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Hey,

i almost lost my life to ambien. i had been working long hour and decided to take a day off so i called in and went back to bed. but i could not get back to sleep. i had the whole day to sleep (8 plus hours) so i took a ambient hoping to get back to sleep. i don't remember that day at all except for a few frames of trying to buy a hamburger and then getting pulled over and put in jail. i have been taking this medication for 5 years as prescribed and  i never knew it would do this to me. i feel lucky to be alive but the last year had been a nightmare with the traffic tickets school and fine. right now i am in the process of possibility losing my job due to this event. i have spent almost 10k but i am sure this will not be the last of it

jordanjw4823

I was on Ambien for almost 4 months. I started out with 6.25Mg CR, then moved quickly to 12.5 MG CR. As I started to get used to it, and it became less effective, I started taking two at night. When I saw my presciption was running out, I knew I needed to kick it, so I eased back to one 12.5 a night till I ran out. Once I ran out, I had the predictable "rebound insomnia", but also had another curious effect that I've never had during my 10 years of treatment for depression and anxiety: acute mania! For three or four days I was invincible, talked my head off, and felt like I could do anything, despite the fact that I had already been out of work for four weeks. As of this writing, I'm still out. My doctor gave me lunesta, but all that did was to make me feel "trippy", not sleepy. She then gave me Seroquel (see my posting there), which after a night of basically hallucinating, it did help me to sleep with minimal grogginess the next morning, though I did feel fuzzy in the brain. She gave me twelve  25 Mg tabs. I have taken all but three and am not planning to continue. I can sleep using nothing, but it's crappy sleep I wake up frequently after only 3 hours or less, and have to go to the couch and try to sleep there. if you're going to use Ambien, only save it for emercency uses. Note: I am also taking the following for major depressive disorder and mild anxiety: effexorXR 225mg, Lithium Carbonate 300Mg, and Depakote XR, 500MG. I had a bad experience with clonopin (.5mg) as well.

Last edited by daygc (2006-09-27 09:36:57)

After reading everyones comments on ambien, I decided to share, in short, my tragic story of Ambien. My daughter Stefanie started Ambien in 01/06, she was seeing a doctor for anxiety, within a month she was a different person. She was found in a park delusional and could not remember how she had got there. She had smashed the back end of her car, couldn't remember. Three days later she was back in the hospital, because of the ambien. We had even begged the hospital to keep her. The saw no need. We explained to them of how we knew she had become addicted to the Ambien. She was pulled over numerous times, because she was driving irratically. So, Stef's father and myself went to see her doctor to inform him of all these incidents and to let him know that we believe that Stefanie had become addicted to them. After we left his office we did not feel that he was listening to us. I do not know if he thought we were just being over protective, but she is our daughter and we knew she was different. A couple weeks after our visit, Stefanie was involved in a one car accident and total her brand new car she had just purchased. I was very grateful that she was not injured. When I arrived at the scene of the accident the first thing I asked the officer was, "Can I hug my daughter", she was in the back seat of his car. She looked at me and said "mom, I'm all right nothing happened. I was becoming exteremly worried about her. I talked to her everyday and she could not see what her family was seeing. So, I returned to her doctors office, with her, to let him know of the accident. As we dicussed it with her in his office, his word that came out of his mouth will be forever etched in my brain. He says" Well why don't we just have Stefanie promise that she won't take more than prescibed". My reaction was, are you serious, she has a addiction & you want her to promise not to take more than prescribed. I could not believe my ears. Stefanie was not taking them to sleep anymore, she was taken them because she said that she felt better on them. For some reason the doctor did not heed my warnings. Ambien does lead to other addictions. I am not saying this happens to everyone, some people take it and do fine with it. For those it does affect, warnings need to be addressed and more research should be done. This is just a summary of events that happened in the few months Stef was on Ambien. Now my Stefanie is gone. She died June 11, 2006, at the tender young age of 21. Her cause of death was ruled as a homicide from multiple drug intoxication. Our lifes have forever changed. We watched our daughter go from a bright college student to someone she didn't even know. I am lost without her. We tried so very hard to help her & protect her. Stef's father and I will not give up until we can get people to understand how Ambien lead Stef down a dangerous road and it can happen to you.

Has anyone had hearing problems with ambien?

I started on ambien today .  I took 8mg at 9:30  .  Still awake.  Maybe it takes a few daysto start working.  Tried trazadone last year and it was terrible.   I had alot of side effects.

Took Ambien for 3 years.  I became tolerant very quickly--at one point I was taking a PRESCRIBED dosage of 3 pills a night because 1 did nothing and 2 still had me waking up in the middle of the night.  Hated it. Had the usual unremembered conversations, sleep-eating, strange bruising from running into things while sleepwalking, etc.  Came off it in 2005 and went on Lunesta.  Fabulous drug.  No tolerance issues.  Actually works.