Ambien Side Effects

I have recently started taking Ambien again and was just curious about some of the side effects I have been experiencing. I found this site and have been crying from laughing so hard at some of the side effects and stories people have posted on here. I know I shouldn't laugh, but....


http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=19908&name=AMBIEN


Here are some of my favorites:

I tested the drug the night before I was scheduled to leave on vacation. I hallucinated and remember "repacking" my bags and seeing a woman dancing sideways on my staircase. I nearly jumped over the railing to avoid her and after that lost all memory. When I woke up in the morning, I had all my clothes on, found an umbrella under the rug and the contents of my suitcase were a mess with things missing. Evidently I also tossed clothing in the washing machine but did not find them until 3 weeks later in a moldy heap. I flushed the ambien down the toilet...never again.

Apparently after taking it I texted a friend "10 foot long strands of multicolored spaghetti are filling the room" she immediately called my boyfriend who woke up and found me crying and screaming uncontrollably in the bathroom. He spent the next 6 hours holding me because I was trying to knock down a cabinet with my head because I thought there was a monster in there trying to escape and eat me, and I was convinced that leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was walking on the roof with an ax. I also lost most of my voluntary muscle movements. Those were the really prominent ones that he told me about.

I learned first hand the difference between a delusion and a hallucination and it was not fun at all. The only things I actually remember was the blinds downstairs were clacking together and I was convinced there was a lion in the den eating my dogs and the clacking was their bones breaking, and there was a green fairy with shifty eyes that wanted to steal my right kidney.

My 24 year old son started taking Ambien one week ago. Although he said he woke up feeling great, he also suffered serious side effects. He began sleep walking with one episode resulting in him going outside and using a saw to cut down two trees in the yard. He went back to bed sweaty and covered in saw dust with no memory of the event. His wife told him about it. Last night, while sleep walking, he called his psychiatrist and told him he has taken 12 Ambien tabs. The doctor told him to go to the emergency room or he would send an ambulance for him. After being treated for a possible overdose at the er and having the er physician sign an order of protective custody it was found that he had actually not taken 12 tabs. Luckily today the attending physician was familiar with these type of side effects with Ambien. Obviously he is immediately off the medication before a more tragic result takes place.

Hallucinated - told my husband he had four eyes - and took a picture of it to show him!

First time, the stuff donkey-punched me. I took it while surfing the net. Woke up in the chair, still dressed. Slept great! Another time, began to type silly stuff on the computer. Remembered while typing, the computer keys would rise up to meet my fingers. I could see behind the letters on the screen. The Earth is angry because oil is her blood and we are draining her. Thats why we have earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. She's very angry. Made sense at the time.... When I take it now, I make sure that I'm in bed.

Added: 8/10/09

OH MY.... myself and a few of my friends discussed this and all had similar issues. BINGE eating... Making calls or emails and dont remember.. I made a video of myself and saw it the next day.. i could not believe it... in it i seemed normal, maybe a little drunk?.. and was pretending to do a cooking show.. folding american cheese with mustard squeezed in the middle and eating one after the other... then overflowed the sink, and cleaned it up... next am...had no memory of it... found camera in kitchen and rewound the tape.. i could not believe it was me.

Visual hallucinations that went on for hours and were so engrossing that it was impossible to fall asleep. For example, after I took Ambien, my pink telephone would come to life. It would start breathing and scuttling back and forth on my desk like a crab. My husband finally got fed up because not only were these nightly visions keeping me awake, but my Howard Cosell-esque reporting of them kept him awake too.

I'm a nurse, so you'd think I'd know better than not to listen to my doctor who warned me to GO STRAIGHT TO BED AFTER TAKING AMBIEN. If I do so, it works great with a full 8 hours of sleep. Although my husband has reported a few times when we had sex that I can only recall bits & pieces of uninhibited craziness. I made him promise not to get frisky after Ambien. Make sure you are with someone you trust! And some nights, I didn't go straight to bed and I sent crazy e-mails & didn't know it until days later when I saw them in the "sent box." I talked about a pet jumping mouse that I made a hotel for out of a shoebox. One night, I was sitting on the sofa watching tv after a dose, when I couldn't focus. My teen daughter said I started talking gibberish, so she tried to get me in bed. She said that I got in my empty laundry basket and when she tried to pull me out, I said "I'm just making sure there is room for more clothes."

