WannaBeGeekGirl's Journal: Insominac Happiness

I have been taking zolipidem since it was released by the FDA a zillion years ago, to treat chronic insomnia secondary to my chronic depression. Because my depression is treated with the S*RIs class anti-depressants and they (psychopharmicologists) believe seratonin plays a role in depression and sleep, the doctors have had me on sleep aides from the start to treat my really over the top insomnia. I didn't respond to normal dosage of sleep aides either, which fits my treatment resistent diagnosis.

I never had any behavioral problems with addiction, beyond the normal rebound insomnia which is no worse than my normal insomnia. They just kept putting me back on zolipidem because without it I don't sleep. We tried barbituates which worked but were more controled and really addictive, I built up tolerance to them and they can kill you if you mix them with a lot of other drugs accidentally. So since sleep deprivation kills you eventually too I've been waiting for Ambien (this may be the last time I have to use that brand name!) to finally go generic.

It did!! Yay!! Sanofi-Aventis managed to manipulate the loopholes of the FDA's patent law (see the second paragraph at the top of the article ) for long enough to keep my copays sky high on this, but I got my first batch of generics to go through my Rx insurance! I have no problem with capitalizing off invention, but the pharmacologists that discovered the drug saw very little of that profit, and that greedy company milked a useful drug for longer than most drugs get by, because they found smarter lawyers. I suppose that is their perogative and if their management can sleep at night with golden parachutes to fall back on and million dollar bonuses while patients who needed the drug didn't get it--more power to them...er not, shame on them.


Anyway, back to my moment of glee ~does a jig~ Whatever generic my pharmacist chose, it is a purple pill!!! Bonus, purple is a favorite color!!! (Why yes, yes, I am a cheap date--I don't drink though I might like 1 sip of yours which will give me a buzz, and am very easily impressed and amused.) ~grin~ I was having a really sh*tty evening and now its only mildly sh*tty because of the color of a pill!

Be thankful for small blessings. ~pf

Easily amused = good :-)

[johndiii]

I am also easily amused. It really does make life more fun. :-) I will try and imagine the purple pill happy dance. :-D

It's good that zolpidem works for you. A couple of people that I know have very weird reactions to it. Including my ex, who had hallucinations and would get up and do things while not being conscious.

Drug companies. Yeah. Despicable.

zolipidem, kitchen fairies, & hallucinations

[WannaBeGeekGirl]

A couple of people that I know have very weird reactions to it. Including my ex, who had hallucinations and would get up and do things while not being conscious.

Yes, this was an issue with me the first time they left me on it for more than two weeks. We (doc and I) had concerns because I have twice sleptwalked when I was a child, both times into the shower, where I just stood and slept the rest of the night. (No not with it running, silly.)

So, I had my best friend stay with me while I was taking the stuff to make sure nothing dangerous happened. In the end, I did have weird behavior the third week, which resolved itself.

My peculiar reaction to zolipidem

Tangents & Hallucinations

[johndiii]

I was also a math major once upon a time. I enjoy tangents. :-)

As far as hallucinations are concerned, I've only had them once (as far as I can remember). That was when I was in college, and I was staying up nights to finish my senior thesis. Toward the end of the third night in a row that I didn't sleep, I hit the wall. Our ceiling had acoustic tiles, and one had fallen out. There were three spots of glue where it had been attached. The spots started moving, on the ceiling and walls, and multiplying.

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[WannaBeGeekGirl]

Yikes. Sleep deprivation causes hallucinations, good idea to go to bed.

In high school I was on the math/science (nerd) team. We made it all the way to the national Math something championship. One of the more high strung and brighter girls on the team was very compulsive about studying. As far as the rest of us on the team knew she had not slept for the three days we spent on the trip to the competition, just studied. She ate Folger's crystals and Cornuts to stay awake. ~hork~ I recall this menu clea

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[johndiii]

Wow. She sounds a bit tightly wrapped. :-) One thing that I noticed as a parent is that a fair number of the bright kids are under enormous pressure from their parents to do well at things like that. From what I've seen, it's not very good for the kids, and tends to be counterproductive.

Cornuts are good, but I'd say more like six or eight to the McNugget. And I'm with you on the former being preferable to the latter. Been a while since I've had any, though. I used to like to crunch them a little, then