I have had severe insomnia for years. It runs in my family. I tolerated it for several years until I finally started taking meds to sleep. Needless to say, I became addicted. I had a horrible addiction to Ambien that just about destroyed my life because I would sleep walk, amongst other things and then not remember anything later. One serious problem was that I would apparently take more Ambien while I was sleep walking, so I would end up taking enormous amounts of meds without realizing it. I am a single parent, barely making enough money to support myself and child. Going to rehab is simply not a possibility. There is no money and no one to care for my child while I would be gone. I have managed to completely get myself off of Ambien, which was no small task. It was sheer hell. I went through awful withdrawls, and went for weeks with hardly any sleep but I did it. However,I eventually had to start taking other things for sleep. Otherwise, I will literally go days even weeks with either not sleeping or only sleeping 2 or 3 hours. I get so exhausted. Adding to this, I had about 2 years where I was having gran-mal siezures, which seem to be under control now, but I have been warned that going without sleep for too long puts me at risk of another siezure. At this point I am taking several different benzodiazapines, and am slowly having to take more and more to go to sleep so I so that I have traded on addiction for another! (FYI, I don't get a "High" from these, at this point my tolerence is too high for that, I just simply want to sleep!) I have tried many of the lessor meds, like Trazadone, Lunesta, Remoron, etc and they do nothing. It is like I haven't taken anything. I have searched the internet high and low for information on how to kick this, and can not find any answers! There is all sorts of info on prescription pill addiction, but no info on how to deal with it once you have the problem. Unless, of course, you have the money and resources to go to rehab, which I don't. Also, I tried about a year ago to tell both my family doctor and my neurologist that I felt like I had an addiction and needed their help. Their response was to drop me as a patient! So what can I do??? I do not want to be an addict, but as a human being with a lot of responsibilities and a very high stress, high activity job, I have to be able to sleep! Any suggestions???