Hi mike. I'm sorry to hear about the insomnia problems. I have fibromyalgia too and have had lots of problems with insomnia over the years (I also have other medical conditions plus depression, so there's other stuff going on with my insomnia too.)

I think it's important to get your sleep back on track. I think that's important both for fibromyalgia and for depression.

How much Ambien were you taking and was it the continuous release or the regular kind?

Do you take an antidepressant or any meds for fibro pain control?

I have had good luck with the following meds for sleep: Ambien 5 or 10 mg. Webber Super Sleep (3 mg melatonin, 30 mg 5-HTP, 200 mg L-Theanine). 7.5 mg Remeron/Mirtazapine.

Some people do well with 10 mg amitriptyline for sleep.

There is a new sleep med called Belsomra that I think is very interesting because it has a completely different mechanism of action from Ambien and that class of sleep meds. I haven't tried it, but I would have if it had been available two years ago. It works to turn off the "awake" hormones (orexin, I think?)

If you were taking more than 5 mg of Ambien, you might try 5 mg or even less to see if that is less sedating. Also, if you were taking the continuous release type, I tried that type and didn't like it because it gave me next morning hangover.

I would encourage you to try not to panic. You definitely want to correct the insomnia problem, but taking active steps to fix it is better than panicking about it. I won't say that I have never panicked about insomnia. I made up my own word "insomniaphobia" to describe my terror of not sleeping several years ago when I was having chronic insomnia.

Do you do any kind of meditation or mindfulness techniques? Yoga breathing? If you do, those should be helpful.

My depression has started getting worse again with the shortening days. I e-mailed my therapist a couple of days ago. I have been feeling panicky about losing the progress I've made over the past few months and don't want to go backwards.

My therapist recommended self-compassion and patience. I am trying to follow that advice. Even though what's going on feels like something organic that's happening TO me, I realized that I am still feeling guilty about it.

She recommended that I try to spend 10 minutes per day sitting and concentrating on my breath and observing what I'm feeling. Sort of "here I am. I am breathing. Etc Etc"

Okay, this post is getting too long, plus my brain just ran out of words.

I hope that you'll post again to say how things are going. I hope that you're experiencing a blip and that it won't be long before you're back to your usual self.