I was referring to suicidal tendencies. We lost a dear friend 3 weeks ago who had been taking Ambien for a long time. He needed to take larger doses the longer he took it and became extremely depressed to the point that he harmed himself. Since then I've been reading that this is common among Ambien users expecially if they don't go to bed withing 10-15 minutes of taking the drug. I've learned that fighting the sleep sensation causes hallucinations and bizarre behavior that they're not even aware of until the next morning. Some (the lucky ones) have even ended up in the ER after having taken the entire contents of the pill bottles while in a walking stage of drug induced sleep. The not so fortunate pill takers aren't found until it's too late.

Heartbroken Check with your state & see if they will go back & pick up that doctor bill. I just looked up your state. Girl you need to get out and vote, those politicians sure aren't helping the little people of Oregon. http://www.chn.org/pdf/factsheets/Oregon.pdf They're cutting your programs. I found this site for you. Good Luck. http://www.cwla.org/ Child Welfare League of America Children's advocacy organization active in lobbying and humanitarian projects in the US. History and current programs described; links to publications, ... www.cwla.org/ - 41k - Cached - Similar pages

oofasis, I totally understand where you are coming from...so much so that I had to re-read your post to remember what you said...oh yeah, you said you can't remember...I turn 58 on May 22. So.. I hear ya. Sleep has always been a problem but these last couple of years, it has been a major issue. I am sure that menopause and worrying plays a huge part in this. The loss of hormones is key. Knowing and ruminating on how you will feel the next day does not help. No one and nothing I have read has caused me to believe otherwise. It's always "fun" to be one of the older folks at work anyway, and the effects of insomnia night after night only reinforce and highlight that. Not a good thing for those of us who need and like our work. I know younger people have insomnia, as did I, but I believe it is tolerated better when one is young. I was always able to make it up. Now I am not. I sleep 3-5 interrupted hrs each night now for the last couple of years. If I get the 5, I can function. If I get less, well, you guys know how that feels. Irritable, loss of desire or ability to go beyond the simplest activities, (guess I really don't care what movies are playing after all...a new picture of my great/grand nephew...maybe tomorrow I'll have a look). This is not me. I eat right, I exercise (40 years now) regularly, I weigh 110, take vits and calcium, etc)..I am so very sick of living like this. Drs today don't give a hoot. All they think about is "Herd em in, herd em out." So forget it. They shove prescriptions across the table for Ambien, Lunesta, etc. I try none. Too afraid of having an anxiety episode. I have a restless mind, am a realist and therefore, unfortunately, not a real positive thinker. I am sure none of that helps my sleeplessness. I have taken Klonopin (a benzo) for about 15 yrs at night for help. It takes the edge off but doesn't do a thing to help me sleep thru the night. Certainly I am addicted to. it. My husband and I have both had job losses thru the years due to offshoring and it has taken the starch out of us. We have a 17 year old daughter (our only) and I have done a piss poor job with her due to my personality and mood issues due to menopause and sleeplessness. Can you imagine menopause vs puberty and PMS? It has been rocky. I try but am so tired all the time, I can't give her my best..she has seen ugly sides of me. I am always concerned about health care, money, etc. I used to have so much energy and a better attitude. Now I just feel like a zombie. Sure I feel depressed. I don't get any sleep. OK, I am rambling. My daughter is here and wants me to come upstairs...It is Mother's Day. It would be nice to have some emotion about it. Thanks to all of you for the suggestions. I have printed a lot of them and won't give up trying. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

I had a horrible nightmare again this morning at about 4 AM, and I had to stay up long enough for the memory of it to fade. I think I need to look into the effects of cheese and dreams because I did have some Brie last night late in the day. It's a snack I like to have late at night, and I'm not sure how often it causes nightmares, or whether it is the cause at all. I also ordered some Magnesium taurate supplements to see whether they can help. I'm going to see my doctor tomorrow regarding new BP medication that he had prescribed for me (Nifedipine ER) that I believe is causing my feet and ankles to swell. This is a know side effect of this medication, and so I plan to stop taking it after I get my doctor to prescribe something else. The dream I had this morning was another university nightmare, but this time I was going back to the first university that I had attended but was being put into on campus residential housing. I was assigned a roommate that I liked, but when we went to our housing, it was in a large building that we had to share with a lot of other students, and there were very few defining walls to separate the individual spaces, and so I could not tell where our space ended and someone else's began. I wanted to have more walls to provide privacy, and this was causing me anxiety that made me wake up. The interactions I had with other students and staff were particularly disturbing. The closet that I thought was going to be ours was already full of someone else's stuff, including a huge collection of heads or busts that were storing wigs. Some of the busts were somewhat grotesque, and I wanted them out of our closet. There were also a lot of very small dresses on hangers in this closet that looked like they were meant for dolls. There was an office in the building with managers, and I tried to get them to define the limits of the space that we were supposed to occupy, and so they started painting lines on the floor to show exactly where our space was. The lack of real walls was what caused me the most anxiety, and so I woke up and was afraid to go back to sleep. I do appreciate all of the good advice that I have received here and will try to implement more of it - especially the suggestions right before going to sleep. Yesterday or the day before I was watching old episodes of Candid Camera with my brother, and there was one that had a small girl in the early 1960s being interviews by Alan Funt. At one point, she talked about having nightmares, and she said that when that happened, she would tell herself to redirect the dream to something positive, and this worked for her. Unfortunately, this has not worked for me, but I will keep trying.