Chantix

16 years ago

I am on day 5 of being a non- smoker with the help of chantix.Anyone with positive advice using this drug.It is so expensive and I was wondering if I could get away with only one month supply.If I shouldn't I wont it is hard enough with the drug convincing myself that this is the new me a non-smoker.I have been suffering from headaches, lack of ambition and sore throat is this normal? what other effects could I get? I hear of people quitting for months and starting again that scares the crap out of me. How does that happen?Thanks

Comments (20)

lindac
16 years ago
A 40 year smoker....9 years a non smoker here.
Not smoking is so liberating, I will guess that after a month you will be so thrilled not to be stinking and wondering where you can have your next ciggie and stepping outside for a fix, that you won't need it in 2 more days....but for the physical addiction....and that should be gone in about 5 days.
How expensive is Chantix? More than the price of 2 packs of cigs a day? Cheap at 1/2 the cost!
Enjoy your new self....it's awesome!
Linda C
kayjones
16 years ago
I successfully quit smoking, using Chantix. I have been smoke-free since March 15, and Linda is correct - you feel so free from that expensive vice. Each day that you don't smoke makes you so proud of yourself. I rarely even think about smoking, and if I am around cigarette smoke, it makes me ill. It doesn't bother me that other people are smoking, it's just the smell nauseates me. I recommend this highly!
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I quit smoking my beloved pipes and cigars in the early 80's after losing my hearing on several occasions and ending up in the hospital 5 times to get it back. Tests showed a severe allergy to tobacco. My ENT was not sure if I were losing my hearing due to the severe allergy of if I was losing it because nicotine, causing artery constriction, cut off the supply to my inner ears. I didn't know if I was going to stop, and it was very hard because smoking can be physically addictive and psychologically addictive, of course. The physical addiction property of nicotine, as you all know, has been made worse by manufacturers who have increasingly used tobacco with higher nicotine levels and psychologically addictive because smoking is a mood changer. Studiess show that to maximize your ability to stop smoking, use multiple means. Medication can be enormously helpful. But medication alone is not nearly as effective as medication and a treatment group. Even more success with medication, a treatment group, and a support group. Even much more enhanced recovery with medication, a treatment group, a support group, and exercise. Hypnosis is also beneficial 50 percent of the time, when used alone, but that is not a very high percentage, so I seldom used it in practice as an only treatment. Much more effective when used along with the other multiple strategies. If you choose to use hypnosis, please use it as only a part of the treatment and please see a person with good credentials, not a fly-by-nighter. Ask at his her office what their training is in hypnosis. When I was smoking and saw no effects on my health, I could always separate my emotional reactions and the knowledge that one day, smoking would probably kill me, as it had my family for generations on both sides. I would think, "Well, I feel pretty well, and I don't have cancer, what the hell, I'll quit another day." My brother, 15 years older than I, was my childhood hero. I flew him back from the Virgin Islands 15 years ago to get treatment for his throat cancer. He died 3 days later. Eight months ago, my beloved niece, his daughter, who had smoked for 40 years, developed COPD and emphysema. Visiting her in the hospital in Hattisburg after emergency hospitalization because she couldn't breathe, I asked her if she had been smoking just before she was rushed to the hospital. Indignantly, she said, I KNEW you were going to ask me if I still smoke?" She thought I was fussing at her, when instead I was trying to point out the link between her emergency and smoking the night before she was hospitalized. She also then developed cancer and just before she died on the way to the hospital two months ago, she had a cigarette and couldn't breathe. After the funeral, mourners including her huysband, their grown children, and her nieces and nephews talked about how it was such a tragedy for her to die at age 55. And this was said in the parking lot, as the whole family gathered to smoke in the parking lot after the funeral. I could only shake my head as I left. One of my beautiful grand nieces, as she lit her cigarette said, "Uncle Jimmy, it's hard to find people who don't smoke." I thought that I'd save for another day the fact that our state, Mississippi, has the nation's highest percentage of smokers, at 25 percent. I also saved for another day the information that with both her and her husband smoking, their close relationships among friend will be likely limited to other smokers. France puts in a country-wide smoking ban in restaurants this week, as their research shows half their smokers die os cancer and another 5,000 die each year from second-hand breathing. I well remember my dad saying that he'd rather smoke than live a few more years. Such is the power of this addiction to change normal thought. I remember how he made fun of his elderly cardiologist, who, speaking in a foreign accent, said, "Mr. Chaney, each cigarette you smoke is living driving a nail in your coffin." And we'd all laugh--my dad was a hilarious guy. When he died of his fourth heart attack, sitting and smoking at the kitchen table with my mother in 1972, we never again brought up our dad's hilarious sense of humor making fun of his heart doctor. To my mother's credit, she stopped smoking at age 65 after she developed emphysema. When she couldn't breathe right, she quit. Two successful fights with cancer had not been enough for her to stop. But she did, and she lived until nearly 80. Truly I will hope for your internal strength to go to those treatment programs and to stay with them. Fighting an addiction alone typically subverts your attempts at quitting and reduces you to using "strong will", an ineffective idea in treating addictions. As we all know. Jim
