User Reviews of Ambien

I hate when you have a few deaths out of a medicine thats helping millions and those few ppl want to make a big issue about it but im pretty sure they dont put the whole story of that individual and what else they were taking or eating or doing… I LOVE AMBIEN I GET ALOT OF SLEEP AND MY HUSBAND GETS LOTS OF SEX THAT I DONT HAVE TO BE THERE FOR

Hi i am 16 years old and a month I took 100 mg of Ambien in order to commit suicide. If you havnt already guessed by now, it didnt work. I spent 8 hours throwing up (or so i am told) and had no recollection of 16 hours of my life. I do not regret this decision because it has helped me realize how precious life is. Suicide is a selfish act and abusing drugs to cope with pain is a cowardly, destructive path to folllow. Im not going to try and lie and say i havnt had suicidal thought since this incident, but when i do i think to myself there are people in the world suffering far greater pain than you, in terrible situations who make the best of their life and CHOOSE to be HAPPY regardless. Always have faith that things are going to get better. “For every dark night, there’s a brighter day” -Tupac

My dad is on Ambien for chronic insomnia. He is also wheelchair bound ( leg amputation from bone cancer) He does a lot of odd things and we cant get to his Dr to get him off the mds. One night he fell asleep onthe couch and got up forgetting he only had 1 leg and crashed through his glass coffee table. He has a scar on his arm that literaly looks like a shark took a bite from him. He was home alone at the time. He has also gotten in his wheelchair in the middle of the night and cruise down busy roads, My brother had to call the police department and have them help get him home , He also leaves the doors open at night and has turned the stove on to cook in the middle of the night, he tells my brither people are int he house and he just walks around extremely paranoid, Also to mention my brother while fully capeable is also slightly mentally delayed, He is a huge help to my dad but lately my dad has been calling him names, He wants my brother to mow the lawn at 3 am and if he doesnt he calls him names like moron, F*ing retard, tells him hes a loser and hes ashamed his only son turned out this way, Now my dad is only like this on the ambien.
My father recently called the police on my brother and said he was abusing him. Which is completly untrue, So my brother is in danger of being arrested for elder abuse, Not to mentiont he emotional toll its taking on him, We are workingvery hard to remove my brother from the situation but at the same time we are afraid to leave my dad home alone, My sister and I live in other states, One ther thing to mention,,,,,,,my dad also is a heavy drinker,

so i took ambian yesterday im 18 and i took two to trip..as time passed i felt regret i was a total freaking idot for doing so….my freinds said my eyes were rolling back i wouldnt speak for 20 min….i took it at 1- at about 6-7 i felt functional again….what do you guys think happened to me? :/

Started taking Ambien 4 years ago. Was great at first. After about a year I slowly startedgot more sensitive to stress, light, sound etc. My doctor said I had some fattigue syndrome from stress. At the time I was CEO for a management consulting firm and studying for an MBA, had a lot of things to do so it made sense. Had to quit my job and studies, could only work halftime as an consultant during 2 years, almost lost my marriage. Started taking less Ambien (or Stilnocht as it’s called over here), got my old me back after 2 weeks. Convinced myself it wasn’t the pills that was the problem. Started taking more of them, a month later
I couldn’t work. Realized this is not for me. Back as a manager today and life is good.
Still taking very small doses, can’t sleep without them.
Just saying that the side effects can build up slowly, at least that seems to be thhe case for me. Thanks for reading

I’ve known ambien wasn’t safe to use and that it has it’s side affects but I didn’t know the severity of it! I am an ambien abuser too and just these past months I’ve been SO DOWN and DEPRESSED and I hadn’t a CLUE it was because of this drug! I do agree that it’s addicting but I sure aint going to let it take over me anymore! I’m so very sorry to those of you whom had lost their loved ones and I know by my own current experiences that it is VERY HARD to deal with our daily lives let alone battling minute by minute per day alone. Thank you for this website and May God Bless ALL of you

I was prescribed ambien when I started having trouble sleeping.

I was also very depressed and anxious but I held on to the hope that just one good night’s rest would cure it all.

I took my first pill. Nothing. I gave ambien the benefit of the doubt but when I took it the next day I still couldn’t sleep.
I took two ambien and then three and then four in increasingly desperate attempts to sleep, and at about seven tablets a night, I hit the wall and had to go to a psych ward at a hospital where I was put in the drug addict program. “I’m can’t be addicted to it,” I said, “it doesn’t even work…”
Back out and at home, my doctor tried Klonopin, Lunesta, Ativan, Valium, anything supposed to make you sleep. None worked, and again I fell into the same cycle. Maybe I just need more. 1, 2, 4, 7, 10 pills and I’ll fall right asleep. Nope, not so. I end up getting my stomach pumped and anther inpatient stay.
So here I am lying restless in bed at 2 in the morning wishing I were asleep, even angry or disappointed, but I wouldn’t trade this for pills, anytime.

I was prescribed Ambien 5mg (Zolpidem) about a week ago. I was really nervous about trying a sleep aid medication. But it doesn’t do much for me. I take it right before I lay into bed. And I figure by time I get comfortable, find something to watch… It should be hitting me. I’ve tried it 5 nights now with no results. One night, I fell asleep while watching tv and woke up at 2am and was wildly wide awake. Ended up getting up and getting an early start to my day. Hmmm.