Two nights in a row I had been sleepwalking---don't know too much what I was doing, but found evidence of doing things in the house. Books and magazines moved around the house, apparently I tried to put on nail polish (painted 3 nails and then left brush on sink), the next morning found my pajama bottoms at the door of the bedroom, so I don't know what happened there. Besides sleepwalking I had hallucinations: wood paneling moving around like puzzle pieces, wooden sculpture of an eagle was moving (when I walked over to it and held it, I also felt it moving in my hand!), couch cushions moving, computer screen undulating (like a bubble blowing out toward me), out of the corner of my eye I saw someone sitting next to me on the couch and heard him talking to me, but when I turned toward him, he was gone. One night my husband was still up, and he said that I came in and kept talking but made no sense at all, and I appeared to be drunk.

This medicine has been a godsend as I have had chronic insomnia for about 15 years. It's been going great except when I woke up this morning, I had rug burns on my knees, a bloody nose, and my daughter had a different set of pyjamas on than she originally went to bed with. WTF?

My Goth Poem

Around, all around, the storm clouds gather.

My dread grows as the dagger of your words falls against my heart.

It wounds me, and darkly my essence drips to the wicked earth that is my prison.

In horror I hang my head while Death's shadow surrounds me.

Now alone, my cascade of tears falls from uncaring eyes.

This is my Hell.

You can create your own http://www.deadlounge.com/poetry/created.html

Never the Same Again

I thought I would do a fun blog this time. I’m tired of bitching about my financial situation! (Caution, there is bad language ahead!)

Have you ever watched a movie and the song attached to a scene changes how you listen to that song forever? I am going to list some of the songs that I can never listen to the same again. If you have any to contribute, leave a comment or if you have a Twitter account leave me a reply @1twistedmind.

Free Bird - The Devil’s Rejects

I have always been a fan of this song long before I watched the movie. Being born and raised in the south, I would be damned to hell for not loving this song! To those who have not seen this movie, first of all, shame on you, and second, I may ruin the ending for you.

The song starts with a nice aerial view of the road ahead. Highway to Hell may have been more appropriate for this ride! The “Rejects” are in a blue convertible Caddy cruising along after escaping a night of unholy hell, or so they thought. Baby and her daddy, Captain Spaulding, are in the back seat, while Otis drives. Visions of the good ole days are popping in and out along the journey. Otis stops the car after he spots the roadblock ahead. He lays his head back for moment before alerting the others who are passed out in the back seat. They wake up and realize what is going on and starting grabbing their weapons. Baby draws her gun first and mouths “You motherfucker”, Otis steps on the gas and the music speeds up.

Spaulding is hanging out one side of the car, Otis the other (driver side of course) and Baby is in the middle standing up like a pageant queen waving to the crowd. Shots are fired back and forth. I love the slow motion effect Rob Zombie produces in this scene. Bullet holes just appear like a drop of blood on Baby's arm. Spaulding has that shit faced grin on his blood caked mouth the whole time! We are left with the assumption they are all dead. I have to admit that I cried in the theatre during this scene. No matter how evil they are/were, they will always remain my favorite dysfunctional family!

The rest will be short and sweet!

This Year’s Love - David Gray - The Girl Next Door

What a perfect song for this scene. You lose your virginity to a smoking hot ex-porn star in a limousine on the way home from prom. Every time I hear this song, I see them having sex, which is not a bad thing!

Baby Got Back - Charlies Angels

Cameron Diaz wishes she had "back" but shakes it around nontheless! I still giggle when I hear that song!

Canned Heat - Jamiroquai - Napoleon Dynamite

I am a fan of Jamiroquai so I have some of his stuff on my iPod. When that song comes on, I want to stop what I am doing and do that stupid ass dance!

Love is a Battlefield - 13 Going on 30

Jennifer Garner jumping around on a bed with young girls... yeah...

Thriller - 13 Going on 30

Super Freak - Little Miss Sunshine

You gotta love that little girl!

Unchained Melody - Ghost

Dueling Banjos - Deliverance

So far, so good!

I went for an interview today for a part time job. I really do think things went well. I am very knowledgeable about the job position and even used to work there when the company was a different name.

I applied for a proof operator position. A proof operator handles transactions that are sent from a bank. Company deposits and customer deposits are mainly what I will be keying in. This job requires extensive 10 key by touch. (That means not looking at the number keypad when you key.) I key the amount of the check and drop it in the machine and it will be encoded on the bottom right hand corner. After all the checks (debits) are keyed and dropped, a credit is dropped to end the transaction. If you are not in balance, the machine requires extra steps to correct the transaction before you can key the next transaction.

Since I have described the position, I will tell you how I did. I keyed a bundle of transactions and all were in balance. After the last transaction, the supervisor came over and closed out the machine. This gave me my keystrokes per hour total, which was 1704. Every company has their own set of production standards, so I asked her if that was a "good" number. She told me that when I became a permanent employee, I would receive incentive pay (more money the faster you key) for anything keyed above 1700. So, yes, that was a good number! She will now pass my "numbers" to the human resource director and she will contact the staffing agency I applied with.

