Ambien after benzo withdrawal?

[[MT...]]

MTFan - thanks for those links. Interesting read, although I would have liked to have smacked the poster who accused the one doctor of "anectotal" evidence into next month. What a know-nothing asshat. Walk a mile in my shoes, jerko.

 

Yeah, meanness online (or in person) just blows me away. We're all doing the best we can. There's no need to try to take each other down.

[[ke...]]

And now for the requested update:

 

So after a month and a half on Ambien, I’ve had no significant problems. I took it every night for a month and then stopped, no withdrawals whatsoever. Initially there was some next-day anxiety, but it’s hard to say if that was due to the Ambien or not as there were many potentially confounding factors.

 

Overall I don’t really like it, as the sleep I get isn’t that “restful”. It’s more like I just lose time from sleeping, like I go out and then wake up, but don’t feel very refreshed. I still prefer the sleep I got on trazodone, but that pesky mCPP metabolite was probably what gave me the panic attacks to begin with, so I can’t really go back on it. I should mention I had been on Ambien for a while prior to beginning trazodone, and ultimately switched for the same reasons I’ve described here. In the meantime, hydroxyzine and melatonin have worked well for me most nights, so I’ll probably just make use of those.

[[Bl...]]

And now for the requested update:

 

So after a month and a half on Ambien, I’ve had no significant problems. I took it every night for a month and then stopped, no withdrawals whatsoever. Initially there was some next-day anxiety, but it’s hard to say if that was due to the Ambien or not as there were many potentially confounding factors.

 

Overall I don’t really like it, as the sleep I get isn’t that “restful”. It’s more like I just lose time from sleeping, like I go out and then wake up, but don’t feel very refreshed. I still prefer the sleep I got on trazodone, but that pesky mCPP metabolite was probably what gave me the panic attacks to begin with, so I can’t really go back on it. I should mention I had been on Ambien for a while prior to beginning trazodone, and ultimately switched for the same reasons I’ve described here. In the meantime, hydroxyzine and melatonin have worked well for me most nights, so I’ll probably just make use of those.

 

I remember soon after being on Ambien…a month or two, my Psychiatrist proceeded to c/t me from it. I was miserable in that I could not sleep at all. After 2-3 weeks of little to no sleep I called him and begged that he put me back on the Ambien. He did….and then, about 3 years later, I had a reaction to it that sent me into another world.

 

Your experience with Ambien compared to my experience goes to show we are all different as to how we react to these drugs.  But I do feel that it is just a matter of time when someone reacts in an acute…unfavorable way to these insidious drugs.

 

I agree with you about the poor quality sleep that these drugs even allow. I never felt like I had a good sleep when on them. What a horrible experience these drugs put me through and that I hope to never repeat with any drug from here on out.

[[Ma...]]

I get less sleep now then I did when the benzos/Zs were working (I was in tolerance for a long time, and didn't realize it), but it's a better quality sleep. I only get 6-7 hrs now, but I feel refreshed in the morning, instead of brain foggy and confused.