HELP ME PLEASE!

My boyfriend is suffering from depression and has been talking about suicide recently. Aside from antidepressants, a doctor has been prescribing Ambien to help him sleep (symptom of the depression). He doesn`t take the Ambien every night, though, so he has quite a few stockpiled. Isn´t that almost like keeping a loaded gun in the house?? I am really worried that if he decides to hurt himself, he might try to overdose on the Ambien.

Does anyone know if that is possible? I heard Ambien is different from regular ¨sleeping pills,¨ but could an overdose still be lethal? You`d think the doctor wouldn`t prescribe it to him if it was dangerous, but I just want to be sure, since the doctor is at a really sketchy clinic, and I don`t know for sure what my boyfriend has told him.

If anyone actually KNOWS how dangerous an overdose of Ambien is, please tell me. I don`t want to risk an argument with my boyfriend if the Ambien is actually safe, but if they`re like other sleeping pills and an overdose would actually kill him, I think maybe I should hide some of the pills from him, so he doesn`t have access to a whole bottle of them. Do you know about how many pills would be safe to leave him with??

Thank you so much.

If you can overdose on something, the chances it can kill you are pretty high.
If you are worried, it is worth risking an argument. But that doesn't mean it has to escalate into one. You don't sound very familiar with the medications he takes; it would probably be helpful if you both talked about what is going on with his health in general- does he like his doctor, meds, etc?

If you are a couple, you should be supportive and at least a sounding board for him to be able to develop the tools to recognize when he is beginning to have trouble. A lot of people don't take Ambien every night, but something in your brain is hitting the alarm. Whatever is going on, you should approach someone you care about if they are discussing suicidal ideation. Suck it up and talk to him about this stuff. It will only get harder every time you don't and random people on the internet are NOT the people to answer these questions. Maybe he is. Maybe he's talking about suicide for a reason. You know he's depressed as shit now, right? I would say that's an invitation, whether he will admit it or not.

Ambien is fairly safe, however overdoses have resulted in deep sleep or coma. People have recovered from overdoses up to 40 times the maximum dose (40 10mg tabs or 80 5mg tabs).

The biggest danger is that Ambien depresses the Central Nervous System and combining it with other drugs that also depress the CNS, or alcohol, can result in death from suffocation.

Rather than hide medications, which is well intentioned but avoids addressing the real problem, I think it would be better to talk out your concerns with your friend. If that is unsuccessful, and you are afraid of an imminent attempt, you can call your friends doctor to relay to concerns. The doctor cannot discuss the case with you, but can listen to what you have to say. If at any time you find your friend in an altered state and unresponsive, call 911.

Good luck,

a.m.

i think ambien is particularly dangerous in worsening alcohol poisoning and alcohol overdose, but overdose from ambien alone is nearly impossible if we're talking about just 1 months worth of ambien or so, but it is still harmful.

what i said about alcohol also applies to other medications the person is taking. enhanced CNS depression from ambien and other CNS depressants could cause death as well. here we're talking anticonvulsants and antipsychotic medications, and old-school antidepressants.


(old-school antidepressants = TCAs, antipsychotics = haldol, melleril, some of the newer ones)

LunaRufina, you´re an ADMINISTRATOR!!?¡? I can´t believe an admin would post such a patronizing, non-responsive answer to my question. You rotten snot, who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that? You have NO IDEA what i have or haven´t discussed with my boyfriend, and you have no right criticizing me for how I have been trying to help him, since you know NOTHING about it. I am very intimately involved in his life, his problems, and his treatment. I just don´t happen to know anything about the risks of an Ambien overdose, which is why I posted. Where the HELL do you get off lecturing me with that irrelevant nonsense?

If you don´t have any useful info that addresses my specific question (and ´If you can overdose on something, the chances it can kill you are pretty high´ is definitely NOT useful or responsive), then shut the hell up and mind your own business. Shame on you, and shame on crazyboards for having you as an administrator!

Thank you to AirMarshall and zsandoz for their responsive and helpful answers.

i'm sure that there is x amount that will do you in. what that dosage is, i can't tell you, there are tons of different variables involved. i can tell you though, my 140 pound frame survived 28 10 mg. pills during one particularly bad episode. i slept for about two days straight, but i'm still here. i'd talk with him about it and see if ya'll can figure out the root cause. be supportive, but i wouldn't rule out skimming some of the pills off the top.

Bobmysterious, thanks for your response. Were there any other adverse health effects to your overdose, or you literally just slept for a couple of days?

aside from murky congnition for the next few days, the long nap was the extent of it. maybe i've damaged myself in some other ways internally, but i can't confirm or deny that. before i passed out my breathing was surpressed, but i didn't care at that point. i do believe,however, that if i had taken more than one month's supply i wouldn't be posting this message today.