Report : America’s most popular prescription sleep medication linked to mass shootings

Ambien is NO joke.
I'm happy to be alive after I found what I was doing while "asleep" on Ambien.
I was:
Sleepwalking
sleep-eating things that weren't cooked or really food at all
cooking
sex (with my boyfriend-not with other people!)
OVERDOSING ON OTHER MEDICATIONS!!!!

I awoke ill and found my empty bottle of pain medication on my floor next to my bed...my antibiotics were gone too,
so was my anti-depressant and my bottle of muscle relaxers was spilled, but none appeared gone-THANK GOD!
Luckily...a bout at the porcelain God resolved the potential "trip to the Detox Center" and a dealing with cops and my life was spared...I did mention this to my GP afterwards, he understood and recommended something else for sleep...he didn't make a damn Federal Case out of it, he chalked it up to the Ambien.

Not to mention the infamous "Ambien Posts" on social networking sites...YIKES....but I'm not alone, I've heard of many a sleepless mother terrorizing Facebook while under the Ambien influence.

You want an eyeful of possible globally lethal situations, google 'george bush ambien, mccain ambien' and others of that ilk.

GHWB is on record talking with Larry King about this 'great new sleeping pill Ambien' and it's possible that's why he puked on the Japanese Prime Minister (the best views of that being hidden from public view).

These horrifically dangerous drugs are being given out to not only your next door neighbor, that guy driving an 18 wheeler down the road coming at you, but also world leaders who, poor souls, can't sleep at night because they're too busy killing people all day long.

It's high time that the drugs these people were on were public knowledge and they were subjected to drug testing just like the rest of us before they were employed.

Don't get me started on how we have utterly no way of knowing the combined side effects of more than one of these taken together, or with alcohol...

Better living through chemistry, my aunt Sally's ass.

Look into 5-HTP or tryptophan supplements if you're having trouble sleeping, or just up your daily intake of turkey, almonds and bananas, all good sources of that particular neurotransmitter without which you'll be depressed and have trouble sleeping. Melatonin should be safe for most people too.

When it comes to killing MILLIONS of people all around the World, and 100's of thousands of people in the United States every year, you can't beat good ol' FDA approved drugs!

reply to post by buni11687


If you are over 43 or so, melatonin is all you need. This other stuff is big pharma gold, usually cheaply manufactured, and arguably consist solely of overtly dangerous drugs. I really don't know why the corporate bigwigs who make this stuff and falsely advertise its "benefits" without telling people about other things - like melatonin - aren't in prison.

reply to post by buni11687


Ambien is horrible stuff!

I was prescribed this stuff almost 10 yrs ago for lack of sleep due to schedule change. I was working over night and I could not sleep during the day. I have never been able to sleep during the day so I was getting literally no sleep. Well my doctor immediately gave me ambien. He went on to tell me how great it was and it would help me sleep right away. I took it for less than a week because of how it affected me. I did not like it at all! The last straw was when I woke up the next morning and had no recollection of making a steak dinner with homemade mashed potatoes and green beans. I had a plate next to my bed and when my bf got home from working around 7am he asked me what I made. I was puzzled because I didn't remember making anything and then I looked over at the plate and then went to the fridge. I had leftovers in containers and a plate ready for him in the fridge! All I remember was getting ready for bed and taking my medicine. I am pretty sure i went to bed with my laptop and passed out or so I thought. I had only been taking it about 5 days at the time, not even a full week. Prior to this I had hallucinations of my screen and other things moving in front of me. I did NOT like this stuff at all! It freaked me out. I stopped taking it and have never taken it again. At the same time i was on it my bf was as well and he didn't seem to have any real problems with it but I do remember his mom was also on it and she had crazy moments of forgetting full events esp after she took her meds. She would call us and then not remember talking to us the day before or 3 days before. It became a joke for her to call us before she took her meds.


Ambien is some horrible stuff. I am not surprised it has horrid reactions. It should be illegal imo.

reply to post by buni11687


I had a script for Ambien a couple of years ago when I had a nasty bout of insomnia. I slept, but I never felt rested. I had horrid nightmares and on a couple of occasions my husband said that I would wake up and seem absolutely lucid and alert and curse and swear at him and tell him what a no-good husband he was and things of that nature, and then lay back down and go back to sleep. I remember the nightmares, but never remembered any of the other incidents. Stopped taking the Ambien and will never agree to ANY prescription sleep meds again. Scary stuff.

It amazes me how this stuff is handed out and popped like candy... Despite periods of insomnia, I've never been to the Dr. for sleep problems. Kinda glad now that I know what this stuff can do. I wonder about exposure to/influence by spirits/entities while one is essentially absent from their brain. Seems something best avoided.

reply to post by AFewGoodWomen


Geeze... scary stuff. I have had problems with insomnia for years now and have been thinking about trying medication since nothing else seems to work (and I've tried every natural remedy under the sun). Glad I read this thread so I know to avoid this stuff like crazy. For those of you that had negative experiences, did you find anything that helped you sleep with minimal side effects?

Snarl
Two Ambien and a beer chaser ... the only way to travel economy class on international flights. Just make sure there are no scheduled layovers. Have you ever felt a psychotic episode coming on when the kids turn the back of a plane into a playground (read that as zoo)? I credit Ambien with prevention rather than cause.

edit on 2112014 by Snarl because: (no reason given)

I do use Ambien, and have for three years. I have had insomnia off and on my whole life, and nothing else works. But I'll tell you what, most of the time I cut those buggers in half, and I use as a last resort. My prescription expires well before I am half way into it. I suppose everybody is different, but I think it is a chancy thing to use it with alcohol, double dosed, and in an active and closed environment. I hope you are joking, I really do.

For everybody else, my advice is don't take it with alcohol, and don't ever take more than the prescribed dose. I have never done this, but every. single. story I have read or heard of with people going bat-guano-zombie-bonkers they have done one, or both of those things.

I will say that there have been a few times when I saw things (which I remember), and a handful of times when my husband and daughter have told me the things that I have said that I have absolutely no recollection of. I don't get angry, but I do regress into a childlike state. No rage, (or cooking, or eating), just silly. Go figure. The only time things have gotten weird or my memory was blanked on what I had said was when I took a whole pill.

So for my Ambien confession: The first time things got weird,I had taken the pill and my husband was pacing in front of me and talking about something serious (no argument, he just walks when he is thinking) and all of a sudden I start giggling. I remember this. He has this big North Face parka that he had hung on the back of the chair, and when he walked by the parka got off the chair and started stalking him. It would jump on him and then keep pacing behind, and he would turn and it would stay at his back so he couldn't see it. I watched it for a while, and then when the bad kung-fu movie parallels got to be too much I started laughing. I was laughing too hard to tell him what I saw for a little bit.

That was when I started cutting them in half. I'm glad that my family is more entertained than freaked out, and I hope that it is a testament to my true nature that hilarity ensues instead of violence; but this stuff is serious. Use with caution.

I got a small amount of Ambien once and cut the pills in half to make them last longer. i was still half awake the next afternoon.
i now use Benadryl.

Be warned Ambien can cause bedwetting