Addictions Treatment Blog

The now infamous single-car crash involving golf legend Tiger Woods outside of his Florida home at nearly 2:30 AM has many people speculating. The lack of a clear statement on what occurred and cancelled meetings with investigators have also created even more of a mystery.

Here is one scenario that makes sense to me. Being a very busy professional and having two young kids is difficult to say the least. My guess is that his doctor prescribed him Ambien, or a similar drug, to help him sleep better at night. This drug has a history of causing sleep-driving - yes sleep-driving - among other side effects. This is where people in an almost zombie-like state, actually get in the car and drive with little or no recollection of doing so. It happens with walking and eating as well.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning on this possible behavior and there have been other documented cases of this happening.

Tiger Woods seems to be a very upstanding citizen, does a lot of non-profit work (even has his own Foundation), is a family man and one of the most dedicated professional athletes in history. The police report already said that alcohol was not involved, so I really think this offers some explanation as to what might have happened. I'm sure that the truth will eventually come out, but this also explains how Tiger could have said that it will never happen again - because he doesn't intend to ever take that drug again. Sad that something like this would have to happen, but good that nobody was seriously injured.

Aside from odd behavior like sleep driving, Ambien and other sleep drugs have other problems, such as a high potential for abuse. In fact, with the current prescription drug epidemic there has been an increase in the number of people seeking treatment for Ambien addiction.