Anyone else here try (or trying) to stop smoking with Chantix?

[boomer6447]

On week 3 of my chantix...I went from 2 packs a day to 10 cigs or less a day for the last 5-6 days, but I just can't quit. I have lost the desire that would just suddenly hit me about every 30-45 minutes to smoke, but I haven't lost the reflex of having one after I eat, whenever I first get in the car, first thing in the morning, etc....

To be honest, I haven't really gave it too much effort, I was just impressed I could cut way back. I am 45, been smoking since I was 19 and quit for 2-3 years around 2001.

The dreams are BIZARRE...and vivid. It seems I have to pee all the time (especially at night) and I seem to be getting some of my taste buds back.

Let's hear your stories?? Anybody else do this? Were you successful?

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

I'm on week 3 as well. I went from a pack a day for 5 years to nothing, starting on Day 8, and have no desire to smoke. People can smoke around me when I'm drunk and I just don't want one. I've found the dreams to be awesome...and I actually remember them well enough to recall them days later. That, in and of itself, could be addicting. I think I'm going to continue through month two just to make sure I've beaten it, but I don't think it's 100% necessary for me.

 

[BoomerD]

My boomer-brother...for me, the pills weren't enough to get quit. I needed the patches as well.

Breaking the nicotine habit is only one part of quitting smoking. You also have to break the habit...reaching for a smoke after meals or with a beer, while driving, etc. For me, THAT was actually the hardest part. I used candy canes...everytime I wanted to smoke, I stuck a candy cane in my mouth instead...and gained 25 pounds...but I stayed quit for about 1-1/2 years.

 

[Squisher]

What is this Chantix?

My wife who quit smoking 25 years ago decided to take up the habit in secret 2 years ago and is now trying to quit and is having a real hard time quitting.

You won't find a more cryie whinie little anti-smoking bitch than Squisher and I'm having a hard time not letting my true self come to the fore.

 

[Liet]

I'm on the Nicoderm patch week 2, and was down from a pack a day for 10 years to 2 smokes a day. I had a relapse and smoked 2 packs over the past two days, sadly, mainly because of triggers. Like Boomer says, the hardest thing is to disabuse yourself of the triggers that make you smoke... like smoking after a good meal, after sex, while it's raining, while playing computer games (HARDEST for me).

It's really, really hard. At times I wonder how the hell am I supposed to NOT have a smoke while playing a really good strategy game, or after some incredible sex? I find that when I get that almost uncontrollable urge, if I can fight it for just a few minutes it will go away.

The patch/pill is just support for the main thrust of quitting, which has to be dealing with the triggers.

 

[Oyeve]

I'm 42, been smocking since 13-14 years old. Never went above a pack a day and have tried everything from patches to gum to wellbutrin to cold-turkey. Back in 1990 I managed to quit for 8 months but went right back on it. Nearly 30 years of smoking and I have white teeth, can taste great and am still very active (skateboard, mountain bike, run a few miles a week). My GF who is a health nut cant understand why I dont huff and puff and wheeze. Or at least have discolored teeth (shes a dental technician) Maybe I havent been smoking right the last 30 years! Anyway, I wish I had never started, not because of health, lord knows if smoking is gonna kill me it will even if I quit cuz I smoked for so long, but because I know I am addicted to it and even though I get my smokes from an American Indian company in NY for 3 bucks a pack I could be saving money. I usually spend about 45 bucks a month on this nasty habit.

 

[Oyeve]

If I was super rich I would pay a medical staff to keep me sedated or in a coma for 6 months. Then hopefully the nicotine addiction would leave, but i'd probably be addicted to whatever they gave me to knock me out.

 

[Liet]

It ain't the nicotine, it's the habit of smoking while doing various things.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

worked very very well for a friend of mine

 

[rise]

i took chantix for ~a week and couldn't handle the mind mess it gave me. a short time later, there came the rports that it really shouldn't be given to people with depression, anxity or other mental issues. i thought it was just me but my friend went through the same thing.

i've quit before for about a year but am now back full bore. at least i'm rolling my own now, saving some cash

but yeah, it's at least as psycologically addicting as physical (nicotine). i always reach for a smoke the minute i pur a cup of coffee, be it my first cup or 12th.

