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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Ambien and Benzo's crossed. For my sleep study. Questions and concerns.

M

Mustang5.0

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 29, 2016
Messages
16
So I'm having a sleep study next week. I have been on Benzo's(3 mg Klonopin) for two years every day now. And gabapentin for the same amount of time. So i am pretty tolerant to them. Don't really feel anything from them anymore.
I don't really know much about Ambien. My doctor says it's going to work great. But I'm a worry type of person. I read somethings online about Ambien being cross tolerant with Benzo's. She gave me 10MG of Ambien for my study. After I read online about the possibility of cross tolerance I called her office and the nurse put in a note to her. But apparently she doesn't think it's a big deal so no change for now. I came here because a lot of times you guys seem to have more insight. And some doctors have told me crazy things(like Xanax not being cross tolerant with my Klonopin lol).
Does anyone have any advice or experience? I'm worried I'll get to the study and it won't make me sleep. I'm a big guy(250 pounds). I have extremely bad anxiety and I'm scared I won't be able to sleep. Even going to a regular appointment makes me shake with fear, so sleep will be a challenge. How cross tolerant are these drugs? Am I going to even feel the Ambien? Don't want a high, just sleep.

Pretty scared.
 
It is cross tolerant. But ambien is very selective for alpha 1 subunits, whilst benzos are unselective as hell. So there's a good chance you might feel the effects of it a little, Take it sublingually, and if you take it orally, do not eat food for at least 2 hours before hand.

Ambien is known for getting people pretty high.

Why do you feel scared?
 
I am very scared I won't be able to sleep. Basically scared the drug won't work.

what exactly do you mean by feel it a little? Feel high? Or only feel a little sleepy? I don't want to be high. Only sleep. And it is a pill so looks like I'll be taking it on empty stomach like you said.
 
theGirlWithBlueHair said:
It probabaly won't make you sleep. That much is a given.
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I don't know what I'll do then. If I call them a second time they might start getting suspicious that I'm trying to get more drugs out of them. Or laugh at me. Dang this really sucks. :(


anyone else here reading this that could give a personal experience with the drug?
 
Tell them you need something something different because you have a high tolerance to BZD ligands, or at the very least prescribe you Zolpimist instead of oral ambien or triazolam. You could ask for a high dose of seroquel. That will put you to sleep.
 
I just had an idea and called the pharmacy. There's a nice pharmacist there who will try and answer your questions on what will and won't work. He's a cool dude. He spent about 10 minutes with me and he personally thinks the drug should be different enough to have the desired effect. Coupled with the fact that I'll be taking it with Klonopin and its my first dose. So hopefully he's right.

I really do do appreciate your kindness and willingness to talk to me and make suggestions, so thank you. I will definitely think about your suggestion to call and ask for that. But when they refused to change my dose the first time I called. I definitely got a "that's all you're getting" vibe unfortunately.

I might call but it'll be really unpleasant. And I'm scared they'll get more and more suspicious since I've only seen them once.
 
It's not different enough. Klonopin has significant affinity for the alpha 1 subunit that zolpidem selectively targets. You will have major tolerance. Just wait and see. Sorry but he was wrong. You got misinformation. Pharmacists don't know a fucking thing about neuropharmacology - do not listen to them

By different he probably means they are used for different things. That's about all he knows probably.
 
Well I wish you were my doctor lol

i do have Clonidine that I take every once and a while. It knocks me out. I wonder if they'd be okay with me taking it
 
Mustang5.0 said:
I don't know what I'll do then. If I call them a second time they might start getting suspicious that I'm trying to get more drugs out of them. Or laugh at me. Dang this really sucks. :(


anyone else here reading this that could give a personal experience with the drug?
Click to expand...

I find it to be a very powerful sleep med, but you have to try to sleep right after you take it. Taking it on an empty stomachs like girlwithbluehair said helps as well. If you stay awake, it will probably make you feel high, but you probably won't be awake if you try to sleep!

As far as cross tolerance, I wouldn't worry about it until you've at least given it a try. It shouldn't make a huge difference if your taking the Ambien on top of your regular dose of klonopin and gabapentin. I bet that combo puts you out nicely.
 
Slow_Mobius said:
I find it to be a very powerful sleep med, but you have to try to sleep right after you take it. Taking it on an empty stomachs like girlwithbluehair said helps as well. If you stay awake, it will probably make you feel high, but you probably won't be awake if you try to sleep!

As far as cross tolerance, I wouldn't worry about it until you've at least given it a try. It shouldn't make a huge difference if your taking the Ambien on top of your regular dose of klonopin and gabapentin. I bet that combo puts you out nicely.
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Thanks. Unfortunately I only have 1 pill and can't give it a try until the actual night. Do you have any experience taking them together?
 
Mustang5.0 said:
Thanks. Unfortunately I only have 1 pill and can't give it a try until the actual night. Do you have any experience taking them together?
Click to expand...

I've taken it with 0.5 klonopin and pregabalin (similar to gabapentin). It just knocked me out. I'm not a regular klonopin user though.
 
Appreciate the input :).

Hopefully more people who tried the same thing can swing by before my test, to give me their experiences/thoughts.
 
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