My husband was the perfect dad and loving spouse. He was always happy and very positive and loved life. We have 4 beautiful girls. He was having trouble sleeping so he went to the doctors and they gave him ambeim. He took it for 3 weeks I notice that he seem sad and stressed. He was a strong healthy man and loved his family. A complete shock when they told us he had killed himself. Everyday I wake up and hope this is a bad nightmare. He was 49 and had so much to live for. PLEASE PLEASE get ambeim off the market.

My uncle also took his own life after being on Ambien and tamazepam. He was the happiest person I have EVER met in my entire life!!!! He had an amazing career, a son he loved more than anything. He was very close to his brother, and lived part time with him. Back on September 20, 2011 he had tried to over dose on ambien, his brother found him. He was unresponsive and lifeless, luckily a call to 911 was made in time. He only spent less than 12 hours in the hospital, they pumped his stomach and he talked to a doctor and suicide prevention specialist. He was released from the hospital in the care of his brother where he stayed 2 weeks before returning home. He lived about 4 hours away, in a home by himself as him and his wife were estranged. He made plans with co workers and family members for the future. He had a smile on his face, he was embarassed and humiliated about his attempt in September. He had moved on. Yes, he had a lot going on in his life but definitely was not “planning” on taking his own life. On the night of November 6,2011 after taking a “sleeping aid” he turned into somebody that nobody knew. Unfortunately he felt there was no way out but to take his own life. The stories that are on this website are absolutely chilling. Each one makes me feel physically ill as I read them. I don’t understand how something that is made to HELP a person can cause so much harm to so many people. My Uncle was hands down the COOLEST person that ever walked the face of the earth. He served our country and was extremely proud, he was happy, funny, outgoing and would give the world to those he loved and cared about. I feel it is my duty to spread the word that these sleep aides are bad news. They are killing people. Every story on here is consistent, people are happy, loving and it is definitely out of character to take their own life. I want to send my condolences to everybody on here, my heart truly goes out to you. I feel the pain and anger that goes along with ambien suicide. I hope the pharmaceutical companies sleep well, Lord knows I am not!

I have been taking ambien for a little over a week now, and have been seeing the side effects more and more…and now when even small things don’t go as planned, i get so frustrated more easier. Things with my girlfriend have been going downhill and we just recently got our own place…and after yet another rough weekend we are breaking up, and i knew just after i left….suicide had entered my mind. I haven’t had thoughts of suicide ever. I think because of this drug my mind is now prone to accept things that you would normally block from thinking over the years of becoming an adult. at the moment i still choose to not take my own life…but i am now afraid that if i do take my 5mg dose of ambien…i will not be able to help my self…. I am sorry for everyone on here who has lose someone….i found this page on my search to see how suicide could be done with my pills and alcohol….i feel so crazy right now. god bless all

I know it’s tough. Life doesn’t seem to be as great as you imagined it would be as a kid, huh.
I’m in a position where I should be happy with the things I DO have in my life right now but I’m not. I have a one year old that I stay with all day while my husband (with a $120,000 degree) works 7 nights a week as a cashier so I’m here alone thinking about how much longer this lifestyle is going to last. We have $4 left over in our account just after our bills every month. We don’t have any debt, either. Our son eats soup and bread for meals and saltine crackers for snacks. He wears clothes that are from last christmas that are too small for him.
I could live fine like this if it was just me and my husband but I never wanted this for my son. My friends have houses and careers and no kids, or if they do, they are stay at home moms with husbands who can do it all! Where’s our piece of the pie? I cry a few times a week, too thinking that I’m a failure as a parent. Then I get angry at the people closest to me for no reason.
I know life is stupid sometimes but please don’t give up. Find someone to talk to or if you don’t want to do that, I’ll talk with you. I know it’ll get better. Nothing is permanent. The worst years seem to last forever but when they start to pick up, you’ll look back and see it as a blur. But until then, keep trying..

I am using ambien my doctor presribed about a year and a half ago. I cannot sleep anymore without it and half the time it don’t even work anymore.
I quit my job about two years ago to take care of my enderly grandmother who has dementia and I become very depressed after trying to take care of her and dealing with a abusive relationship of my own. I tryed anti depressants,the never help and I feel like my life is unraveling. I dont want to be around people, I feel uncomfortable like they dont want to be around me like I’m a bother to them. I am 31 years old and just graduated with a b.s. degree and I’m broke with no job and in a horrible relationship. I’m pretty stressed and I find myself just wanting to take my ambien so I don’t have to feel this pain. I have been thinking of suicide yet I feel I’m too much of a coward to do that. At the same time I can’t stand being this person anymore. I’m misserable, I cry all the time, I’m snippy to people I love. I’m so unhappy and I no life could be worse and I feel I shouldn’t complain yet at the same time I can’t get myself out of this hell I’m in. I feel it’a not worth fighting for anymore, it’s sure as hell not getting better. I have tryed to stop taking my ambien but I sit and drive myself crazy thinking about what a mess my life is and I’m wired, AWAKE all night no sleep at all with these thoughts driving me nuts so I just want the ambien to make it all go away. At this point I don’t no what to do. I don’t no why I’m writing this. I was researching how much ambien would be enough to do me in, that’s one way I think I could come up with the courage, and I guess coming across this sight has shown me I’m not alone anD I hope I can pull myself through another day and night

