Sleep is an important part of life. In fact, it’s so important that rats typically live only 5 weeks when they’re deprived of sleep, while these furry creatures might live for 2 to 3 years, if allowed to get the rest they need, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke reports. Even so, some people find sleeping difficult or impossible, and they head to their doctors for relief. Little capsules of Ambien may seem like the perfect route to sleep relief, but there are dangers. People who take these pills may develop addictions, and combatting that addiction may be difficult, as the underlying sleep disorder may very well still be in place.
Finding the Source
Addictions to Ambien don’t develop in a vacuum. Often, they develop in response to some sort of outside trigger. For example, an article in the journal Current Treatment Options in Neurology found that 30 to 90 percent of people with psychiatric disorders also had insomnia. People like this may enjoy the boost that a benzodiazepine drug like Ambien can deliver, and these people may not heal until their underlying mental illness is addressed. Similarly, some people develop Ambien addictions as part of a poly-drug pattern of abuse. People like this may also be addicted to alcohol or some illicit drug, and they may mix and match their dosages in order to bring about the sensations they find enjoyable. They may need treatment for both sets of addiction in order to get better.
A good treatment program for Ambien abuse provides a thorough evaluation, allowing treatment professionals to determine all the issues that might be at play and to pull together comprehensive solutions based on the results of that testing. Blood tests, urine tests, psychological tests and more might all be part of that evaluation process.
Finding the Healing
Ambien isn’t a medication that can be stopped via cold-turkey methods. Benzodiazepine medications like this can cause serious side effects when people try to stop their use abruptly, including:
- Nervousness
- Irritability
- Insomnia
- Seizures
A slow taper from the drug might be the best way to help a person achieve sobriety, but some people might benefit from a transition to another type of drug. They’ll still have the benefit of a pharmaceutical intervention, but the drug may not work in exactly the same way, and this might make a taper a little easier.
As the person learns how to live without drugs, a few sleep hygiene techniques might be used. In therapy, people can learn how to use the power of habit to slow their overactive minds and allow sleep to wash over their bodies. They might learn to set a specific sleep/wake schedule and stick to it each day, and they might learn to use very bright lights in the morning and very dim lights in the evening, to reset the body’s natural clock. Making the room comfortable for sleep might also be a vital intervention, and therapists can help their clients to make these adjustments as well.
Learning to leave an addiction behind is difficult, isolating work, and it’s not uncommon for people to feel as though outsiders don’t really understand and can’t really relate. Support group meetings might help. Here, people can meet with others who have also dealt with an addiction, and they can all work together and support one another. At The Oaks at La Paloma, we encourage all our clients to participate in support group meetings, and we even help our clients find meetings they can attend in their communities when they’ve completed our Ambien addiction program. Please call us to find out more.