Doctor percribed a med but im AFRAID to take it.

[CWM84]

Hi Ya'll,

My doctor recently prescribed me Ambien 10 mg..

I've NEVER Been on Ambien before in my life and decided to google to read about it, as in like side effects etc since this was my first time taking it.

BIG MISTAKE.........

I came across this article and clicked on it since I thought I could trust GOODRX articles.

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/scary-side- ... aids%20too.)

and 6 and 9 scare me enough to NOT even want to try it. I have it put away and have not taken a single pill out of the bottle yet.

Any Tips about sleep drugs or even if any of this is even true?

Thanks,
Chris

[Pugsy]

All medications come with baggage...the old risk vs rewards thing.
Not everyone will experience even one of the potential side effects but others will.

I have taken it off and on since 2009...more off than on here lately and the only thing I ever experienced was a bit of grogginess or hang over effect for a few hours after I wake up and didn't have it every day.

It's not for long term chronic insomnia though...it's for short term situations.

[raisedfist]

Why not ask about something non habit forming such as Trazadone? Ambien can give you crazy nightmares and make people sleep walk, drive etc without even remembering. I'd avoid it unless supervised while sleeping, or if nothing else works. Not a first choice go to medicine IMHO.

[SDBud]

Hi Ya'll,

My doctor recently prescribed me Ambien 10 mg..

I've NEVER Been on Ambien before in my life and decided to google to read about it, as in like side effects etc since this was my first time taking it.

BIG MISTAKE.........

I came across this article and clicked on it since I thought I could trust GOODRX articles.

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/scary-side- ... aids%20too.)

and 6 and 9 scare me enough to NOT even want to try it. I have it put away and have not taken a single pill out of the bottle yet.

Any Tips about sleep drugs or even if any of this is even true?

Thanks,
Chris

FIRST, I wouldn't fully trust ANY site that blocks their actual site with a signup request, without ANY way of getting past it without signing up.

2nd, ALL drugs have side effects, but you need to know how COMMON they are. THAT isn't what you'll read in a quick hit piece story, so use common sense, and dig deeper, the data IS THERE. If it's a 1% chance of a side effect, that is usually acceptable risk. If it's .001%, then it's totally ignorable. If it's HIGHER than 1%, they usually wouldn't release the product without a prescription.

[Pugsy]

Trazadone comes with some ugly baggage as well.
https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a ... de-effects
and it can stay in your system for 42 hours after last dose.

Everything out there comes with some baggage....even the lowly aspirin.

[greatunclebill]

You said everything except why the doctor prescribed this and why something less restricted wouldn't help. If you don't trust your doctor enough to take the medicine he prescribes for you or ask him about it, you need to find a new doctor that you do trust. I've taken ambien for my last couple sleep tests with good results. no side effects.

[CWM84]

Why not ask about something non habit forming such as Trazadone? Ambien can give you crazy nightmares and make people sleep walk, drive etc without even remembering. I'd avoid it unless supervised while sleeping, or if nothing else works. Not a first choice go to medicine IMHO.

I have tried Trazadone and it did nothing for me.

[CWM84]

You said everything except why the doctor prescribed this and why something less restricted wouldn't help. If you don't trust your doctor enough to take the medicine he prescribes for you or ask him about it, you need to find a new doctor that you do trust. I've taken ambien for my last couple sleep tests with good results. no side effects.

I called and told them that I was not sleeping well the past 2 nights and I told the lady that I couldn't take Trazadone because it did nothing for me. She said let me talk to the dr and call you back and when she did the said the dr wants to try you on ambien and warned me about hangovers.

[CWM84]

Hi Ya'll,

My doctor recently prescribed me Ambien 10 mg..

I've NEVER Been on Ambien before in my life and decided to google to read about it, as in like side effects etc since this was my first time taking it.

BIG MISTAKE.........

I came across this article and clicked on it since I thought I could trust GOODRX articles.

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/scary-side- ... aids%20too.)

and 6 and 9 scare me enough to NOT even want to try it. I have it put away and have not taken a single pill out of the bottle yet.

Any Tips about sleep drugs or even if any of this is even true?

Thanks,
Chris

FIRST, I wouldn't fully trust ANY site that blocks their actual site with a signup request, without ANY way of getting past it without signing up.

