New here, please help-- Ambien/side effects/chronic pain

Hi,

I'm brand new here and have slept mostly well with ambien, escaping chronic pain, every night for the last 2 decades. So scared to let it go, I'm cutting it and taking 2/3--it is a long thin oval-type pill. Tonight will be night 3 ... anyway, what was your journey stopping Ambien like?

What do you suggest or think I should know? I'm searching here for info/experience.

Anyone else have Pain ... and think it could be side effects of years on ambien?

What does it means that it's "like" a benzo ...  Ambien vs Benzo and the "Z" drugs? THANK YOU!

Hi Mary,

Ambien, Lunesta and a couple of other sleep drugs collectively are called z-drugs and they have similarities to benzos in that they work on some of the same brain receptors to calm you down and put you to sleep. The major difference is that they have a short half-life so that you don't wake up all drugged out in the morning. They are also very powerful drugs, as you will find out if you try to stay awake after taking one.

The prescribing info for Ambien states that it is only intended for short-term use (about 3 weeks nightly max.) and the maximum dosage for women is 5 mg. Anything beyond that puts you at risk for developing drug tolerance where you need more and more in order to get the same result. You can also develop a variety of withdrawal symptoms between dosages because the drug's short half-life can effectively put you into withdrawal after just a few hours. Common symptoms include anxiety, depression, muscle pain and more. If you were not asleep from the drug you would probably notice these symptoms letting up after taking a dose. I think that is one reason why once tolerance does set in and sleep becomes harder and harder to come by the resulting uptick in anxiety makes sleep that much more impossible.

No doctor would recommend staying on Ambien (at least I hope not). I think that your experience in stopping will depend upon what degree of tolerance has already set in (have you increased your dose?) and how much withdrawal symptoms are already occurring. If Ambien has its claws firmly in you it can be a pretty harrowing experience getting off due to severe and long-term insomnia, but staying on is not an option because things will only get worse over time. It can be a very hard, but not hopeless because in time sleep will start to return, you will start to feel more and more like your old self and you will have gotten off the drug.