I am using ambien my doctor presribed about a year and a half ago. I cannot sleep anymore without it and half the time it don’t even work anymore.
I quit my job about two years ago to take care of my enderly grandmother who has dementia and I become very depressed after trying to take care of her and dealing with a abusive relationship of my own. I tryed anti depressants,the never help and I feel like my life is unraveling. I dont want to be around people, I feel uncomfortable like they dont want to be around me like I’m a bother to them. I am 31 years old and just graduated with a b.s. degree and I’m broke with no job and in a horrible relationship. I’m pretty stressed and I find myself just wanting to take my ambien so I don’t have to feel this pain. I have been thinking of suicide yet I feel I’m too much of a coward to do that. At the same time I can’t stand being this person anymore. I’m misserable, I cry all the time, I’m snippy to people I love. I’m so unhappy and I no life could be worse and I feel I shouldn’t complain yet at the same time I can’t get myself out of this hell I’m in. I feel it’a not worth fighting for anymore, it’s sure as hell not getting better. I have tryed to stop taking my ambien but I sit and drive myself crazy thinking about what a mess my life is and I’m wired, AWAKE all night no sleep at all with these thoughts driving me nuts so I just want the ambien to make it all go away. At this point I don’t no what to do. I don’t no why I’m writing this. I was researching how much ambien would be enough to do me in, that’s one way I think I could come up with the courage, and I guess coming across this sight has shown me I’m not alone anD I hope I can pull myself through another day and night

my husband committed suicide while using ambien cr. He had taken it for years and it no longer worked. he was supposed to go to the doctor to get something stronger the day he killed himself. It was a shock to the entire community. My husband was never the type to kill himself.

Regarding “My Uncle came home from a long trip”, our son had a similar experience, whereby he shot and killed himself after taking his Ambien. There was nothing in his behavior that was “suicidal”. Suicide means the intentional taking of one’s life, and our son did not intentionally kill himself. We are very sorry for your loss. Ambien should come off the market.

Hello! I am a recovering Ambien addict. It almost sounds silly to me… I feel as if how can a person be addicted to ambien? But, I have learned over the past few months that others have also suffered the same fate that I had and realized that I wasn’t alone, which was both terrifying and a relief.

Anyhow, my addiction started little over a year ago around this time when I was first introduced to ambien. Like most, I had been an insomniac for years and I wanted some relief! I knew my mother had some in the cabinet, she had been prescribed to use them for a long while and has done just fine on them. She was, however, adamant that I don’t take them from her because she needed them as she was a bad insomniac herself. I figured she wouldn’t notice if just one was gone since she never took them on the weekends. So, I took it. About thirty minutes in, there was no fatigue, but there was this… wave of utter… euphoria, I guess? And it was almost like I was having a mini acid trip. I recall talking to my girlfriend on the phone and telling her that I was on a pirate ship and these pirates were walking by me asking me to plunder with them, but I told them I couldn’t. It seemed very, VERY real to me at the time. A few weeks passed and I realized I had liked that feeling a lot and that I wanted to experience it again. So, I took another.

This continued on and off through out January until my mom approached me and told me to take her xanax if I needed to sleep. Having already dabbled in xanax during the time I started stealing her ambien, I knew it wasn’t going to affect me in the way she had hoped, but I took it as an open invitation to have as much as I liked. Still, I was careful, I didn’t really use it as much as I wanted to.

Skip to about February. I had started a highly stressful job and was trying to balance that, a social life, and school. I was beginning to have trouble sleeping again, so much so that I could go two days without it and be just fine. Finally, I took it upon myself to go to my doctor and tell him of my troubles. He prescribed me Ambien and it was an utter downward spiral from them. The first few weeks were fine, I took them as prescribed, I slept like a baby, school was good.

But then… I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t sleep, no matter how much I took. So, I began taking a xanax on the side and if in two hours I wasn’t asleep, I took another ambien. This led to a lot of times where I would be up after three weeks of having it and have to wait for a week before it could get refilled. It was utter hellish. I couldn’t sleep, all I could think was about when I got the ambien, when I could sleep again and not feel anything. Not care. I liked that when I took the ambien I felt more open and more lively, as compared to when I was sober. When I was sober I felt like I was boring and that no one was at all interested in me. I had nothing to talk about. Little did I know this was my depression that had been setting in. I hadn’t realized the signs and maybe if I had I would have stopped taking the ambien.

Finally, it just came to the point where I felt void of emotion, where I felt numb. I dropped out of school, I slept the day away, and at night, when I was awake, I couldn’t wait to take the ambien so I could sleep again. From April through August feels like an utter… grey, foggy area. I can’t remember nearly anything that had went on through those few months except that I was growing more numb, more empty, and that i just wanted something to relieve that feeling. I was abusing xanax, ambien, and darvocet. I occasionally smoked weed with my friends, I got drunk when I could. But the weed, the alcohol, it couldn’t compare to the chemical high I got from the pills. I wanted more, I need more. I began asking a close friend if there would be any way I could buy xanax or darvocet on the street and, luckily!, he said he had no idea.

