Toddler permanently disabled by hit and run driver. But check the details.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Bronson-escapes-time-in-prison-3560994.php#photo-2940472

A woman has several glasses of wine before taking two ambien tablets and going to bed. She doesn't remember the accident at all. She was arrested barefoot in her pajamas. For the past week I've been wondering if this would have happened without the ambien. I don't feel it would have. Ambien has long been known for causing incidents of sleep walking, and doing other things the person doesn't remember afterwards.

While I have nothing but sympathy for the toddler and her family I don't think the woman driving should have been charged at all. If anyone is to blame for this it is the makers of the drug ambien. I'd like to hear everyone else's thoughts.

I suffer with insomnia and people occasionally derp to me about getting Ambien. No way I'm touching that stuff. I dunno if I think it was wise she drank 'several' glasses of wine and took Ambien. She may have done the sleep walking without the wine added. But then again, I have no doubt the medication warnings advise against drinking alcohol. I have mixed feelings about the incident.

I've heard several stories about people doing dangerous things while on Ambien. I'm wondering if it will be eventually pulled from the market. I'll stay away from it and keep to taking Valerian root.

All sleep meds come with the precaution DO NOT TAKE WITH ALCOHOL. We all have a choice - sleeper or alcohol. This is why the fault is not with the manufacturer of the sleeper. Had her BA been 0.00 I could see Ambien as a cause. But when it is combined with alcohol at a level to go to 0.19 then Ambien does not mitigate.

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"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Quote
thom_c
All sleep meds come with the precaution DO NOT TAKE WITH ALCOHOL. We all have a choice - sleeper or alcohol. This is why the fault is not with the manufacturer of the sleeper. Had her BA been 0.00 I could see Ambien as a cause. But when it is combined with alcohol at a level to go to 0.19 then Ambien does not mitigate.

It was stupid of her to mix ambien with liquor. I don't disagree with that. If she hadn't been drinking and only had the ambien in her system would this have still happened? I believe it would have. Plenty of people who didn't mix ambien with liquor have reported having the same side effects.

I wish I would have never taken Ambien. I started it about eight months ago and now I can't sleep without it. I'm trying to wean myself off of it and have been able to subsist on as little as 1/4 some nights. I've learned the hard way to only take it when I'm just about it to hop in bed. It scares the hell out of me that I have taken it too early and then had NO MEMORY of anything that happened after half an hour of taking it. I've had entire conversations and even sex with my DH and not recalled it the next day. It's the newest date rape drug from what I've Googled. The FDA has relabeled it as a controlled substance.

The only time that I was stupid enough to mix it with alcohol was the night that I made jalapeno poppers from scratch for my Mr. Stillcrazy's birthday. I forgot to wash my hands afterwards and suffered horrible burning for hours. When drinking didn't numb it, I popped an Ambien. I do not remember the rest of the night, but I apparently spent the next few hours confessing shit to my extended family that I would never want them to know. Oh well, at least the skeletons in my closet aren't that bad, but it is still humiliating.

The bottom line, is yes, I feel it's a very dangerous drug. Hopefully, they can manufacture better alternatives. In the meantime, I'm trying to get off of it and hoping that the alternatives that do exist become cheaper. I'm glad that I was not that judge and jury for this hit and run case because I wouldn't really know which way to go on this.

I have mixed feelings on this. I recall my mother having *several* glasses of wine one night before taking Ambien, and it knocked her off her ass. Luckily that was the first and last time she did that, and thank God she didn't sleep walk/drive/play racquetball/etc.

Though when I was prescribed Ambien, I know I would do things such as make phone calls, cook, and work on various projects with no recollection of it in the morning.

Would this woman still have done this if she had just the Ambien in her system? It is very likely she would have, but it is also very likely the wine plays into this situation too.

I think this case shouldn't be brought up in whatever class action lawsuit is in the near future (if there isn't one yet) because of the fact that the woman in question drank alcohol in conjunction to taking the Ambien. Even if other people reported the same side effect on the drug, there's no saying that would have happened to this specific woman. It's common knowledge that you don't take alcohol, a depressant, with a sleeper aid. Considering alcohol causes people to do dumb things like drive while intoxicated, it can be argued that she could have maimed her child even without the Ambien.

i have chronic insomnia and have been on every sleeping pill known to humankind, and every one of them says DO NOT MIX WITH ALCOHOL right on the label.

I had insomnia a few years back when I was going through a really stressful period. In any case, I was prescribed either Ambien or Ambien CR (Not sure what the difference is, don't remember which one I was on). As far as I know, I did not do anything like driving or raping my hubby in my sleep, but I did do a bunch of other strange shit. I'd get up in the middle of the night and watch some Family Guy (It would come back to me in bits and pieces the next day), rearrange furniture, and go back to bed. I specifically remember this lamp we had that had three flexible "arms" topped with lamps. I liked to have them bent a certain way and apparently, While on Ambien, I though it was a grand idea that all of the lamps needed to face the floor, shit like that.

The whole thing was a bit creepy.


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Abstinence education
You don't need to know. That's the beautiful mystery of sex. See, if I tell you about it, it won't be a mystery. It will just be a fact. An ugly, moist fact, squatting on your brain like an octopus.
And you don't want an octopus squatting on your brain, do you?

... and that's where babies come from.

I take Ambien occasionally when I travel because of time zone differences. I qualify that by saying that I am NEVER drinking when I take it and I have no access to a car or other vehicle. Just to make sure I was not a sleepwalker, I took an Ambien and Tony (who is a very light sleeper) told me that I slept like a rock and didn't make a move or a sound at all. If you need a sleeping agent, this is what my physician recommended to test yourself.

I had Ambien while in the hospital - I asked for a sleeping pill the first day due to pain, and they kept bringing it to me.

I thought it was weak ass shit that hardly did nothing. They came to change the IV during the night and check my BP and etc - I woke right up for that and was completely lucid. (I was also on strong pain killers too.) - Yet the Ambien did not seem to do all that much for me.

This actually 'affects' people?

I found it to be very weak stuff. I need stronger stuff. I do not take sleeping meds, not before or after, but any meds I do take - I need the strong stuff.

I have a weird system, maybe.

Wine itself affects me very badly and I cannot drink it. Maybe it has to do with mixing these things with wine? I only drink beer and not too much of it. I have drank beer and taken allergy meds (Benadryl) with no ill affects. Probably not something you should do, and I normally don't, but I have - and - there was no issue.

For me - just plain wine by itself makes me immediately extremely groggy - even like half a glass. And it makes me violently ill also. I can't stomach it.

after severe insomina I took this in my late 20s (no alcohol involved). It was not strong enough to knock me out but I got to sit there alone in my apartment and hallucinate my ass off. my curtains were breathing and everything. never took it again.

oddly many years later I took another hypnotic class drug for insomnia and it has not had that effect.

Scary stuff. What if I had first taken it on a plane? a couple years ago I told my GP I was travelling a lot for work and she offered it to me. She musta had a shock when I told her "oh HELL no!"

Ambien is scary-ass stuff. My aged Mom was on it for a while, and she kept getting up in the middle of the night, then falling down and hurting herself. (Severe bruising, fortunately no cracked skulls or broken bones.)

She swears she's off it now. I certainly hope so. Shudder; it would only be a matter of time before there was a serious injury, and she ended up in a hospital or nursing home and croaked off.

Ambien has a history of this but the BAC she had negates that claim completely.

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From a bottle cap message on a Magic Hat #9 beer: Condoms Prevent Minivans
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Tranquilizers work only if you follow the advice on the bottle--keep away from children.