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AnonChick, you couldn't be more wrong when saying Ambien isn't an addicting drug. There are plenty of people that have fallen into deep Ambien addiction and have used it for everything but sleep. Do your research before you give all these people false information. I'm guessing your in denial with this because you yourself couldn't fathom the fact that you are taking an addicting drug on a nightly basis. Get off the Ambien, it leads to nothing good.
7 years now and the only thing it's led to is - being able to sleep.
Ambien is not addictive. People can be dependent on it, but not addicted. It's not false information, it's a fact, and it's a fact I've known about for the entire 7 years I've been taking it. I still only take 3/4 of one pill per night. I never feel like I need one any other time of day, or for anything -other- than sleeping. If I were addicted to it, I would need it other times of the day, and would experience withdrawal symptoms during the hours that I wasn't dosed with it. Just like with heroine, an addict needs a fix, they need to have a constant stream of the drug at a certain dose maintained 24/7 or else they suffer.
I don't suffer during the day for lack of a dose of Ambien. I am awake and alert during the day, feeling healthy and fine, eating well, getting exercise, and I no longer feel exhausted when I wake up anymore, because..I am getting the sleep my body requires in order to be healthy. And it's Ambien that's giving me that sleep.
Absolutely incorrect. Lack of sleep contributes to depression. There is NOTHING wrong with taking medication for depression AND something to help you sleep. I found the perfect mix - Klonopin and Ambien together prescribed by my Dr. Thing is, I usually just opt for the Klonopin as I find it works better than the Ambien. BTW, no increase in dosage and I've been taking it for a long time.
Ambien is not an antidepressant. The OP suffers from depression and anxiety. As far as anyone can tell (since he refuses to respond to ANY questions about it), he is -not- being treated for his depression and anxiety. He is ONLY being treated for sleeplessness. Ambien doesn't treat depression or anxiety. Perhaps other drugs do, but Ambien doesn't. And that is what the OP wanted (over a year ago).
The OP has already gotten his "problem" solved, over a year ago.
7 years now and the only thing it's led to is - being able to sleep.
Ambien is not addictive. People can be dependent on it, but not addicted. It's not false information, it's a fact, and it's a fact I've known about for the entire 7 years I've been taking it. I still only take 3/4 of one pill per night. I never feel like I need one any other time of day, or for anything -other- than sleeping. If I were addicted to it, I would need it other times of the day, and would experience withdrawal symptoms during the hours that I wasn't dosed with it. Just like with heroine, an addict needs a fix, they need to have a constant stream of the drug at a certain dose maintained 24/7 or else they suffer.
I don't suffer during the day for lack of a dose of Ambien. I am awake and alert during the day, feeling healthy and fine, eating well, getting exercise, and I no longer feel exhausted when I wake up anymore, because..I am getting the sleep my body requires in order to be healthy. And it's Ambien that's giving me that sleep.
My sister is a nurse and she also says that Ambien is not addictive in the way that opiates and other narcotics are addictive. She said it seems addictive because your body gets used to it and gets to where you cannot sleep without it.
Ambien doesn't directly treat anxiety or depression. What it does do is to help a person sleep. And when a person can sleep, it helps with the other issues. I have fibromyalgia and with that comes insomnia, anxiety and pain. The doctors initially put me on Ambien. That took care of the insomnia and lessened the anxiety and pain. A couple of years ago, the doctor added a low dose of Elavil. And while nothing wipes out the pain completely, once I started taking Elavil, the generalized anxiety was pretty much gone. I still have some issues with it, but it is not frequent and it is more tolerable.
My sister is a nurse and she also says that Ambien is not addictive in the way that opiates and other narcotics are addictive. She said it seems addictive because your body gets used to it and gets to where you cannot sleep without it.
You -already- cannot sleep without it, before it's ever prescribed. That's WHY people get prescribed Ambien. Because they can't sleep. So it's fitting that they can't sleep without Ambien. If they -could- sleep without Ambien, then their doctors shouldn't have ever prescribed it to them in the first place.
Also, when your body gets used to it, it's called building a tolerance. So it's not uncommon, for people who take it long-term, to eventually need a higher dose.
I used Ambien every night for 5 years...I finally lost my insurance and couldnt afford the blood tests and dr visits...The first night I didnt sleep until 500 Am....The 2nd night I slept 3 hrs and then the third night I slept 5 hrs....From then on I was able to fall asleep ok.....I have sleep apnea and dont get a good sleep but I now do fall asleep within 5-10 minutes....Its hell but you will eventually sleep...
