I notice there's a change in the Ambien television commercials. Anybody know what caused the addition of the purple text below?
The reassuring voice now cautions us, "...safe to take for as long as your health care provider recommends, do not take with alcohol, side effects may include dizziness, headache, hallucinations, depression, suicidality, rare but fatal allergic reactions...."
I've never taken Ambien before, but I did have a boyfriend years ago who did. The first time, he took one, then fell asleep, and then after a few hours, I got a phone call from him. He sounded normal, (for him) and during this call he was eating something out of what sounded like a can. I could hear the sound of a spoon scraping the insides of the can, and him chewing as he was talking. He even mentioned waking up really hungry and going into the kitchen to find something to eat.
The problem was, he was NOT awake.
When I told him that he had called me and carried on a full conversation with me in the middle of the night, he was in shock. He had no memory of it whatsoever. He insisted he slept through the night. I then told him that he had better check his trash cans, because he had also definitely been eating something when he called me, and when I mentioned that, he just said: "Oh my dear God" - because he NEVER kept food in his house. He ate out all the time, and seriously never kept one edible thing in his house. I told him: "You better do a thorough search of your house and especially all your trash cans, because you were definitely eating something and GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT IT WAS!"
He made the mistake of taking Ambien again on another night, and sure enough, around 3:00 a.m., I get another phone call from him. THIS time he's talking about the cats on the stairs. The problem with that, was that there WERE no cats.
He tried Ambien a third time, this time taking it while I was there. He then went to bed, while I sat in the other room and watched TV. Hours later, he gets up, and he's walking around and talking to me. I went up to him and looked him in the eyes and spoke to him, and he answered...but I realized he was totally ASLEEP. He was sleepwalking.
I told him he should NOT be taking that drug, especially when he had his little boy over, because what was to stop him from getting up, and in his sleep, taking his son with him while he DROVE somewhere in his car, to a store or through a drive-thru, for example?! He wisely decided never to take that drug again.
I'm not saying everyone would have this reaction, but I did read that it was considered a "hypnotic" drug. And I saw that with my own eyes. It was scary.
And we never did figure out what the heck he had been eating that time he called me after taking the drug!
