Posted by Wendy B. on June 20, 2001, at 10:09:58
In reply to Long-term use of Ambien and daytime anxiety, posted by Gerry S. on June 19, 2001, at 13:41:06
> I have been taking 20mg of ambien nighly for about a year. In the past few months I have had tremendous daytime anxiety, which I thought was due to AD's I was starting (and stopping). Could it be long-term use of ambien?
Hi Gerry,
Yes, it could, just from my experience. Two friends of mine were on Ambien for insomnia, one was using it as needed, but felt catatonically depressed during the daytime, worse than he had ever been. The other friend was pretty much addicted to it. When I asked my therapist about both of them she said one of its side-effects was daytime depression (maybe also anxiety?), and that the addictive quality of the drug was a problem!
Your going on and off anti-depressants may have had an impact on the anxiety, but you should keep trying the anti-deoressants. There are a lot out there, and one of them might work for you.
Anyway, my therapist advised me to tell both of them to get off it. Talk to you doctor about other remedies for insomnia... (benzos, perhaps) and when you go off it, do not go cold turkey, you have to taper, and perhaps add an anti-anxiety agent like xanax as you taper. The doctor may or may not know about tapering off Ambien, but it's important for someone like you who's taken it for a fairly long time.Good luck!
Wendy
poster:Wendy B.
thread:67081
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010618/msgs/67219.html