 

[effowe]

I successfully quit using it, but it took a couple of tries. I quit for a couple of months, then started back again, ended up quitting again at month three and have been good since. Good Luck!

 

[mwmorph]

I smoked for the nicotine buzz and I used Chantix to quit. It worked great, but the dreams were insane.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: rise
i took chantix for ~a week and couldn't handle the mind mess it gave me. a short time later, there came the rports that it really shouldn't be given to people with depression, anxity or other mental issues. i thought it was just me but my friend went through the same thing.

i've quit before for about a year but am now back full bore. at least i'm rolling my own now, saving some cash

but yeah, it's at least as psycologically addicting as physical (nicotine). i always reach for a smoke the minute i pur a cup of coffee, be it my first cup or 12th.

I tried using Zyban about 10 years ago to quit...it turned me into a raging fucking lunatic...even worse than normal, So much so, that the company I was working for (driving a boom truck) took me off the road for over a week because they were afraid I was going to go ballistic and take out some moron on the freeway. (I spent my day on the Bay area freeways...where people NEED to be taken out for their stupidity!)

Finally, I just stopped taking the pills...it wasn't worth the mind-fuck.

 

[2Xtreme21]

My parents who'd been smoking for ~20 years (around a pack a day each) each went on Chantix last July and haven't had a cig. since (as far as I know). It apparently makes cigarettes taste disgusting and not beneficial to the smoker.

 

[rudeguy]

Originally posted by: rise
i took chantix for ~a week and couldn't handle the mind mess it gave me. a short time later, there came the rports that it really shouldn't be given to people with depression, anxity or other mental issues. i thought it was just me but my friend went through the same thing.

i've quit before for about a year but am now back full bore. at least i'm rolling my own now, saving some cash

but yeah, it's at least as psycologically addicting as physical (nicotine). i always reach for a smoke the minute i pur a cup of coffee, be it my first cup or 12th.

Yep. My doc never mentioned the possible side affects to me. He actually told me there were no reported side affects I was so geeked about possibly quitting that I didn't check it out until after the third week. I was so tired that I could hardly hold my head up and cranky as hell. I cut down a bit but not much.


ALWAYS do your own research on this kind of thing. Docs only feed us the bullshit that the pharm reps feed them. It really sucks.

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

I quit with Chantix for four months not too long ago. Started back up due to stress - bad decision. Back on it now and tomorrow is my quit date. This time around the side effects aren't that bad.

 

[boomer6447]

Almost at the end of week 3 and I am still smoking 5-8 cigs a day...(way down from my normal 30-40)..wife is doing it also, she is handling it much better than me...

I am having the most vivid/bizarre/weird/scary dreams ever now...I watched some stupid show yesterday about this guy tracking a huge snake...and yup, there they were last night in my dreams...

I'm going to keep trying....

 

[dakels]

After 15 years of smoking I quit last may. It was rough. I started on the patch for 2 weeks and found that it just wasn't enough help on those high urge moments like after eating. I switched to gum which allowed me to control my nicotine dosing so I could chew more when I had heavy urges. It worked out well but the gum was messing up my throat which made me get of it in 2 weeks. Thankfully I never went back.

Some people I know tried Chantix, in fact someone did Chantix right when I quit as well. They were unsuccessful in quitting. I know someone else who recently tried chantix and switched off to the patch because the pill wasn't helping enough they claimed.

 

[Linflas]

A drug called willpower worked wonders for me when I quit smoking.

 

[Mo0o]

Sounds like you're having good luck tapering down the physical dependency but still hooked mentally. A lot of your urges are due to learned behaviors from years of smoking. This maybe sound dumb but try buying some suckers/lollipops and just put one in your mouth during your ritual smoking times. The oral stimulation will help simulate your smoking days

 

[BrokenVisage]

My Mom did it and I couldn't be more proud. She tried so much crap in the past but none of it worked, she simply smoked for so long that it was still too hard to give it up with those methods. But somehow Chantix got her to stop and she's been clean for a year and a half now.