I used Ambien every night for 5 years...I finally lost my insurance and couldnt afford the blood tests and dr visits...The first night I didnt sleep until 500 Am....The 2nd night I slept 3 hrs and then the third night I slept 5 hrs....From then on I was able to fall asleep ok.....I have sleep apnea and dont get a good sleep but I now do fall asleep within 5-10 minutes....Its hell but you will eventually sleep...
It really depends on what's causing you to not sleep in the first place. I don't have sleep apnea. I have one of a kajillion varities of long-term chronic insomina. It's not rare, it's not a disease, it's not an illness. But it isn't likely to ever go away. It's also a symptom of ADD (though you don't have to have ADD to have the symptom, and not everyone with ADD has it).
Basically, with me it works like this:
Everyone has conscious thoughts. "Boy am I hungry." "My bladder is full." "That kid is so annoying." "What did this girl just say?" "I can't believe how horrible my cousin looks in that dress." It's your internal dialogue. You might not even realize you're having it. But you are. All the time.
With me, I'm -always- aware that I'm having this dialogue. And at night, when most people's minds shut off the part of themselves that actually pays attention to their dialogue, mine refuses to shut off. So I lay there in bed, arguing with the internal "voice" in my head (which is really just me, having the internal dialogue), to shut up, and the voice just ignores the message and keeps yapping and yapping and making me irritated, which makes it impossible to fall asleep no matter how tired I am.
Ambien - blocks that internal dialogue so I am not conscious of its existence. It makes things "quiet" in my head, so that I can actually drift off to sleep.
That noise will never go away. It doesn't go away for any of you, either. It's just that your mind is able to block it out at bedtime. Mine is not. It lacks that "switch." So without Ambien, it takes around 3 hours from the time I lay down, til the time I fall asleep. And that's no matter what time it is, or how tired I am. If I want to wake up at 7 AM, to get to work by 9 AM, and I wanted 7 hours of sleep...that would mean normally I'd need to go to bed by midnite. But because of this "switch" problem, I need to get to bed 3 hours earlier; 9PM, just to get 7 hours of sleep by 7AM.
Seems a huge waste to me. 3 hours per night, laying there being frustrated and annoyed. That's 15 hours per week. Or, I could go to bed at 11, after having taken an ambien, and be asleep within 15 minutes, and get almost 8 hours of sleep.
I like my way much better. Not everyone has this problem, but it isn't rare. A lot of people have it, though not everyone has attempted to verbalize it. The sleep study center recognizes it as fairly common among people who have difficulty sleeping.
It really depends on what's causing you to not sleep in the first place. I don't have sleep apnea. I have one of a kajillion varities of long-term chronic insomina. It's not rare, it's not a disease, it's not an illness. But it isn't likely to ever go away. It's also a symptom of ADD (though you don't have to have ADD to have the symptom, and not everyone with ADD has it).
Basically, with me it works like this:
Everyone has conscious thoughts. "Boy am I hungry." "My bladder is full." "That kid is so annoying." "What did this girl just say?" "I can't believe how horrible my cousin looks in that dress." It's your internal dialogue. You might not even realize you're having it. But you are. All the time.
With me, I'm -always- aware that I'm having this dialogue. And at night, when most people's minds shut off the part of themselves that actually pays attention to their dialogue, mine refuses to shut off. So I lay there in bed, arguing with the internal "voice" in my head (which is really just me, having the internal dialogue), to shut up, and the voice just ignores the message and keeps yapping and yapping and making me irritated, which makes it impossible to fall asleep no matter how tired I am.
Ambien - blocks that internal dialogue so I am not conscious of its existence. It makes things "quiet" in my head, so that I can actually drift off to sleep.
That noise will never go away. It doesn't go away for any of you, either. It's just that your mind is able to block it out at bedtime. Mine is not. It lacks that "switch." So without Ambien, it takes around 3 hours from the time I lay down, til the time I fall asleep. And that's no matter what time it is, or how tired I am. If I want to wake up at 7 AM, to get to work by 9 AM, and I wanted 7 hours of sleep...that would mean normally I'd need to go to bed by midnite. But because of this "switch" problem, I need to get to bed 3 hours earlier; 9PM, just to get 7 hours of sleep by 7AM.