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I used the Chantix too! It was nothing next to a miracle. Chantix is a prescription drug (a pill) that your doctor can prescribe. A friend recommended it to me after she quit her habit of 30 + years. I started taking the Chantix pill and didn't even think about quitting smoking. I did smoke less without even thinking about it. On day 12 I was getting ready for bed and I realized, "hey, I didn't smoke at ALL today!" I can't tell you how great that felt. Each day after that I didn't smoke and it didn't seem like I was being deprived or white knuckeling it! I continued taking the pills for a few more weeks when I decided that I just wasn't going to smoke, pill or no pill anymore. It is now over 6 months for me. The prescription did cause me to have some really wacky dreams! It is a psychological drug, so I think if you are having depression or other mental issues it may not be for you. Someone commited suicide while on Chantix so they got a lot of bad publicity. But personally I feel that person PROBABLY had some underlying issues beforehand. I have recommeneded it to long time smokers without trying to be preachy (just because I'd like them to feel the power I feel by not being saddled by cigarettes!) Many of them said they would never put a prescription in their systerm to quit! Yet on a daily basis they are lighting up and putting known carcenogens into their body, so I figure they are just making an excuse. Ladyofdirt, if you are reading this and you still need a method to quit I would encourage you to try the Chantix. Best wishes to you!
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The awful addiction to nicotine is not just a physical thing. It's a lifestyle thing, too. I smoked from the age of 14 until I was 55. I loved to smoke and I did it to excess. Both my parents smoked, most of their friends and relatives did it, everywhere you went people smoked. I remember a couple of physicians I went to over the years sat there and smoked in the exam room with you - ashtrays brimming with butts! I remember at the indoor theater that you had to view the screen through a cloud of smoke. Hospital visiting areas and grocery stores had ashtrays. Every place I worked up until the 90's allowed smoking at the desk. Then I had to have cataract surgery in both eyes. I was suffering from considerable smoker's cough and was so afraid of suddenly having a coughing fit right when the surgeon jabbed the scalpel in my eye that I stopped smoking and took up snus. (It's like snuff but you don't spit.) It took a while for the cough to subside but it did. So I continued with the snus until just last year, where I finally got off of nicotine completely but I'm still suffering from the habit of having something in my mouth so now I have the nicotine-free herbal mint pouches. Yes I admit I have a problem with addiction but hey at least I'm finally off nicotine. I say whatever it takes to get off the cigarettes is a good thing. I used to suffer such bad bronchitis for weeks if I got a simple cold. I can't remember the last time I had it since I quit. What gets me is that people who smoke have no idea how much they smell like an ashtray and I didn't realize how bad and offensive I probably was too until I stopped smoking. And even though I'm sympathetic to those who still do it and can't stop, I hate being around cigarette smoke now.
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Congratulations... Now that you've quit..do you notice how much smokers smell like ciggarettes. I can't stand the smell. Denny still has 4 or 5 in the morning with his coffee and breakfast. But he no longer smokes at home...The house smells so much better...Now if we could just get rid of dog smell.
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socks
16 years ago
Flowergazer, good luck for continued success in your program to stop smoking. Keep up the good work.
flowergazer
Original Author
16 years ago
Kayjones how long did you take it? I made it 1 week now, I am feeling pretty good a little edgy once in a while but not to bad, nothing that would make me run out and get a pack.I started reading and crocheting plus my gardening.
lindac
16 years ago
Way to go!! You have licked it!! Coingratulations!
Linda C
puc13
16 years ago
I have to bump this thread.
Do it!
My folks have been taking Chantix as well and have experienced amazing results. They were both hard-core smokers (1 to 2 packs a day for 30+ years) and tried all the "gimmicks" and "cures" out there. They had no success until this - Chantix. Dad is down to 5 cigarette attempts a week, Mom is down to 2. This is AMAZING! I am so happy that they have found something that works for them. They have only been taking it for 7 weeks.
I have a bit more research to do (I am a smoker as well) regarding the interaction between Chantix and allergy/asthma meds. I have allergy induced asthma and it notes on their website that it has been found that Chantix can effect the action of asthma meds - so I have to make an appointment with Dr to discuss.
Gosh, I would be so happy to not have my home and clothes and BED smell of smoke (I may be weird but even as a long-time smoker the smell just kills me.)

