@DaveW49519 I’ve been taking Ambien most nights since it was released to the public, about 22 years ago. It’s really hard to get prescribed these days for more than 10 consecutive days, for extreme insomnia conditions like loss of spouse. Your PCP will tell you it’s dangerous because it makes some people do really weird things like sleepwalk or sleep-drive. But not me; it just puts me to sleep and keeps me asleep. They say it causes dementia later in life, but I always tell them that I don’t care about “later in life“ because I would rather sleep good now and be able to experience life pleasantly and continue to exist. When I don’t sleep I become extremely suicidal. So to me Ambien is a godsend. Of all of my mental health conditions parentheses ADHD, OCD, depression, anxiety, and chronic insomnia), it is insomnia I hate most. Of course if I was able to get rid of ADHD and OCD or just anxiety, then I probably wouldn’t have such racing thoughts at night and I’d be able to sleep better, so it’s kind of a toss-up of which mental health condition is the very worst. I’m willing to take the risk of using it longterm. Who knows, with all the other medication I take, or just by natural age, I may end up with dementia anyway! My dad‘s brother has it.
For a while I was really in a bind because for about six years, after my fave ever psychiatrist retired, I went through a bunch of them who refused to prescribe Ambien or Xanax. A year ago, thankfully, I found a new one who will. And lo and behold, once I was able to sleep again, I was able to get up out of bed and get rid of my depression, resume joy in things I do, be more active again, and get back to a job. So Ambien is pretty crucial to me.