I was spiraling into this empty abyss and I had no idea how to help myself, how to get out. I tried dropping hints to my mother, but she never understood and that is my fault, I realize. I should have been more open and more trusting, but it was embarrassing realizing that I was a pill addict. I was so ashamed of my behavior. I didn’t want anyone to know.

I remember there was a time where I could not feel anything. Anything at all. Not when I bumped into something or anything of that nature. As a former and recovering self harmer, there was a night where, feeling so hopeless and empty, I began cutting on my leg while on ambien. I had felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it frightened me. I didn’t do it again, thankfully.

I went to the doctor to ask for some antidepressants, hoping this would help. And it did, for the first month, but because my insurance wouldn’t cover the kind I had taken, my doctor completely took me off that one and switched me to another without trying to ween me off. That’s when things got bad. I couldn’t sleep at all, I was irritable and moody… I was even more numb than before.

Finally, I had hit bottom on one night in… august, I believe. I cannot remember the date, but I have the hospital bracelet saved in a box somewhere. Anyhow, my prescription had been filled for more than a week and I had taken two at the beginning of the night. Two hours later, I took two more and I was on the phone with my girlfriend (now ex) and chatting online with a close friend of mine. After the last two, everything became blurry. I remember hearing a girl crying and I realized, later, it was my ex, who was so worried about me. All in all, I ended up taking about somewhere from 19-22 pills. But not all at once, just over an extended period of time. About four hours after I finally passed out, my girlfriend had called me to woke me up. She said that I was crying on the phone with her and I was hysterical and apologizing. She asked me to call my mother and I did.

I don’t remember what happened next, but my whole family had gathered at the house while we were waiting for my mother to come home from work. I remember nothing except my cousin, who was so quiet. Now that I look back on it, I feel really ashamed. I’m a very private person and to have my family /know/ that I was a pill addict and then for them to think I had been trying to kill myself when I hadn’t been…?

I cannot stress that enough. Suicide has never entered my mind. But, both my mother and my doctor insist that I had tried, despite my efforts to tell them otherwise.

I was taken to the hospital where I confessed everything to my mother. The doctors at the ER said that a high amount of darvocet had also appeared in my system. It seems that, at one point, I had taken four or five darvocet during that night. I was mortified. I remembered nothing.

The next day, my mother took me to the doctors. I hadn’t slept at all that night. I was crying a lot, and I hurt, and I was just… so very ashamed in myself. At how weak I had become and how I had let my entire family down. I remember my doctor asking me if I remembered the past week at all and I told him no. And it was the truth. I was starting to have memory problems, everything was just so vague. It was like walking through a grey fog. Anyhow, he completely stopped my ambien prescription and switched me back to my regular antidepressant, Pristiq. Our insurance company, after both my mother and my PCP had contacted them, okayed me using Pristiq. A very big blessing, for this antidepressant has helped me loads!

Quitting cold turkey was rough, but not as rough as I thought it would be. For the first two days afterwards, I felt high, which was embarrassing. The next couple of days were hellish. I was cold all the time, I suffered from extreme nightmares (i usually never have them!), my sleeping pattern was all off. The terrible part was I had signed up to go back to school for the fall semester, but this all happened a week before school started! The first day I went back, I was still going through withdrawal symptoms. I couldn’t even go the full day. I ended up having a full blow panic attack. I sat in my car, hunched over and sobbing to myself, feeling useless and stupid for being so worried over having to face people. I had become so antisocial and awkward in the year that I had started ambien…!

I had texted a few old friends right before I went to bed the night of my overdose. One of them happened to me an old, super close friend of mine, who texted me back the day of. I told her I had an overdose and it’d be fine.

Finally, after a week, I had the balls to text her back and tell her all that had happened. We had our problems in the past which led to us no longer being friends, but I had told her that I missed her so much and we apologized and now we are closer than ever! A very small blessing. She is one of my few sober friends who knows how to handle things, which is exactly what I needed.

Two months later, I look back and feel as if a year has passed since my accident. While I am still having emotional problems, they are not as severe as they were while on pills. I am happy to say that I am content with my life and that, while I still do miss the xanax and the ambien, I know I will never touch them again. I am so lucky to have such supportive friends and family in my life. I felt like I hadn’t had that but my overdose made me realize how wrong I was.

My overdose woke me up to reality.

So, while people may say that ambien is not addictive, do not listen! It can be for some people and be very cautious if you ever choose to try it out! I wish everyone the best of luck with their endeavors, especially if you are an addict or a recovering addict like I am. Just know, you are never, ever alone.