Good luck to all you quitters!
mickeyj2
16 years ago
I have a question from another angle. My husband has been taking Chantix and has been smoke free for 3 months now. I'm thrilled but he has become lethargic with no energy any more.....lazy. Is this normal, will it go away with time, or is it just my imagination? Example: On the weekends he takes 3 hours to read the paper (thank goodness it's not the NY Times), is on the computer off and on 2-3 hours, takes naps off and on, and then goes to bed an hour before he use to. Could this be the effects of the drug or is it just a period of adjustment?
mmkmmk
16 years ago
On Feb 15th - I will celebrate 3 months smoke free. I smoked for 30+ years and tried to quit many times. I think Chantix is wonderful. I quit after I was on it after about 3 weeks, I kinda had the attitude that "I dared Chantix to work"....and it did!

Last night we had a party with 6 out of 12 people smoking in the garage. I went out there (I have started recommending Chantix to people. Not like a reformed smoker - I do it one time, short and sweet, and tell them that it worked for me) anyway, standing in that garage I normally would have been jumping them to bum a cig, but last night the craving wasn't there. It's amazing to me. I still thought about smoking, but the need NOT to smoke was stronger. I wasn't crazy at all or on edge, very relaxed. It was sort of easy to not smoke. I NEVER would have believed that life could be this way.

I am a closet smoker. I haven't smoked in front of my kids in 10 years. Never smoked where I could get "caught" - by neighbors, parents from the school etc. I couldn't quit when I was pregnant with my 3 kids. In fact after they were all born, I would walk to the emergency entrance and smoke my heart out, and then go back up. I will never forgive myself that I smoked while pregnant. How horrible. I would avoid long shopping trips with my daughters, because I didn't want to go that long without one. A true addict - but with a legal drug.

So now that I quit - there are not many people that I can scream:

I FINALLY QUIT SMOKING !!!

I still can't believe it. Doesn't bother me when I walk into gas station. I think about it, but I can just get my diet pepsi and be on my way. I always wished I could just forget that I ever smoked, this kind of does. It's weird.

After about a month into my quit, I started to only take the pill in the am. It made me feel no different. Then I began taking a half of a pill and still felt fine with no huge change in my desire to not smoke. Then I realized that I had forgotten to take it one day and I was ok. So I stopped taking it at all after 2 months. I still went and had my prescription for the 3rd month filled...I think it was more for a security blanket, but I haven't opened it yet.

I was lucky and had no side effects, whatsoever. But many people wean themselves off rather than stopping "cold turkey". There are some scary things that they are writing about Chantix - I was willing to take the risk and am soooooo glad I did. I have gained about 10# on my already overweight body, but its a small price to pay in the long run. I take it off.

Good luck to all of you.
carla17
16 years ago
What about the side effects that have been on TV. Like the guy who killed himself? I think naps would be in order for me, at least you're not awake and pacing or crying. It is so addicting!

Carla
retailtherapy
16 years ago
From what my doctor told me, Chantix can exaserbate symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Disorder. So, if you haven't been diagnosed with these & understand the possible side effects of Chantix, there shouldn't be a problem.

I smoked a pack/day for 17 years and since I started so young, I felt that smoking is not only a habit, but a big part of my identity. This is my 1st time trying to quit and by day the 9th day of taking Chantix, I only smoked 2 cigarettes (and wondered why after I smoked them). So, I officially quit on day 10.

It's now been 3 weeks w/no smoking. The biggest struggle for the 1st 4 days was the habit, so having candy, gum & snacks were helpful to me. I have found that I get more work done since I don't have to take so many smoke breaks.

For the past week, I've reduced the # of pills from 2, to 1 per day. After taking Chantix for first couple of weeks, I found that constipation and sleep disturbance are the side effects that are annoying to me. In the past, I rarely remembered dreaming when I woke. Now, I remember having 1-3 dreams each night (just regular old dreams).

Some people continue to occassionally smoke while on
Chantix, without really needing to. I highly recommend not doing this. I think this kind behavior can come back to harm you after you've stopped taking the medication.
love2sew
16 years ago
On April 24 I will be 1 year a non smoker thanks to Chantix. I was really amazed how easy it was to quit, but you do need to have the desire to quit. I had my last cigarette on the 3rd day and each day just got better. Because I was a long time smoker my doctor and druggist encouraged me to stay on the program 6 mo. even at a reduced amount and I did. They said this ensures a better chance of not relapsing. This is a drug and it comes with it's side effects which bother some more than others. The night dreams for sure and nausa and dry mouth. I found after 1 month I could reduce the night pill and you can buy special toothpaste for dry mouth...no side effect was bad enough to make me quit the program. Since New Years I have not thought of smoking once and you do have thoughts about it, but they go away quickly.

