Goodbye Ambien!

Along with Fibromyalgia, I have insomnia. Ambien has been my drug of choice for a very long time–until this week. Maybe that’s why I’m writing this at midnight, when 9:00 used to be my bedtime.

My doctor prescribed Ambien a couple of years ago when I complained to him that I couldn’t get to sleep at night because I couldn’t shut my mind off.  I’d already tried my husband’s Ambien so I knew it worked well for me. After the doctor got done giving me a lecture on how dangerous it is to take other people’s meds, he gave me a prescription of my very own.  Blessed sleep came within twenty minutes–deep, dreamless sleep.

I noticed about a year ago that I was waking up in the morning with my heart pounding and when I mentioned it to my doctor, he increased my Atenelol that I take for rapid heartbeat (after taking Seldane D for too many years).  It didn’t seem to help and it took me almost a year to realize that I was waking up with panic attacks.  I figured it was because of stress, as I am my mother’s caretaker and she is going downhill in her battle with Alzheimers.  Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and made a doctor’s appointment.

I told the doctor what was going on with me and told him that I felt the Ambien was somehow to blame, and he agreed.  I told him I wanted to get off the Ambien train but I knew that I was really dependant (just the thought of trying to sleep without it after the years of being on it was giving me anxiety) on it, both physically and mentally.  After much thought, he put me on Zyprexa for transitioning off the Ambien.

I took a half an Ambien before bed along with the Zyprexa for the first three nights, then stopped the Ambien.  I was so surprised that I was actually able to fall asleep without the Ambien and I have slept like I used to, except for the dreams.  The dreams are awful.  I wake up scared, but it’s not a panic attack; it’s just a nightmare.  I narrowed that down this morning–I was also taking melatonin. Tonight it’s cold turkey, baby. I took only Atenelol and Zyprexa tonight, but after trying to fall asleep and failing after an hour, I got up for awhile. 

It’s so easy to become dependant on sleep medications, and most of them are only meant to be taken for ten days.  Psychologically speaking, I think my mind was telling me that I couldn’t sleep without the Ambien.

I am pleased overall with how the transition is going.  I wake up quickly, instead of being all groggy and foggy for the first hour or so after awakening, which added an hour of free time to my schedule, but the bigger changes are that my mind is so much clearer and that I no longer need a nap to get through the day. I think the Ambien had built up in my system and was making me tired all the time.  Without my nap, I’ve added another two hours to my day!  I have much more energy, although with fibromyalgia I can still only do so much. 

I hope the need for Zyprexa goes away quickly because I am so fed up with taking pills for this and pills for that.  I’m taking a more natural approach and choosing to eat better and exercise and I want to add daily yoga, all of which help fibromyalgia, as well as overall better health.

I hope I never have to go this route again.