ambien question?

[pillman1224]

hi all i was just recently prescribe #60 5mg ambien for sleep and was just wondering what the best method would be to take them. i am afraid if i take 5mgs it wont work but if i take another 5mg will it trip. got back from the shrink and left with this script and he temporalily bumped my .5 xanax to three a day. (they are always good to have around). i also wanted to tri some adderal ir but didnt get that because the doc says "it will increase my likelihood of a panic attack". i do have add btw. anywho, to my original question 5 or 10mgs to sleep. im 18 btw so it is a miracle i got xanax to begin with. all praises to taos. just thougt i would add anyother question sorry but why did my doc say he normally doesnt like to prescribe .5 xanax 3x a day? i know xanax is physically dependent but on that low of a dose? was actually offered resoril for sleep. turned it down for 3 reasons. 1. he would start me on a low dose. 2. the pills would be gone in a week. 3. i have an elderly source for the restoril (temazepam).

 

[CrazyEngineer]

I can't really talk to you about ideal doses without knowing your weight, general sensitivity, benzo use and tolerance (I've heard mixed things about Ambien and benzos having cross tolerances, but I'd advise being careful). Given what I know, I'd advise you to just try the 5mg for a night on top of your regular meds, then bump up to 10 the next night if 5 doesn't do anything for you. Temazepam is useful as a short-term hypnotic, but there are reports of people developing fairly quick tolerances to it and if you're already on 1.5mg a day of Xanax you don't necessarily want to stack your benzos unless you really know what you're doing.

 

[pillman1224]

i get what you mean by the restoril building a tolerance. height 5'7" weight 155 tolerance 2-3mgs xanax to get off or 120mgs or temazapam to get off.

 

[Jadekins]

I take Ambien for insomnia, and also sometimes will use it recreationally.

5mg is usually enough to knock me out, provided I take it and then at least lay down. I do sometimes bump up to 10mg, but only if I've had a super-stressful day or I've been using it regularly.

Recreationally, same basic rules apply. I prefer combining it with a couple of drinks, which puts me right on the edge of blackout drunk pretty fast, but 10mg by itself is, for me, a good high. It's nothing super intense, but it's a nice, cool, floaty, euphoria kind of high for me. The key is to not lay down, really. As long as I'm sitting up and actively fighting sleep, it's a recipe for a good night.

Just to be thorough, I also take Ativan (lorazepam) and Vistaril (hydroxyzine pamote) for anxiety, and Effexor (venlafaxine) for depression. I use those as-directed, and don't feel that I get anything out of them in recreational use.

 

[suzieq70s]

I can't speak about how tolerances to other drugs affect tolerance to ambien. I can just recount my experience from a few nights ago.
Around 10 pm took 50 mg of butalbital (fioricet) 400 mg Neurontin and 10 mg ambien (all prescribed doses) And I've been taking 10 mg of ambien 3 or 4 times a week for the past year. After 20 minutes I figure wtf and took another 10 mg ambien. I don't know if the 1200 mg of Neurontin I took the night before had anything to do with my strong reaction. I just know one minute I'm feeling fine (I was definitely fuzzy headed and felt buzzed but I was still able to function) the next minute I'm completely uncoordinated I was sitting on the edge of the tub and fell into the tub and I had to literally crawl into my bedroom where I passed out for 14 hours and with a little retrograde amnesia which is a possible side effect of ambien. (I found my clothes in the bathroom sink along with a block of cheddar cheese)
The point of this rambling is that in my experience the difference between initial dose (usually I'm able to still function on 10 mg with some fuzziness if I force myself to stay awake) and second dose for me was startling and with which the speed of going from being able to function to having very little control along with sleeping for so much longer than usual also was startling. My advice is (I am by no means an expert just recounting my experiences with ambien) take the time to see if your initial dose will work (some nights it works better for me than others) and if you do start adding more doses to it make sure your in bed or someplace like the couch that your able to sleep on cause it will sneak up on you very very quickly. Again sorry for rambling

 

[pillman1224]

thanks for your advice i have been using 1 5mg to fall asleep which means at the end of the two weeks (insurance only covered a partial refill fuckheads) i will have 15 to play around with. i also have 12 restoril 30s (not prescribed) which get me off at 120mg so that night i wont have to take an ambien.