It is certainly worth trying and I wish everyone the success I have had.
flowergirl70ks
16 years ago
My daughter and son-in-law are using this and they are reporting good results with it.Chantix that is. I have been smoke free for the last 21 years. Here is my method for quitting. The first thing is, you have to REALLY want to quit. I chewed sunflower seeds for about 2 weeks. When that didn't do it for me, and I found myself looking for a butt-there is nothing more gross than lighting an old tired cigarette butt. Then I would find myself a good quiet place and kneel down and pray. In about a minute or two the craving would go away. Of course you have to believe in God, and that he answers prayers. I'm 74 now and had smoked for a good 30 years. It's so good to have that monkey off my back. It's worth a try.
corirenee_zoominternet_net
15 years ago
I am starting my Chantix starter pack on Monday.. Wondered if any of you had any advice for the noob?? I have alot of mixed feelings right now, but I know it's time to do this... I picked up my RX on Thursday, and my 14 y.o son helped me pick my date.

I'll be sure to report back as well!!
Jkoutsod_bigpond_net_au
13 years ago
I am on day 4 quit with chantix what an amazing drug I have had very few cravings just a feeling of unease which is not bad. Sleeping is getting weird wake up far too early but I can deal with that! I am over the moon that I am NOT smoking. I used to smoke a pack a days for 20 plus years.
tiz4tggr_gmail_com
13 years ago
If you haven't tried a parsley supplement while taking chantix, give it a try! I almost gave up on chantix because the nausea was soo bad. Now I take 860mg parsley capsules along with chantix and No more nausea. I originally bought the parsley to aid with water weight gain and just happen to take both the capsules and the chantix at the same time one morning. In reading further about parsley, it's also recommended as a holistic digestive aid. This is a miracle to me and I'm so happy I found this. Good Luck!
earthygal52
13 years ago
Congrats to every one who quit smoking. I quit but occasionally have a few drags and then wonder why the heck did I do that???

My BF is a smoker and he smokes 1/2 the cigarette and then puts it out and then when he wants another he lights a new one up. I've been wanting him to try this Chantix, but can't seem to get any further than yea ok and that's it. He could put some weight on about 30 lbs. I know if he quit somking he would. How do I get him to try this??

Thanks,
Susan
Lora3232
12 years ago
I can recommend a reputable pharmacy (Chantix w/o a script) I received the order and it was on time and the pills work great.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chantix Without a Prescription
slv125_hotmail_com
12 years ago
I started taking Chantix about 7 weeks ago and have to say I did get quite a few of the side affects.. There was a couple of times I thought about stopping it but the will to stop smoking this time around was just to great and I have progressed through them. I did and still do have some memory loss at times (enlisted my work colleges to help me through the first few weeks), quite a bit of agitation, a couple of sleepless nights, a couple of really sleepy nights :) and now for the past couple of weeks i find that I have to keep busy, keep moving, get things done... on the bright side this is great :) I dont know if that is caused by the Chantix or just the fact that I am no longer smoking and feeling pretty darn good for the first time in years. I was a 1 1/2 to 2 pack a day smoker for 35 years and I am still young :) and it just hit me I have to quit and quit now!!!! Yes there are some side effects and some people get them worse or not at all so it might not be good for everyone but for me it has been a wonder drug... I was able to run over 4 miles the other day and I was not winded and felt like i could go more.....
guccigirlaccessories_yahoo_com
12 years ago
It has been two months for me, 2-3 packs a day, and I smoked for 30 years! This drug is nothing short of a MIRACLE. But, does come with many side effects for me. I heard people talk about napping? For me, its depression and not wanting to do anything. I am determined to stay on this a year, as I am terrified if Im not taking it I will smoke. For me, depression for a year is a small price to pay for being FREE. BUT, I have battled depression all my life, and have a pretty high tolerance. Have basically told my significant other for the next year, I will be gaining weight and being extremely lazy, and he will just have to deal with it! My health is more important. One thing at a time for me...I work VERY closely with my doctor with the depression.
d0ug
10 years ago
The patient was cure but died of the treatment

We studied 61,150 Chantix users from FDA and social media. Among them, 301 have death. See who they are, when they have death and more
www.ehealthme.com/ds/chantix/death

Nearly 80% of Chantix study users relapsed within a year. Real-world Chantix users should expect substantially worse odds with Chantix.

whyquit.com/pr/082506.html

Chantix

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