Addiction - Chantix /Champix (Varenicline)

[yaba]

Please lookt at the rules, swim thinks should be alright as he was on champix before, Twenty weeks a non smoker today !! had a 40a day habbit.

[thewomaninagreenhat]

Came back to say that it has been over a year now since my quit date, and I am still a non-smoker! Yay! I have not had one single puff in all this time! I still get cravings for them though. I get cravings for a lot of things though. Also, I am a very addictive type person. It has been tough. I hope that everyone else here has managed to stay a non-smoker too!

[~lostgurl~]

Congratulations! A year is a great achievement especially if you are still fighting cravings. This girl hasn't had one since March and never craves them anymore, champix worked a miracle for her.

[thewomaninagreenhat]

I am SO glad to hear that! I was wondering if you were still around and how things were going. Life has gotten so busy that I haven't had much free time and I haven't gotten here much. I would like to change that, but the bills keep coming and they want to be paid. lol

Happy New Year!

[ex-junkie]

chantix is called champix here in australia. fair play, it helped swim to quit smoking. however, when the course ran out, it left swim with major depression, anorexia, insomnia, contemplating suicide, furthermore, it made swim start to think about taking drugs again after being clean for both a long and short while. swim hasnt taken heroin since 2005, so this all resurfaced of course. thankfully swim is strong enough not to give in to thoughts like this, but having the thoughts is still horrifying to deal with after getting this far.

:megathumbdown:


worse still were swims withdrawals. there was definite withdrawals from the champix (chantix), and they werent of the nicotine variety. now you must keep in mind that swim hasnt had any other addictive substances to warrant any type of withdrawal reaction, furthermore, when swim is withdrawing swim KNOWS!!!

the withdrawals lasted non stop for a few weeks after swim stopped the treatment. they definitely were not nicotine withdrawals, they were much more grotty and disgusting, uncomfortable.

please people, swim discourages people from taking this medication with all of its heart. its really fekn bad news. swim is yet to come good, and its been at least a month now since end of champix.

[~lostgurl~]

Can you please describe your withdrawal symptoms?

[ex-junkie]

ok, swim said there was diarroeah that lasted for 2 weeks, skin crawls, hot/cold flushes (jacket on/jacket off behaviour- its summer here btw), extreme sensitivity to sunlight, dizziness, rage, paranoia, depression, insomnia.

please take into account that swim was on no other medication at the time, had not consumed any legal/illegal substances, and furthermore nobody could possibly have "spiked" swim with anything to result in said withdrawals. (swim is very isolated).

swim feels they should mention they have taken antidepressants, buprenorphine, naltrexone in the past, obviously they affect "that same part" of the brain/affect receptors etc.

swim was also in high spirits before champix treatment, and during the champix treatment. bad effects didnt occur until treatment was finished. swim quit smoking 2 weeks into the treatment, and didnt smoke anymore after that.

swim found it easy to quit smoking whilst on champix.

swim did however, cut back to one tablet a day part way into treatment, because they realized they were being very "aggro". swim continued to take only one tablet a day for a while, so the treatment lasted longer than three months.

an educated guess would see swim having been on the champix for 4.5-5 months. maybe this is where swim went wrong?

swim apologizes if this post seems all over the place.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Thanks for sharing this interesting, albeit nasty experience
	good follow up, well written, such a unique experiance is highly valuable

[~lostgurl~]

Thanks for the reply, that does seem a long time to be taking it.

[RoboCodeine7610]

Swim has heard some really bad things about champix (like suicides and that kinda thing) plus it's pretty expensive.Swim quit without anything like that and has been clean for almost a year even though he still craves for them at times, but it's nothing compared to 6-8 months back.

So swim thinks that the desire to quit is all that is needed.You need to have a reason to quit other than "it's bad for me".You need to experience some kind of health problem to really open your eyes otherwise you're always thinking "Some people smoke their whole lives and they don't get lung cancer".

[ex-junkie]

Originally Posted by ~lostgurl~

Thanks for the reply, that does seem a long time to be taking it.

yes, here doctors often recommend taking two courses, which brings the total treatment time to 6 months.

Originally Posted by RoboCodeine7610

plus it's pretty expensive.

swims doctor prescribed champix on an authority script, meaning swim paid less than $20AUD.

[ex-junkie]

read this first...

http://www.patientsville.com/medicat...de_effects.htm

[Mneesh]

I have been on Champix for about 4 weeks. I am very happy because I no longer smoke! The truth is that I still had urges about a week ago. I always wanted to read Allen Carr's “Easy Way to Stop Smoking”. I got my hands on it a couple of days back. It says that the most of the nicotine is gone in three days and in three weeks it is completely out of your system. I think Champix has helped. But I have had issues throughout. I feel great, healthy, more active and energetic. In fact, I don’t think I need the Champix anymore. According to the “Easy Way…”, the main demon is your psychology. What disturbs me is that on the insert it says to take it in combination with other therapy. The nicotine has left my body, so what is the point of taking it anymore? Also why does it say to keep taking it after 12 weeks? Now I feel like they are just trying to get me to keep spending money on it. Basically I think Champix helped me in the first few weeks. Now I feel like it is over kill. In fact I would like enjoying the feeling of my bettered health, but the Champix is bringing me down. Comments?

[MrG]

You need to understand that, whilst the nicotine in your body may well have returned to pre-smoking levels, the dopaminergic reward system can still trip you up.

The lack of nicotine following cessation from smoking would, ordinarily, create an itch that can only be scratched by smoking a cigarette. The associated thoughts of how much a smoker *needs* that cigarette is directly linked to the dopamine system within the brain. E.G. thoughts of *needing* a cigarette are connected to the knowledge of 'just how much better' a smoker would feel if he just had one more cigarette. This is the reward system and, if he were to smoke that "last" cigarette, he would no longer feel the stress of *needing* a cigarette and so his brain will reward him by making him feel good about how he has stopped craving a cigarette.

Just because Champix will block the nicotine craving by directly interfering with the body's processing of it, it doesn't mean that the associated memory of reward isn't still present.

I'm not telling you not to stop the course, I'm just warning you as to why there may well be a good reason to complete the full 12 weeks, even though you currently know that you do not need to smoke. Life stressors that would ordinarily have had you reaching for a smoke are still there and it will take a while of living with these normal trigger events without smoking before you remove them from being trigger events completely.

From having quit using the book myself, I know that you may well have reached the point of psychologically accepting the utter pointlessness of tobacco and that you could very well cease the Chamipix and be fine. It's going to have to be something you consider carefully though.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good points, well explained.