Hi Morri and welcome. I wanted to be sure that you know we have a BiPolar forum...here is the link to it..http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum38.html

I'm glad you have dogs to give you a reason to live...dogs are wonderful company.

Hi July and welcome...Have you posted on the TBI forum? Here is the link to it...http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum92.html

And here is the link to our PTSD forum..http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum98.html

It's always good to talk about feelings...and this is a good place to start.

Hello, July:

By "Ambein" I assume you mean Ambien. I had heard it would take you down the road of no return, was extremely distraught, pushed to the brink, told myself let's DO IT and took an overdose with a glass of wine; I got a good night's sleep, that was it. The following day, at dusk, it made me hallucinate for the first time in my life: I saw strange animals, gigantic doors ... That stuff is nasty; I believe it was giving me suicidal thoughts all along. I stopped taking it a year ago, and feel better. I hope you will discuss it with your doctor; if you have problems sleeping, there are plenty of other things out there that will do the job without the terrible side effects of Ambien.

In any event, please let us know what happens. You seem to be singing the same song I was singing for many, many years.

Tom

I have been taking Ambien for several years - and it gives me about four hours of halfway decent sleep - I suffer from a long standing sleep disorder that started in childhood. I have not noticed any of the side effects you mentioned - and I think they are one of the safer meds to take - there are others - but they do not do as well for me.

One side effect I know of is that you do not remember what happens after you take them at night - like if you watch a show on TV - most likely you won't remember it at all the next day - so it does cause some memory loss - and all meds have some side effect -

There are two kinds of Ambien now - the regular 10 mg and the 12.5 which are really different - not just stronger.

If they affect someone that bad I certainly would advise them to discusss it with their Doctor - I have tried others without success - we all act differently to certain medications -

I just have not ever had hallucinations - and I do get some sleep which I normally would not.