Feeling helpless..my mom is Ambien night Binge Eating..its bad

Hey guys..

I didnt know if you guys have experienced this or had any ideas on what I can look into..

For the last several years my mom has been nightime binge eating on Ambien..In my estimation, she has put on about 60-80lbs in that time. If I try and stop her while she is on Ambien she gets angry. She doesnt remember the next day. She tells me to leave her alone so she can "relax" and by relax she means eat. I hear her..back and forth back and forth..for an hour to the kitchen.

I feel so freakin HELPLESS.

My brother and I have tried to talk to her so many times about the Ambien, about the night eating, about her sleep apnea which she refuses to use her machine and then wonders why she is tired and then takes ambien cause she cant sleep right and then eats because she doesnt feel well. Its a viscious, viscious cycle.

I think we are to the point we need to padlock the fridge and cabinets. In fact, one of her docs told her to do that once. This is killing her. Seriously. Its ugly.

Suggestions, PLEASE!

Sounds to me like you have already done all you can. I know how hard it is to watch someone you love self-destruct. I watched my sister throw her life away to heroin use, and saw my parents lose their home, their credit ratings, and their livelihoods, all in an effort to "save" her.

And what happened whenever I tried to step in and save the day? Nothing, other than me feeling that much more frustrated.

I wish I had better advice. I know it's not what you want to hear. But I've learned the hard way that, when it comes to behavior and health issues in adults, the only person I can save is me... and sometimes even that is a challenge.

PS: I'm not trying to compare your mother to my heroin-addicted sister, just simply pointing out that I can sympathize with frustrations abou****ching family members suffering when they don't necessarily have to. I hope I didn't offend!

Is there another brand of sleeping pill for doctor to prescribe ?  Perhaps the other brand(s) would not have same reaction of binge eating/not remembering but yet still help with sleep?

My dad had a horrible reaction to ambien given to him during a particular hospital stay.  Different behaviours but similar in fact of not remembering activities. 

Just a thought.

 you know what's crazy is three years ago i got a promotion at work, but with it came an enormous amount of stress and it came in the middle of the finicial crisis, and i had gone back to school.  i would sleep like every other day.  my doctor put me on ambien.  i gained a lot of weight which i believe was partly due to stress, lack of sleep and now i'm wondering if the ambien was contributing as well.  i live alone so i didn't realize how crazy i got at night after taking it.  i had vacationed with some friends, and my friend steven who doesn't get rattled easily said i scared him being on it.  i have since gone off of it.  Post surgery, and i had difficulty sleeping the other night so i took a advil pm, and it messed me up.  my whole body cramped up and i woke up a few hours later, i went stumbling through the house and sat in the living room eating a bowl of rice crispies.  i realized then that i was night eating.  i know what its like to struggle with sleepying.  sleep hypiene has totally helped, sound machines, lavendar scents, hypnosis ap on my iphone.  when i really struggle i take a benadryl and that seems to help me sleep without all the after effects.  i don't suffer from sleep apnea so that's just one more thing to add to the mix, but she really needs to get back into the dr's office either her family physician or her pulmanoligist.  it was the pulmanoligist that i had to see before my surgery for insurance reasons that really helped me work through my sleep issues, and they deal with the sleep apnea, so she probably already has a doctor.  i'm sorry that she's going through this, and you are a good daughter for trying to help her.  i feel like i don't have a good answer for you, but sounds like she definitely should get off the ambien. i know when my friends told me how crazy i looked, i kind of laughed it off, but i don't know that i told them, but that was one of the major reasons i went off, which didn't happen right away, but it did happen.  good luck!!

You need to video tape her for like a week. Put it together on one short video of what she is doing every night and what she is saying to you when you are trying to intervene. I say every night because she can turn around and say "That was only one night, I have never done that before". You can tell her and your brother can tell her but, sometimes it is a wake-up call when you see it for yourself.
I can understand why you are worried and stressed because you love your mother and do not want any harm to come to her. The weight gain is not helping the sleep apnea and not using the machine just make matters worse. IMO though, you should do like a mini intervention and present her with the evidence. Because she doesn't remember it, she may not really want to believe that it is happening. I wish you and your family the best and I hope it all works out.

You could film it and give it to her doctor. Her dr. Needs to be notified. She may start driving next.

I took a sleeping pill that caused extreme hunger, and sleep eating. It was called seroquel, and I gained an easy 50 lbs on it. I initially didn't understand why even though I was following my diet I was still gaining rapidly. Then I woke up with 3 half eaten muffins in bed, muffin in my mouth, crumbs everywhere. I could have choked. I talked to a co-worker and she had the same thing with the same medication.

I generally think that because sleeplessness often goes hand in hand with exhaustion and depression, that weight gain from medication is overlooked because they can't prove it's the pills not the depression itself.

To the second part of your question, what do you do? I don't know. There are probably other options for medication that don't have the same side effects. But, I dont know how to convince her to have it looked at. I still believe the best sleeping medication is physical activity after dinner.

If she needs to take a sleeping pill every night which isn't good in itself it may be a good idea to switch sleeping pills or even go on a low dose antidepressant or sedative. I have taken ativan a few times to help sleep and it usually is pretty symptom free but nothing should be taken all the time.

I take Ambien also. I noticed that when I took the prescribed dose(2pills), I  got up got 3 chicken wings,microwaved them andd ate them. The next morning I asked my daughter why didnt she empty her plate and she was like mommy that was there when I got home. Needless to say I dont take the prescribed dose. And that was the first and last time I took 2Ambien. Now when I take it I might eat something like fruit before or after I take so I dont have that need to eat/sleep. Im wishing your family all the best.

So sorry to hear your mom is going through this  I take Ambien also but I use it very sparingly since it is habit forming.  I also take Trazodone to help me sleep which is a mild anti-depressant and it is not habit forming and doesn't has the same side affects as Ambien.  Your mom might need to swith her medication.  I've read that Lunesta does not have the same affects as Ambien but I've never taken it so I don't know if that's true.  I would recommend the Trazodone because it's the only thing that has helped me sleep thru the night for the last 2 months.