Seems a huge waste to me. 3 hours per night, laying there being frustrated and annoyed. That's 15 hours per week. Or, I could go to bed at 11, after having taken an ambien, and be asleep within 15 minutes, and get almost 8 hours of sleep.
I like my way much better. Not everyone has this problem, but it isn't rare. A lot of people have it, though not everyone has attempted to verbalize it. The sleep study center recognizes it as fairly common among people who have difficulty sleeping.
This sounds just like me. I'm also bp2. I think it may be common among us, too, since the support group I went to could all describe the same thing.
What I do is use it. Naturally I'm an extreme vampire, and given not a lot of stress and allowing my normal cycle, I get sleepy in the middle of the night. If I was looking for a job, I'd go for swingshift, since NO meds will force me to sleep without putting me in a fog all day. I literally felt as if I was floating on ambien, and that was a small dose.
When I start to get tired, pre-sleep, my mind takes off in super concentration. I've started directing that at writing. I let the words just flow. The typing is bad and forget spelling, but its when ideas are in hyperdrive. I can write with a be there intensity then. When the burst ends, I read it over, the energy zapped, and tell myself what to think about next. Character has finally got to go 'home', but 'home' isn't much like it was. Still has no clue what's really going on. Feels utterly lost. What next?
Then I go to bed when all I can do is shut off the computer and light and let the dogs out one last time, then crash.
I even sleep a full sleep this way. Might not work for everyone but for me drugs always feel like an overdose and its not worth bothering. But I can 'hear' the chatter in my head. There's more than one discussion in progress. Sometimes stray words slip out and I look around as if someone was in the room. I think if I didn't notice it I'd feel like I was missing something. And sometimes these 'background thoughts' produce a revelation I would never do if I was 'thinking' because its something I hadn't considered or would rather not.
I tried rum and Coke which only made me queasy. Also Vicks which had no effect.
Mixing alcohol with prescription medications and/or cough syrup is a very bad idea. If you have doubts, do a quick Google search for celebrities (and many others) who have died this way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnonChick
7 years now and the only thing it's led to is - being able to sleep.
Ambien is not addictive. People can be dependent on it, but not addicted. It's not false information, it's a fact, and it's a fact I've known about for the entire 7 years I've been taking it.
True. It's difficult to become addicted or dependent on Ambien. When Anon states that one can become "dependent," I think she means it's possible to become psychologically dependent to Ambien (or any other sleep aid). I could see this happening if the underlying cause for the insomnia is not being addressed.
Mixing alcohol with prescription medications and/or cough syrup is a very bad idea. If you have doubts, do a quick Google search for celebrities (and many others) who have died this way.
True. It's difficult to become addicted or dependent on Ambien. When Anon states that one can become "dependent," I think she means it's possible to become psychologically dependent to Ambien (or any other sleep aid). I could see this happening if the underlying cause for the insomnia is not being addressed.
This is true. Theoretically, if I were to take Prozac I'd be able to sleep better without Ambien (and maybe just half a Xanax to counteract the effects of the Prozac). That's what they tried originally, around 15 years ago when I first decided I was sick of being "me" and wanted to be a more efficient "me" in terms of cognizant thinking and restful sleep.
So I got to feel like a wide-awake but oblivious zombie during the day on the Prozac, then the Prozac would wear off at bedtime and all those loud noisy thoughts poured back into my head, at which point I'd take the Xanax, which would lull me into a stupor and I'd fall asleep with all the noise. And then I'd wake up exhausted and irritable, and start all over again.
They said "oh - well let's try a different drug" after 6 months of being miserable on Prozac. So they gave me Anafronil. I took my first pill on a Saturday, when my husband was home. Around three hours later, I told him if I started talking to myself out loud, to get me to the hospital immediately. I never took another SSRI again, and tossed the rest of the Anafronil in the trash.
I had no withdrawal symptoms thankfully - the doctor didn't mention that I should look for any, and I didn't thoroughly read the patient information sheet on withdrawal - only on the active taking it.
After a few more years of being "noisy" in my head at night, being grumpy in the day, but none of the jitters and zombie-feeling from the meds, I went to a new doctor, who referred me to the Gaylord Sleep Center. They did an outpatient study - meaning, significant, in-depth interview, blood pressure, EKG, etc. etc.
And they came to the conclusion: This patient has non-specific chronic delayed sleep and will benefit from Zolpidem. Long-term is indicated at this time, providing no adverse reactions or significant increase in dosage. Return after 1 year and coordinate Rx with PCP.
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