16. My dad abused ambien and other sleeping pills for 3 years. Some scary stuff happened. I would never have friends over because i was afraid of the way he would go crazy. I would have to clean up his puke and call the ambulance. This was all 6th to 9th grade. Then the divorce happened, mom cheated on dad. My dad/ my best friend went off the deep end. He started drinking again and with pills. He was no longer himself. My parents separated then my dad tried to commit suicide. My mom was also an emotional wreck and i was just alone. My dad went to a rehab facility in California(where i live). Then after being there for 1 week he said he is going to florida for the best rehab available for 6 weeks. He promised me he would never leave me and would come back. 6 weeks turned into 3 moths,then a year, then goodbye forever. Depression for me has gotten to be to much ive started to abuse alcohol and have thought about trying to OD. Everything in my life disappeared so quickly. My dad was the best friend u could imagine we were inseparable. My mom has been much different also, she’s told me she hates me before and said im a waste of her time and a disappointment. This will probably never be read there has not been much action on this site in the last year. I love u dad and miss u

My Uncle came home from a long trip. He went to sleep that night perfectly happy, and just loving life. The next day when he woke up he was acting very strange, he took his gun out to the local woods. After being searched for about 5 hours someone found him. The person called out to him, and my uncle took his own life. He was no where near suicide the day before, when he took his Ambien he completely changed, and started to do weird things and became depressed. The family of mine is looking into a lawsuit. Stay away from Ambien, it will only cause devastation. I have felt the effects of it, and so will you.. It’s sad that all of these people committed suicide because of this pill. Please do yourselves and your family a favor, stay away from this pill!

I was researching how to overdose on ambien myself and came across everybody’s story. WHich all seemed similar to my own. I have been taking ambien for one week and startign Friday all I have been doing is crying and thinking how I want to just leave this world. I am a social worker who has been needing a new job for over a year now becuase of the stress and bills piling up due to the scant money I get paid. I am a college graduate and feel I shoudl have more with my life. I have family who I know love and care but it all seems pointless from my frame of reference. I have to agree with people. Ambien is a very bad drug. My dad has been taking it for years and that worries me very much. He must be going through the same thing or maybe it has surpassed but not sure. I wanted to reach out to everybody for you and myself. I think I need a support network and my problems have brought me here.

shorty1011@hotmail.com

I took ambien by mistake during the day, thinking it was my Ativan. After taking it I blacked out for 48 hours and apparently continued taking both of the medications. By the end of the 2 days, I had taken both entire bottles (right after fresh refills, so roughly 60 pills, 30 benzo’s and 30 ambien). During this blackout I drove, got in an accident, and was charged with a DUII. I was let off with diversion, but still lost my license for 3 months, lost my job, and lost respect from friends and family.

This medicine should be taken off the market. I had trouble sleeping one night, took half an ambien the next morning, had been on it for about 4 years. I have no memory of what happened next. I found out later that my daughter called about 3:00 pm, asked me to pick her up from work. I found out that I picked up my grandaughter from daycare, picked up my daughter from work, and was driving. I almost ran into the back of a car. My daughter grabed the wheel from me as I was missing the driveway. She told me to go to sleep, she thought it was the ambien. I barely remember her yelling at me. I have no memory of picking up my grandaughter, driving or anything. I woke up the next morning and found a huge scrape down the side of my car. I had no memory of what happened, thought I could have killed someone. I called 911 but they didn’t have any record of hit and run. I thought I was going to jail, that I had killed someone. I happened to look around the house and saw a piece of my car by the ac unit, I had hit it on the way driving. I have no memory of this, only vague memory of my daughter yelling at me. I could have killed everyone on the road, my daughter and grandaughter. I could be sitting in jail the rest of my life for killing someone and have no memory of what I did. My car has a huge scrape down the side, I could have killed someone! My family doc said it was the ambien. He said it was a good drug for some people. Did the FDA not do trials on this med? It should be off the market. I could have killed someone with no memory of it. My doc changed me to something else. Even one instance of sleep driving should make this drug off the market!!! I warn everyone I know not to take it. I am lucky to be alive and am grateful I didn’t kill anyone. This is a horrible drug that needs to be taken off the market now!!!!! It had been 8 hours since I had taken it. There is no telling what I have done and have no memory of it. Who do we contact to get it taken off the market? DO NOT TAKE AMBIEN

I didn’t overdose but I took an extra one on accident….
In Turlock.. Search it, its breaking news.

Well, I just found myself today in the local papers here. Dad goes to bar to get drunk and leaves kid at fast food joint.

I couldn’t tell you what all happened or what I was doing. The last thing I remember was being on my computer and taking my ambien, then a while later I wasn’t sure if I had taken it or not so I took another. I found out I’d probably taken two, when I counted the pills after I got out of jail. I left the house with my son and apparently walked halfway across town with him. Stopped at a bar thinking it was the perfect place to advertise my website so I wrote it down on a couple of their flyers and ordered a beer so I could stay in. I had $300 on me and came out with $289 so I couldn’t have bought that much. Needless to say, with the ambien and other meds I’m on mixing it with alcohol is disasterous. Everyone around here just reads I’m a neglectful dunk father. It sucks…

