time user. I have never used any kind of drugs whatsoever, but I was having withdrawal symptoms twice a day, similar to what I have heard heroin addicts experience.

During this terrible experience I had three car accidents, in one I was asleep until I rear-ended another car. I ended up in the insurance high risk pool, and the premiums almost broke me. I also had several occasions where I went out with friends for breakfast and remembered nothing about it. Quitting took several years, I gradually substituted Temazapin (Restoril) which was much milder and did not have the addiction/withdrawal cycle. I now am not dependent on any sleeping medication and it feels wonderful to lay down at night and go directly to sleep. Sixteen years is a long time. Of course there is a lot more to my story, but you get the general idea. I did look into a sleep clinic, but my insurance wouldn’t cover it and the initial evaluation cost $3000. To conclude, I unfortunately can’t advise how to shake this dependency, it would do no good to advise not to start, if you are reading this it is too late for that kind of advice anyway. This cycle can be broken, but it will take patience and perhaps months or even longer.