Ambien is a selective gaba agonist. benzos like valium and xanax are non selective gaba agonists. ambien is one of those drugs where it varys a lot from person to person how strong it is. for me it is literally about ten times stronger and more intense than xanax. i lose my judgement on it and cant remember everything from when i was on it. grey outs/black outs. i advise caution with ambien as it packs a punch so much harder than xanax of valium. at least for many people it does, not all. i only took it for a short time afer me and my psychiatrist were going through different drugs for me to try. I havent touched the stuff since