My husband took his life on May 22, 2010, his 36th birthday. For years he and I had taken the drug, ambian, prescribed by a doctor. Throughout the years the dosage was upped until it got to the point that we would find it off the street to help add to our regular dosage, this was our first problem, I know. After a few years, like any marriage, we had our ups and downs. At the time of his death, we were very stressed about money and this was wearing on our personal relationship. In addition, he had recently spoken about feeling depressed. He began to lose substantial weight, and began engaging in activities that he normally would not have.
On the night of his birthday, we took our regular dosage, and I remember waking up in the middle of the night with him dumping what looked like the rest of the bottle of purple off-brand ambian into his hand, telling me that the purple ones didn’t work so well, and he needed more. I remember thinking, “he’s right, they don’t work as well”, and going back to sleep. I’m not sure how much later, but a loud noise woke me up from the bathroom. I laid there for a short while, listening to the shower run, thinking he dropped the shampoo or something. I laid there a little longer, and then realized it was about 4am, why would he be taking a shower at this hour? I went into the bathroom, where I found him in the bathtub. He had shot himself in the head, the bones on the opposite side of his face had all been shattered, there was no reviving him.
Weeks later, we found a note he had written. The note was only telling us how much he loved all of us. It explained that he just couldn’t go on anymore, and that he needed people to help take care of me, as he had already let me down in so many other ways. Where did this feeling come from? Was this written at the same time that many of his other letters, tweets, and face book posts had been written; after his dose of ambian? When confronted about so many of these letters that I still have, or the old tweets and face book posts, some he did not remember, and others he would blow off by saying, “oh my friends know I was on ambian when I posted that”.
My husband was a smart, charismatic, loving, funny, extremely artistic person and tattoo artist. He had built a name and brand for himself and it was only growing. He had an extremely loving and relationship with his mother and brother. We had been happily married for years, built a life together and loved each other hard every day. He had friends in every group of people he hung out with, whether it was the tattoo circle, or the motocross circle. He was famous in his own right. This was not a route he would have taken when we were first together. I know that throughout the years with this drug in our bodies and the need for it only increasing, WE were changing. Our lives became more about feeding the addiction than remedying the root problem. I live with the guilt of this every day. What if I had been the responsible adult who never let us cross that line of abuse? What if I had said, “NO!” when I saw him dumping more into his hand? What if the conversation before us going to bed hadn’t been had that night? If we hadn’t have taken ambian that night, would he of still committed such a sad act? Was it, in fact, the amount that we were taking that gave him such a confident feeling? Was it the length of time it had been consumed? Or both of these issues?
There is no doubt in my mind that it was the Ambian that gave him, for lack of a better word, ‘courage’ to take his own life. I know from my own past experience that you are put in a trance-like state when on the drug. I too have driven places on the drug, only to wake up to a dented front hood. We have cooked many meals on the drug, at 2, 3, or 4am! Had sex and not remembered it the next day, even! As if you are watching yourself in a movie. I can’t put 100% blame on the drug. I know that we had a conversation only hours prior to his death that probably helped put him into a depressive state. I know he had guilt piling up on his heart. Even with all of this said, I know with out a shadow of a doubt, had it not been for the ambain that night, he would still be with us.

i have struggled with depression and insomnia my whole life. i take benadryl every night to sleep and have been for over 10 years. ive tried everything to try to sleep and nothing works. i ended up getting addicted to painkillers because that was the only way i could sleep but im over that now though. i have never been financially stable. my mom killed herself when i was 15 years old and she was the only parent ive ever known. now i feel almost completely alone. i inherited everything and blew it all on alcohol and stupid stuff like that. ive been single pretty much my whole life, except for some random one-night stands and stuff like that. nothing serious untill recently. a friend of mine for 10 years showed some interest in me, one thing led to another, and now we are head over heels in love. however, she wont date me because she just got out of a relationship and wants to be independent for a while. now im afraid that she is going to push me away because shes getting too attached and that isnt what she wants atm. this terrifies me beyond belief because she brings me happiness. i didnt think life got any better than opiates but she proved me wrong. ive never felt closer to anyone in my life. suicide has always been in my mind since i was like 7 or 8 years old and im 23 now. i feel completely hopeless and alone, as i always have. i found this site looking for the best way to od. i assumed painkillers would be the easiest but the good ones are expensive and im broke, as usual. all i have is like 10-15 ambien and i can get a few hundred benadryl. i am seeking therapy currently but im not sure if theyll accept me because i may be too sane. all i want is to lead a happy life and i dont know how. i wake up almost every morning wishing i hadnt. i consider myself of above average intelligence which probably doesnt help with anything im feeling or thinking because i understand whats happening in the world and to the people around me. ive always been selfless to those i love but i never take time to help myself and i dont know why. probably because i hate myself and my life. i wish i didnt and would do anything to feel better. i believe suicide is inevitable unless something (which im not sure what) drastic happens in my life, and soon. im trying of my own accord for the first time in my life to address these issues and get help. i was in tears when i first started writing this and snorted a xanax. i am about to snort another so maybe i can get some sleep. if anyone understands or has gone through what im going through it would be greatly appreciated if they could respond. i just dont want to deal with this anymore.

