Ambien Addiction

Is Ambien addiction just the tip of the iceberg?

Today, you can't watch television for more than an hour without seeing an ad for some new drug you're invited to ask your doctor to prescribe for you. The ads usually show some pastoral or family scene, while an understated, comforting, good bedside manner voice narrates in the background.

You're first told that the drug cures this, that or the other. Well, that sounds good. You're told of all the benefits of taking the drug. Well, sure, you can go along with that. After just fifteen seconds, you may be jotting down the name of the drug to query your physician. A free sample at their website?

Hey, that's allright. While you're busy writing, the narrator smoothly moves into the "This may not be for everyone" portion of the ad. Are you still listening, or are you watching the little neon-green Ambien butterfly, spreading a good night's rest in little sparkles off his - or her - butterfly wings?

It's always in the latter portion of such ads that the pharmaceutical company advises you, in slick undertones, of the potential risks. In the case of Ambien, you shouldn't operate machinery or drink alcohol. Well, ya think? Then we get into sleepwalking issues and further warnings. You may remember a high profile case of Ambien addiction where the victim was not drinking, but apparently sleepwalked out to his vehicle under the influence of Ambien. Where's that little butterfly when you need him?

The ads make the case that you need Ambien in order to sleep properly and waken refreshed. The word addiction carries some pretty negative baggage in general conversation. The ad does warn you of the possibility of Ambien addiction, but only in the most friendly tones and as a rare, but possible side effect.

Both rhetoric and style are engagingly merged into a message where, hopefully, the potential customer will discount the 'rare' effects as something they need not fear. Yet, if you were to tape the ad and play it back to a careful listening, it's apparent that Ambien addiction is possible, as well as a host of other negative complications.

In the case of the high profile politician, the issue of Ambien addiction made headlines. What we cannot know is how many other ordinary people, having taken this drug, ended up in a car accident because they took their Ambien and subsequently found themselves driving incompetently?

Unfortunately, Ambien addiction is probably one of the more benign effects of all the drugs currently produced and prescribed in the U.S. today. If you listen closely to drug ads, you'll see that most of them carry side effects that are worse than the original ailment. Who wants to suffer a stroke or heart attack, or even die ("in rare cases") from a medicine designed to cure heartburn?

Before you add yet another med to your repertoire, do some research. Listen closely to those ads!