Ambien

[[al...]]

8 Years ago I got off klonopin . It was a rough withdrawal… but I completely healed.. last month I started intermittently taking Ambien for sleep due to some issues with insomnia.. about 2 weeks into it I started noticing I was getting strange symptoms when I didn’t take it for a night or two.. I was having these bizzare sleep starts and full body twitches.. so now I’m tapering off it but am having some withdrawal symptoms .. mostly the anxiety mid day because it’s so short acting… anybody else have  experience with this??

[[Je...]]

... Sort of. I was prescribed Ambien - well, the generic - for insomnia and I tried taking it just a couple of times and woke up feeling really weird.  Decided I didn't want to take it unless I was truly desperate for sleep. It doesn't surprise me that you're having strange symptoms. 

[[al...]]

Ya… seems like this is gonna be a crazy drug to get off of

[[Je...]]

1 hour ago, [[a...] said:

Ya… seems like this is gonna be a crazy drug to get off of

I hope it's not too awful for you. 

[[al...]]

bump

 

[[Pa...]]

Ambien is a miserable drug, its classified as a non-benzodiazepine but it acts just like one.  My friend just recovered from it in April, it took him a year. 

[[al...]]

1 hour ago, [[P...] said:

Ambien is a miserable drug, its classified as a non-benzodiazepine but it acts just like one.  My friend just recovered from it in April, it took him a year. 

How long was he on Ambien?.  I only took it intermittently for 2 weeks till I noticed w/d symptoms when i didn't take it.   Also , did he taper and if so what did he use for a taper

[[Pa...]]

Hi allen,

I apologize for making such stark statement, without giving you any background, I thought about this as I logged off so I'm glad you're asking these questions.  

My friend took Ambien for years, along with heavy alcohol use, I believe this combination is what prompted his severe withdrawal symptoms.  He did not taper and I didn't put two and two together for him until he'd been to the ER three times trying to find out what was wrong with him.  They gave him Ativan in the ER and he was instantly better, then I knew.

I have Ambien experience, but for me, it wasn't as bad as Klonopin, in fact I quit it cold turkey and felt better within days.  I didn't sleep much but the inner trembling and anxiety it caused me was gone.  Some aren't as lucky so I'm glad you're asking about it now.  I believe there may be some kindling involved in how you're reacting to the Ambien but feel you're going to get through this just fine. 

[[PE...]]

On 7/26/2023 at 8:36 PM, [[a...] said:

8 Years ago I got off klonopin . It was a rough withdrawal… but I completely healed.. last month I started intermittently taking Ambien for sleep due to some issues with insomnia.. about 2 weeks into it I started noticing I was getting strange symptoms when I didn’t take it for a night or two.. I was having these bizzare sleep starts and full body twitches.. so now I’m tapering off it but am having some withdrawal symptoms .. mostly the anxiety mid day because it’s so short acting… anybody else have  experience with this??

I went to rehab for 10 days for imovane after taking 20mg every 4 hours. Cramps. Vomited. Etc etc. Imovane and

Ambien.  Is as bad as benzo. 

 

[[Es...]]

I was trying to switch from Ambien to diazepam in 2014. The result was that I ended on both meds. I was then under huge influence of dr Peter Breggin and the site Surviving Antidepressants, which resulted in tapering my fluoxetine to a tiny crumb. It's impossible to describe the panick attacks which followed.

I'd been on SSRI's/SNRI's for years. So I started using Ambien as my AD after I tapered ADs - to numb my feelings. Overall, it's a nasty med and I consider diazepam safer.

Ambien has a half-life of two hours, then you enter into daily BZD WD. Diazepam has a half-life of 20-100 hrs. Ambien is something like new version of Triazolam (Halcion), which William Styron describes in "Lie Down in Darkness".

I spent eight days in hospital in February 2016 (against my will) where they CT-ed my Ambien (I was taking like a pack a day at least or more) and left me with 40 mg of diazepam a day. They reduced the diazepam by 5 mg each day.

I'm grateful to them, despite all the horrors I went through. I wouldn't have quit Ambien on my own, especially that I was already dependent on diazepam.

This was a public hospital, with bugs crawling on the floor, covered with old people's urine, a ward full of schizophrenics.

Those people couldn't make it to the loo and the nurses weren't willing to help them. We're talking Eastern Europe. My mattress was laying on that same floor, in the corridor, cause beds were lacking.

The horrors I experienced in that hospital aren't easy to put into words. But I am grateful anyway. Sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone. Usually when you hit rock bottom, like I did.

Never again will I touch another Ambien. As Sigmund Freud used to say: "One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful."

[[al...]]

 @[Es...] Wow... That's a heck of an experience.  glad you got through it ok