A friend of mine in high school ended up in the hospital for about two weeks from a Tylenol and alcohol combination.

No liver damage! No, no. I looked at my Ty-3 script and it's too much APAP: 300/30, and I would take at least 5 a day for 3-4 days of my period. I am going to call my doctor tomorrow and ask her to switch to something else. I deserve to ask until I have something that's workable and pain-free.

Want smaller doasges of APAP now.

Possible small upside to liver damage, if you're odd, and looking for little upside where you can find them --

Jaundice makes you look like a Simpsons character.

Oh, yeah. DON'T FUCKING DRINK on Ambien. No, no, no, no, no.

I have a HIGH drug tolerance, but even a glass of wine and an Ambien will FUCK YOUR SHIT UP.

Also? Go right to bed. I"ve gotten engrossed in "one last email" after popping an Ambien in my nightie and that's when I end up "experimenting" with new eyeliner techniques. With lipliner and blush. The extra time in the morning soaking your face in Bifacils is SO not worth it!

Basically: How many mgs are you taking? Where do you get it filled, or: is it round or oval and is it CR or regular?

10mg oval tablets, and I have no idea if it's CR or regular, 'cos I've got the generic version. I usually only take one half of a tablet at a time. I've been on Ambien for a couple of years, and I try really hard not to take half a tablet more than 3 times a week. But yeah, that falling asleep within an hour of bedtime? Fucking fantastic.

(Erin, my sister in insomnia!)

And YES on the go right to bed part. I haven't done anything like experimental makeup, but if I don't go to bed and close my eyes, I get some verrrrry interesting hallucinations. Like, last week thinking Pete's face was shifting and melting, and that the bedroom curtains had turned into some sort of hell portal. Not. Fun.

I had a weird Ambien-related thing just last night. I woke to find all the lights on and the crackers from package of Ry-Krisp that was on the kitchen counter piled on the counter. I'd blame the dog, but so far he's not shown any interest in turning on the lights and there were two crackers with my teeth marks. Also, he would have eaten all the Ry-Krisp. He has a cracker addition.

The last thing I remember was lying awake after taking an Ambien and then getting up and watching television because I couldn't sleep.

I was better off with less Ambien, but the current pill style crumbles when I try to cut it apart. My newest prescription is written for a pill that's half the size, but I still have the old ones. Ambien is the only thing that's ever put me to sleep. Most things that make people sleepy keep me awake, something I discovered when I was awake for four days after knee surgery. Codeine keeps me wide awake. Cheery and relatively pain free, but awake.

Jilli, you're on regular Ambien, because CR doesn't come generic yet. Stick with it (Zolpidem is the generic name, and the oval generic are the best. The formulation CAN make a difference. Don't get gen Ambien from Wal-green's; it's the round one and it doesn't work as well. My sister and I did an experiment after we both independently discovered that the Wal-green's gen doesn't work very well on ours bodies. My dad? He can't tell the diff, but Suze and I are both more hardcore insomniacs than Daddy.) Dad gets his thru a mail order company, but the Target carries the oval gens.

Ginger, research has shown that people can sleep-eat while using Ambien. Also, when you chop an Ambien, it actually absorbs more strongly into your system. There's a protective outer coating that allows for slower absorption. So you might just want to get the 5 mg doses -- if it's regular Ambien (not CR), you should be able to get tthe generic really cheaply.

It's regular Ambien. That's why my prescription has been changed to the 5 mg. That's really interesting, because I too would have sworn the oblong white version worked much better, but I thought I must be imagining things.

Nopers. I swear to ya. And I am NOT a person who thinks a formulary brand is better. I LIKE generics. They're cheaper. Go, generic.

But S and I looked at manufacturers and everything, and it says the all the active ingredients are the same, but really, truly, the little round white one are not as effacacious as the ovals. Both generics, but not equal, IMHO.

Weird, innit?

could it be the delivery system? generics are required to have the same active ingredients, but the inert ingredients can have an effect, can't they? Steph? (who will have to answer this tomorrow, 'cause I know she's in bed)