![]() I’d just been asked to join the board at my kids’ very elite, prestigious private school. I was married to a director in Hollywood so there were premieres and dinner parties. Eventually, the pills didn’t work at all without the alcohol. I discovered by accident that when I drank alcohol with the Ambien, it boosted the effect. I had almost all my doctors prescribing me Ambien - my OB-GYN, regular doctor, orthopedic surgeon and psychiatrist. To have a steady supply, I went to different doctors for the same prescription. The sixth year, which was 2008, I was taking 10 pills - nine at night and then breaking a single one up during the day because the withdrawal would be too bad if I didn’t have something in my system. I continued to take it because I was so addicted that when I wasn’t taking it, I couldn’t sleep and was in a really debilitating withdrawal with nausea, shakes and pain.įour years in, I was taking two pills to get to sleep and a whole one in the middle of the night. But after three years, I didn’t experience it the same way. It was like warm golden oil separating my head from my shoulders. Going into the third year, I was taking one-and-a-half pills because one wasn’t putting me to sleep anymore. The second year, I was taking one pill every night, not just one every once in a while. I thought, “I’m going to take this for the rest of my life as needed.” I thought I had found my panacea - this was the missing ingredient in my motherhood. I got another bottle after the first one, but I didn’t take a pill every night because I didn’t need to. ![]() I was a different person: I had energy, I was excited to be with my kids, I had the best experience. It was like I’d had an alarm bell ringing in my head for a year and after I took that first pill, it went silent. He said, “Let’s get you sleeping again” and prescribed Ambien - one per night for 10 days. Even when they were asleep, I wasn’t able to sleep because I was anticipating their wake up. I had two boys, both under 3 at the time, and they were terrible sleepers. I was introduced to Ambien through my regular physician in 2002. Laura Cathcart Robbins (Courtesy Cooper Urlich)
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