I have been taking Ambien for the last 5 years with no negative side effects. Recently I went out of town and had to get my perscription filled at a pharmarcy that was out of state. They filled my perscription with a generic called Zolpidem Tartrate. I thought they had made a mistake and called my doctor. He said that it was a generic for Ambien and that I would likely be fine taking it. I was hesitant as it looked VERY different. However, after a few days of sleep deprevation, I went ahead and took the drug one evening. I only took one dose. The next thing that I remember is being handcuffed and thrown in the back of a police car. I have absolutely no recollection from the time I took the drug until I was being taken to jail. Apparetnly I experienced one of the very “rare” side effect of amnesia and sleep driving. I hit another car and was involved in a head on collision. Fortunatly the other person was not hurt and I only had a mild concussion. Regardless, I was arrested and spent the night in jail and charged with a DWI. I had not been drinking. I went to court and won my criminal case and now I am fighting the administrative DOR case where I could still lose my license. I have paid over 15k in lawyer fees and fines. If I lose the administrative case then they will take my license for 2 years. I will lose my job as I am in outside sales and have to rent cars on a regular basis. I did more research on the generic drug Zolpidem Tartrate and discovered it has only recently been approved by the FDA. I filed complaints with both the FDA and the drug company. I am now considering a lawsuit against the drug company to get my 15k back and will also ask for more if I lose my license as I will lose my job. It has been a horific experience. I wont even take regualar Ambien anymore. My doctor has me on a very mild sleep medication now to ensure nothing like this happens again.

I went to take an ambien a little early one night to relax and watch wrestling with my son. I normally don’t take it before he goes to bed but I was really stressed out over something so I figured I’d lay with him and watch tv. Normally, it doesn’t put me to sleep by itself so I planned on taking the other people afterward. I was interrupted with a phone call, so I took the call and couldn’t remember if I took it or not. After a little searching around I figured I hadn’t taken it so I took one. (After counting the pills later it would seem I took two)

The next thing I know I told my son to get dressed and we were going out. I felt like I was drunk but didn’t really know why but disregarded it. We went to the library but it was closed, I had a 32 in my bag from the store though I don’t recall buying it. I hid around the corner and drank it. Already forgetting that I had taking those pills, plus the fact that I’m on several other psyche meds. We ended up walking all over to place you probably wouldn’t take a 9 year old at night. Then we walked by a bar and my son had to go to the bathroom so I took him over to the fast food place across. I went back to the bar ordered a beer just to look like I was a patron and wrote stuff all over their fliers. I didn’t have the intention just writing this crap down. I think I had a beer or two but don’t know if I finished them. I fooled around there for a little while then went back to the restaurant and my son said the girls were being nice to him and giving him free food cause they thought he was alone. I thought it was funny. I told him to enjoy it. I went back to the bar for a bit of time, wrote some more crap then left. Got my son and we walked home. Apprently the restaurant called the police. I wasn’t thinking of the fact that there’s a 9 year old here alone at whatever time it was. As we were walking back, there was a bar across the way with guys yelling so I joking told my son I was going to fight them. Gave him the house keys and said go. I just went into the bar, walked through it and was following him in the alley on the other side of the road. For some reason I thought it was funny. Then the cops rolled up on him, I ran over there as quick as I could. They said I was drunk and this and thank took my son to my moms and took me to jail.

I seriously don’t know what the hell I was doing half of the time, I don’t drink anymore and I’m on psychmeds and am paranoid to even want to drink on them. But my first reaction to taking them was to drink. Though I didn’t have much, barely enough to give me a buzz under normal circumstances. Now I’m accused of drunk in public and child endangerment and I don’t remember half of it, plus his mom is trying to file to get my son from me permanently.

Ambien is evil….

I’ve been taking Ambien for 6 months now on a nightly basis. 5 mg did nothing for me, but 10 mg works like a charm. If anyone find they’re not getting a somniac effect, try taking it with a FULL glass of water; just chug that puppy down after swallowing the pill, no matter how much you hate drinking water. It truly does make a difference; it helps the medication to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

I also get my best effects by taking it a half hour before I lay down. That way, I can notice the drowsy effect, and WANT to lay down. Others will tell you to lay down immediately after taking the pill, so play around with it and see what works for you.

I am addicted; I can rarely sleep without taking my pill, regardless of how tired I am. However, this drug has changed my life for the better. I’ve always had insomnia, and now that I’m going through a very scary divorce and custody battle it’s even worse. I thank God every night that I am able to finally get the rest I need in order to face the next day. I am not suicidal, just very stressed and anxious, and would quickly sink if I wasn’t able to replenish my body and brain with sleep each night. This is the first time in my life I’ve been able to lay down in bed at night and just go to sleep!

My side effect is the amnesia. I do not do anything I regret, but I do find texts the next morning that I don’t remember sending, or journal entries I have no recollection of writing. The things they say are perfectly normal, I just don’t remember typing them. And my lips tend to be a bit looser after the Ambien kicks in; I would hate for anyone to interrogate me about my secrets when I’m loopy! The best way to avoid these problems would be to lay down immediately after taking the pill, but I find I get better results when I stay up for a half hour or so.

In a nutshell, I am addicted, and do have some side effects, but am not noticing a tolerance buildup, and am very grateful to the Ambien, as the positives far outweigh the negatives in my case.

