Please help addicted to Ambien

For the past 2 and a half years i've been having extreme chronic insomnia. My insomnia started one night when i woke up after sleeping for an hour and i couldn't sleep. I thought i would sleep good the next night but i ended up not sleeping at all for a week. I was really scared and paranoid. I have never been so scared in my life. I thought i was going to die because i wasn't sleeping. I was withdrawing from Celexa around the time my insomnia started. My doctor has put me on several medications for sleep, but none of them have worked but Ambien. I have been addicted to Ambien ever since he prescribed it to me. I cant sleep without it. I have been taking more than prescribed to me and run out early. When i run out of my pills i cant get any sleep at all until i get more Ambien. Sometimes im able to get more from my friend. Ambien is the only way i can get sleep. I feel like a zombie during the day because of having Ambien still in my system and not getting enough sleep. Lately, it has not been working at all. I take 3 or 4 pills of Ambien a night. I only sleep 4 hours a night and i wake up constantly and cant get back to sleep in the morning. Ive noticed a difference in my mood since i have been taking Ambien. Im always having hallucinations and never paying attention to things. I have not told my doctor that i have been taking more Ambien than prescribed because im afraid if i do tell him, he will not give them to me anymore. I need them or else i cant sleep at all. My biggest fear in life is not being able to sleep again without Ambien. Im so addicted and i need help before i overdose. Please someone help me. I really need to get off these pills and learn to sleep on my own again. Please dont suggest another medication because i have tired them all and nothing has worked but the Ambien.

I think if you tell your doctor what you told us, he/she would help you slowly and safely wean off of the Ambien. My doctor was doing just that until I ended up in the ER from an OD. She then immediately stopped prescribing it and I was stuck with nothing.

It's definitely difficult to get off Ambien, but it IS possible! I've been off it since January. The first few weeks were torturous, but after a while sleep came a bit easier and I'm at the point now where I usually sleep 4-6 hours/night most nights. It sucks big hairy b@lls to come off of, but now that I'm a few months down the road, I wake up more easily in the mornings and I feel more awake and alert throughout the day. The few weeks of hell are totally worth it! You CAN make it through and there IS a light at the end of the tunnel, however dim it may seem at times.

Good luck and keep us updated.