And now the waiting game begins!

Bound and Determined!

Last week, Devin and I went to his band banquet. He was in marching band the first part of the school year and played various instruments in percussion. I have to admit that when I was in school, I poked fun at the kids that were in marching band. Until this past year, I had no idea what kind of experience being a part of the marching band was like. Yes, it was aggravating taking him and picking him up from practice. Not to mention football games almost every Friday. The first time I saw them perform their complete show, it brought tears to my eyes. Those kids are truly dedicated and determined.

That night Devin told me he wanted to do marching band again this year. The first thing that popped into my head was, "How am I going to pay for it!" I realized how truly selfish I was by thinking that, but that thought quickly disappeared when I saw the excitement on his face. I am bound and determined to make this happen for him!

He has promised to help out with as many fundraisers as possible. Volunteered hours equals money in his band account! The band fees for this year are $300. I have applied for financial assistance which could mean that I may only have to pay as little as 25% of that. (keeping my fingers crossed!) Band fees do not include money for buses taken to competitions and other various trips.

Like I said before, I will make this happen!

Smoking Ban in NC

NC's Gov., Beverly Perdue, will be signing a bill banning smoking in ALL restaurants and bars. Restaurants I might can understand, but BARS???



Smokin' and drinkin' go together like peanut butter and jelly! I am a smoker and I can't imagine going to a bar and not being able to smoke! Personally, that is how I pace myself while drinking. I'm pretty sure others do the same thing. I predict more drunk drivers on the roads now.

North Carolina farmers produced $686 MILLION worth of tobacco last year. That is nearly half of what ALL of the US produces.

Wisconsin legislators also voted Wednesday night to ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants. At least NC hasn't banned smoking at the workplace...yet.

"By the end of this year, more than 30 states and the District of Columbia are expected to have laws banning smoke from workplaces, restaurants, bars, or some combination." (http://www.startribune.com/nation/44912797.html)

Normal on the Outside

As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my mom. When she would go to the meat section, I was fascinated with certain packaged meat products. I would stand there and stare at the cow livers and tongues. I would even poke at the meat just to feel the texture. The liver was smooth, while the tongue had a rougher texture. I have no idea why I needed to touch them or why I was never "grossed out" by it.

My mother often bought whole fryer chickens, the ones you basically had to "gut" before you cooked them. I was very curious about this process. My mom took notice of my curiosity and asked if I wanted to help. I remember receiving some sort of pleasure skinning the chicken and handling the "innards". That became my duty in the kitchen whenever chicken was cooked!

As far as my interest in horror movies goes, that started at a young age also. I remember watching "The Birds" and "Psycho" with my dad around the age of 7, in the early 80's. I loved those movies and wanted to live in Norman Bates' house! Even in black and white those movies were awesome. I know now that chocolate syrup was used in the shower scene in "Psycho"!

I also remember a movie that came on around Halloween. It was called "Dark Night of the Scarecrow". It came out in 1981. I watched that movie every Halloween until they stopped airing it.

I guess the first "popular" horror movie that I watched was "Friday the 13th". I was scared to death of Jason when I first saw that movie. The same with Michael Myers when first seeing "Halloween". Something about a man in a mask! Freddy, on the other hand, was not scary to me at all. He was hilarious!

In 1987, the movie that made me fall in love with vampires, came out. I spent a Friday night with my junior high best friend and we watched "The Lost Boys". We watched it again the next day, 3 more times! I grew up with a southern baptist momma who didn't even allow me to watch The Smurfs, much less horror movies! Boy, if she only knew what I got away with!

Back to my sick fascinations! In high school I took advanced biology. It came time for our dissection project. We were going to be dissecting a cat. I was, and still am, a cat lover, but for some reason it did not bother me to be cutting away at this cat. Maybe it was because the object laid before us no longer really looked like a cat or maybe it was because I am just that sick. Who knows. My partner and I completed the assigned list of items we were to dissect. After that, the teacher allowed us to "explore" our cat. Without going into great detail, to spare my fellow cat lovers, I removed the brain. I also kept, said brain, in a baby food jar and stored it in my locker for the remainder of the school year. Why? I don't know.

I will also spare my fellow cat lovers by not posting a picture of a cat dissection!

Serial killers are another fascination of mine, but I will save that for a different blog. But just to let you know: yes, I had small animals as a child and NO, I did not mutilate them! lol

My love for horror movies is stronger than ever. The more gore and sick and twisted content, the better. How can someone look so normal on the outside but be so sick and twisted on the inside? I guess those are the ones you have to look out for!