How do you quit Ambien?

I've been taking it for years and have some memory problems.

How in the world do you quit?

Please tell me if you successfully did this. Or tried.

I took it for 4yrs, every night. Then I went away on vacation and quit cold turkey. Came back and now I take a trazadone before bed.

Felt achy and flu like for a few weeks, but no other problems. I know some need to titrate down. Ask your psychiatrist.

I took it for a good ten years and had to quit cuz my insurance said it wasnt good for old people like me - i was turning 62 i take all my meds at bedtime and they tend to knock me out anyway. If i try to take them during the day, i will need a nap. Melatonin (chewable) also helped me make the transition. Aside from that, i have to be real careful with caffeine intake. One cup is okay, two cups means im half awake all night.

Surprised you had flu like symptoms for weeks. My main concern is really bad insomnia, not being able to sleep at all. If i didn't sleep hardly at all for a few weeks, could i get depression? Or some other damage? Im just coming out of depression and dont want to go back if i can help it.

I'm close enough to 10 years. If your meds made you sleepy, why did you even need it? My insurance tried to deny mine this time but my dr. got it through. I dont know why except the pharmacy said i hit the one year mark, whatever that means. I'm not close to 62, but I think it's bad all around.

I have melatonin, but it doesnt seem to affect me much. My biggest worry is trying to maintain my job on no sleep when I quit.

Speaking of vacation, i can sleep sooo good on the beach. The waves and salty air hypnotize me.

ask your psychiatrist about a taper. i quit after 1 or 2 years fairly rapidly...10mgs, then 7.5, then 5, then off, if I remember correctly...and I actually felt better once I"d tapered than I did while I'd taken the stuff.

I think i was given ambien along with prozac way at the beginning. I hadnt been sleeping well for years. Even as a schoolchild. Topamax, that made me sleepier, came later. But now my higher dose of prozac will take me down.

I just quit it. It had stopped working anyways. I don't think I had any withdrawals.

You all make it sound so easy!

So Prozac helps you sleep, i didn't know it did that. I also have has insomnia forever.

Is there anything smaller than 5 mg? I did try 5 at one point but would only sleep 4 hours.

I truly hate this stuff.

I've been taking 12.5 xr Ambien for 13 years, and I struggle to quit. I get naseous and really hot after 48 hours. Reading this thread with interest. . .

I abused it for a long time and to get off such high doses of it my psychiatrist reduced it and added an antipsychotic for the sedating effect. I had withdrawals like mood swings and crying a lot.

when i came off it on my own, from taking the prescribed dose, i was on other medication that made me drowsy at night, but one thing that happened was i woke up shouting when i shouted in my dreams, or i acted my dreams out. it started when i was stopping ambien and carried on for a couple of years, on and off, although i think the continuation was triggered by emotions.

hi. i was on the old school, instant release, generic tablet (10mgs). I used a pill cutter. One can usually find those in decent pharmacies.

I've taken Ambien for over 10 years (10 mg a night), but twice over this time period I've stopped and wish I had never started again. For me, the process was tapering over a 3-day period (7.5 mg, 5 mg, 2.5 mg, 0 -- these dosages are estimated, because I broke up the tablets). I planned these tapers over long weekends because I knew it would take about 3 days to stop completely, and my nights were restless. In both instances, I rebounded to a normal sleep pattern with restful, restorative sleep. I plan to do this again soon and hopefully won't start again. I would rather allow my body to function as it was intended without chemicals.

Prozac has like a reverse sugar rush effect on me, i crash, THEN it lifts me up. I guess, idk - i dont like feeling all the stuff my meds do, so i take them at bedtime. By the time i wake up, theyve all settled down and im clam.

These are all good experiences with stopping Ambien as it looks like no one has had long-term effects like chronic insomnia (my biggest worry).

I just realized I take the slow release (12.5). Good idea to get the instant release tablets and cut them though I doubt I could taper in one weekend!

Thanks. I am not sleepy after taking Ambien usually but eventually get to sleep.

I went directly from ambien to lunesta with no problems at all. I like lunesta much better. It doesn't have that kind of scary memory lapse thing and it works well. The other thing is that the warnings about taking ambien for long periods are more severe than they are for staying on lunesta.

Thanks Wonderfalls but I think Lunesta is in a similar class. I would not want to switch Ambien only to take lunesta. I've actually tried Lunesta and have had more side effects than with Ambien. I only tried it a few days though, maybe it's better for memory-i don't really know.

Rayne I am finding some success finally. I took 20 mg a night and sometimes more. I found I needed to reduce at a much slower rate. I just finished my17.5 mg dose and did pretty well. I started 15 mg last night and will stay at that for a week. I have pts and started to take my 5 mg of prazosin and have slept better. To date only the beginning two nights were bad, but I decreased too much.and had huge amounts of anxiety about doing this even though I wanted to do the decrease. Keeping in close contact with my psychiatrist. Keep at it! I guess the answer to your question is VERY slowly.