2nd, ALL drugs have side effects, but you need to know how COMMON they are. THAT isn't what you'll read in a quick hit piece story, so use common sense, and dig deeper, the data IS THERE. If it's a 1% chance of a side effect, that is usually acceptable risk. If it's .001%, then it's totally ignorable. If it's HIGHER than 1%, they usually wouldn't release the product without a prescription.

I just googled " ambien side effects" and the good rx list was the first thing that popped up.

idk if Cancer and Dementia is worth that 1% :/

[Pugsy]

Is the above link the only thing you bothered to read?
Did you see that it was one person's opinion/article?

I always look at 3 sources when I google any medication side effect including the drug manufacturer itself whenever possible.
As mentioned...look up the number of people who had that reported side effect if possible.

Sidenote...I didn't have to sign up or sign in to see the article.

All medications have side effects and most of the time the list is quite lengthy as they have to list every potential side effect that might have ever been reported when the drug was in clinical trials.

I take a medication for pain that comes with a may cause drowsiness sticker on it...drowsiness is probably very common but it also can cause insomnia is less than 1 % of the people who take it. Guess who drew that lucky short straw? Yep, I did. So I take it during the day and take something else at night (which is why I ever had Ambien available in the first place). I can either not sleep from the pain or not sleep from the insomnia the pain meds cause....damned if I do and damned if I don't. We chose Ambien instead of maybe a muscle relaxer medication because muscle relaxers are worse for OSA than Ambien is.

https://www.ambien.com/

and my personal favorite the wiki because it often gives percent of people who report the side effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zolpidem

Can all those scary things that the doctor wrote about in her article happen? Sure...but they certainly aren't common.

[SleepGeek]

I called and told them that I was not sleeping well the past 2 nights and I told the lady that I couldn't take Trazadone because it did nothing for me. She said let me talk to the dr and call you back and when she did the said the dr wants to try you on ambien and warned me about hangovers.

Have you considered Melatonin? Start small to see what works for you. Exercise may also help.

[Fullygruntled]

I’ve been taking ambien for years. Cut it in half. 5mg works fine for me. Don’t stress over side effects. I take meds with way worse side effects than ambien.

[elsueno]

x

[raisedfist]

Ambien can give you crazy nightmares and make people sleep walk, drive etc without even remembering. I'd avoid it unless supervised while sleeping, or if nothing else works. Not a first choice go to medicine IMHO.

You are correct to be concerned about Ambien. God I hate that stuff. Sorry if this isn't the majority opinion here, but your hesitation makes sense.

First, my own personal experience. My ex girlfriend developed an Ambien habit and then I watched many of Ambien's side effects when a tragedy unfolded before me. I couldn't stop her. She took her habit underground, and worse. Strike one. And as a mental health professional, I've seen individuals prescribed Ambien (by medical professionals) go south with this drug on numerous occasions. While all drugs have baggage, this one is especially nasty, I think. I may not despise Ambien as much as I despise short acting benzos like Xanax (highly addictive), but I've seen the nasty side of this drug in clients and recreational users. People think that it is less addictive because it isn't a benzo, but they are wrong. Strike Two.

Finally, it is worth noting that the American Geriatrics Society said that zolpidem met the 'Beers criteria' and so should not be used in people 65 and over 'because of their association with harms balanced with their minimal efficacy in treating insomnia'. The AGS stated the strength of the recommendation that older adults avoid zolpidem is "strong" and the quality of evidence supporting it is "moderate." I'm not over 65, but even so, strike 3.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28326532/

Oh, one more thing. It is worth noting that researchers are only just now looking at interactions between Ambien use and CPAP efficacy. The first results are promising, but who knows about the big picture yet?
https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ ... 3/JP280173

El Sueño

Well, I'm not opposed to any one drug necessarily if others have been tried and found to be ineffective. But there are a lot of other medications besides trazadone that can be tried before resorting to ambien. (And for me at least, 50mg trazadone did nothing, while 100mg tends to put me to sleep.)

[Deborah K.]

I agree with Elsueno. Trazadone works for me with no side effects at all. It comes in several doses; 50mg, 100mg, 150mg and 300mg. They started me on 100mg, but it was not enough. 150mg works very well for me. If you have not already done so, you might want to ask your doctor about a higher dose.

Best of luck at finding something that works for you!