According to this Los Angeles Times article

I came across everyone’s stories and postings as I was searching for “how many Ambien would kill you” as I myself am in a very dark place and can’t seem to get out of my own bad thoughts and feelings. I am the person that if I did commit suicide everyone around me would ask “why did he do it, I wouldn’t have ever guessed he’d be the type, he’s extremely attractive and has everything going for him”. Unfortunately what people don’t know about me, I feel is killing me on the inside. I honestly look like Superman (I have the curl in my hair and everything), used to have a Perfect Hollywood smile but smashed up my teeth in a simple fall on rollerblades, I have had HIV for 8 years and at the beginning of 2011 found out I have Herpes as well. People around me always ask me “how in the world could you be single”, but they don’t know I’m diseased. I am also gay and believe in Honesty, Monogamy, and No Drugs and in gay culture it means it’s just about impossible to find anyone who feels the same as most gay men just want to have anonymous sex with as many guys as they can and never want to date, but then throw in HIV and Herpes and no one wants to touch me. I have worked in non-profit for 10+ years helping other people with HIV education and always wanting to give. All I want in this life is to be married to another quality man, live in a simple house, raise 2 children. Unfortunately I can’t have my own children as I have HIV and no woman would want to be artifically inseminated from someone who has HIV, even with modern technology of cleaning the HIV from semen. I feel my purpose in life has been taken away from me. On top of this I am also in debt $36,000 and don’t have a full time job. I continue to sink further and further into a dark hole and don’t see a way out. I’ve been single for 10 years and don’t care to have random sex……….as I have before and that got me HIV and herpes. I honestly feel like a rape victim, I got something I didn’t ask for, I feel gross and ugly even though on the outside I’m attractive to other people.

As I was reading the other comments I was in tears knowing other people out there feel the same as myself, the pain is overwhelming. For me the people around me wouldn’t be really affected by my leaving them. I have parents that ignored me as a child and never cherish and valued who I was. I had a 4.0 GPA up until about the age of 16 when I could drive and be around other gay people……..people who understood me. I am 31 years old now and can’t stop thinking about how better my life could have been if there were supportive people around, parents who truely loved me, cheered me on through my struggles and got me to push harder. As a male I feel insane pressure from society to provide everything, and as a gay man it just seems expected that I should have some great career and it’s not acceptable to say “I want to raise a family, I want to stay at home and provide for my loved ones”. I didn’t ask for this life, I didn’t ask to be put on earth and be pushed to insane limits of stress and depression. I would like to think “God” will make it better, that some magic force will allow me to heal and feel wonderful…….unfortunately this hasn’t been the case. My thoughts continue to spiral further and further downwards.

If anyone knows of personal ways to get out of this funk please tell me/us. The personal pain is far too intense.

I am not on ambien now, but have realized that if I were to kill myself it would be with sleeping pills. I couldn’t cut my wrists or shoot myself in the head. I just want to go to sleep and that’s it. My writing this long comment is my way of yelling out that I need help. I have called a suicide hotline and it did help for a day to be able to tell someone I was thinking of dieing, but that feeling of strength has quickly gone away.

There is so much more I could write about how I feel and what’s wrong, but I figure someone out there gets the basic idea of what I’m up against in life. I hope for the best for all of us, that some miracle will rescue us, or atleast put us out of our misery, and if we take our own lives that we end up in a better place, a place without pain, a place of acceptance and answers and good feelings.

I have been on ambien for like 5 years 10 mg a night. I just stopped taking it on Monday and it is very hard to go off it for me. I slept 1 hr the first night, 4 hrs the second and 4.5 on Wed-Thur. I am so glad that I don’t work cause going off it cold turkey is hard cause I am exhausted – I want to take a nap during the day but don’t to make sure I can go to sleep. I don’t know if that is the right way to do but that is what I did. I was finding that 45 after taking ambien I would get so hungry I’d have to eat. So I was struggling with weight gain along with when I’d wake up in the AM I still would be very tired. The Dr. gave me Nuvigil to help me stay awake and not be exhausted in the AM (I did ask for something) – that is when it hit me this can’t be good and stopped.

My memory has also been affected. It is a great sleep remedy for me as I have had trouble sleeping for about 15 years. But I also notice I start getting depressed after I am on Ambien for a few days. After I get off for a few days I feel normal again. It is a
” Jeckel and Hyde” kind of pill for me. I need to find something else because of the side effects. However, my sister takes it and feels no side effect at all.

I too have anxiety and depression. i have no appetite and have lost weight, although I needed to. I only take 5 mg but everything started while taking this drug. I usually am the kind of person that takes very little in prescription drugs. Never had side effect like this. I am trying to wean myself off or find something else.

I have been taking Ambien for approximately 3 years. I was taking 5mg and increased to 10mg this year. My memory has been affected severely. I can’t rememeber conversations I had after I have taken the medications. Nor can I remember conversations I had in the daytime. My work performance is being affected as well as my speech. If I didn’t write notes about things I already researched or performed, I would not know I even did them. I feel like I have two personalities. Sad when my friends have to tell me what I did or said. Has there been anybody that has stopped taking them and regained their memory?

I walked out my door bottomless and my girlfriend grabbed me real quick when she heard & saw what I was ready to was urinate outside thinkinking it was my bathroom. I also have many a bruises that I cant explain when shes not here. It scares me that I could walk outside into traffic. Ive heard of this situation before where they had to lock a guy in his house but he unlocked the door & ran down the street, he was a jogger.He ran directly into a car.