Chantix: Is It Safe?

Hello all. I am about to begin my quitting smoking experience, I only recently decided I am going to try to quit, and found it impossible to do, so I have gone to the doctor and have my Chantix starter pack and when I read the side effects it scares me to death. I want to know if any of my fellow ATS'ers have used this product successfully, and how bad the side effects were/are.

I have a friend who is a nurse, she is bi polar and already on medication for that, and she began the Chantix, immediately the bad dreams started and were freaking her out, she became violent with her boyfriend and daughter, certainly she quickly became severly deppressed too, she stopped taking the drug after just 2 weeks, and swore the nightmares didn't stop for several weeks after stopping.

Now I don't have any mental issues, I take maintenance drugs for blood pressure, cholesterol, and stomach problems, also I am anemic and take prescription iron pills for that. I am expecting to have nausea when I start taking the Chantix, the doc said to expect it anyway, also I expect to have nightmares, but I don't expect to become depressed, since I don't have issues in that area now and I am generally a very upbeat person, I make the best of every situation.

Smoke the e-cig.......it canhelp you quit and its safer than smoking.

other than that i smoke on an off, ill smoke maybe a pack in a week one week and not smoke for a year. and sometimes i will smoke 3 packs over 3 weeks straight and not smoke for a month before having another cigarette.

i say go with e-cig

I have no first hand experience with Chantix, only accounts from friends that have used it, both successfully and unsuccessfully, to quit smoking.

The effects of the drug seemed to vary greatly within my group of friends, from people who suffered no noticeable side effects, to very vivid and/or disturbing dreams with an unusually high level of recollection afterwards, increased anxiety leading to panic attacks, all the way up to bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts.

As I recall, and as you mentioned, Chantix has a rather long list of frightening side effects. This has been the primary reason why I have avoided trying it as a aid to quit smoking.

My personal recommendations would be to avoid it if you do suffer from any form of depression, abnormal anxiety, anger control problems, or any other potentially debilitating mental issues. However, as you stated, being an upbeat person with no mental issues, it seems that you may respond well to the drug.

I wish you the best with your goal of quitting smoking, please keep us updated with your progress if you decide to stick with Chanitx!

So, I took Wellbutrin, which is exactly the same as Chantix.

It gave me a horrible reaction, I had hives.

It also causes seizures in 1/250 people when used to treat some conditions.

I would read all the fine print.

en.wikipedia.org...

On July 1, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration required varenicline and Zyban (bupropion) to carry a black box warning, the agency's strongest safety warning, due to side effects including depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicidal actions.

Be careful

reply to post by seadragoniii


Thank you seadragon, I will keep posting to this thread whatever progress and side effects I have.

reply to post by phi1618


I have to agree, the E-cigarettes seems to be the way to go right now.

Yes, there's some controversy over their "safety", but what product cant that be said about today? This is strictly my opinion on the matter and has no factual data to support it. My thoughts are that, the FDA, who recently threw a fit over the safety of E-cigarettes, is more concerned with the potential revenue loss from taxation on standard cigarettes than it is over the possible health issues raised by the e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes, at least the brands i've looked in to, claim to contain no additives, chemicals, or other potential hazardous items beyond Nicotine.

So possible hazards, which we haven't been told about yet, and probably wont until the FDA finds a way to add a ton of sales tax to this product, at this point dont seem to even come close to outweighing the benefits of switching to an E-cigarette, which include, but are not limited to:

• Ability to "smoke" anywhere, regardless of smoking rules
  
• No more cigarette smell on your clothes, hair, mouth, fingers
  
• No more introducing harmful chemicals to your body. A person would be hard pressed to put a price on their health
  
• Cost! E-cigarettes, while are expensive in up-front cost, will have payed for themselves in a matter of months, and, at current prices, will actually save you money over traditional cigarettes afterwards
  

In addition, and I cant vouch for any brands beyond the ones that I've looked in to, they allow you to gradually reduce your nicotine intake, and step down to a no-nicotine cartridge, allowing you to still get the "mental" satisfaction of: holding a cigarette, inhaling, blowing smoke, the physical act of placing the cigarette between your lips; you are doing so with inhaling nothing but a harmless, chemical free, vapor.

While i'm sure this list is far, far, far, from complete, you get the idea. This is the course i'll be pursuing soon in my own attempt to quit smoking.



My only real question about e-cigarettes, is how do you know when you "finished" your cigarette?

Edit: typos

[edit on 29-8-2009 by seadragoniii]

reply to post by space cadet


My wife and I both used Chantix, and had no ill effects. It really depends on the individual. It worked just as expected, but you have to handle the habit. It does great for the chemical addiction. It's worth giving it a try, you can always drop it if you have ill effects.

reply to post by SpacePunk


So you have both quit smoking now? I hope that is a yes. I am at a point that I have to quit. I have been diagnosed now with copd, and am on spiriva, I feel I am going downhill fast, my lung age after testing was almost 20 yrs older than I am. And I hate cigarettes, I really do, they stink, they are expensive, unattractive, they have ruined my tooth color, and are killing me. I swear I wish I had known how addictive they were, let alone dangerous, back when I was 10 yrs old and started smoking!

I have 3 friends who used Champix and last I spoke with them they were all down to a few smokes a day. All 3 of them were smoking about a pack a day when they started to use it.

I never asked all 3 of them but only one friend mentioned side effects.
Very vivid dreams was the side effect we discussed.

I remember my friend telling me that the dreams were so vivid that they would wake him and all he could think when he woke up was WTF?
He did say however that if he took his last pill around supper time as apposed to late evening he would not have this problem.

Not sure if this is the case for everyone or not. We are all affected in different ways by different things.

reply to post by space cadet


For a time, yes, we stopped smoking. As I said, you must control the habit. We started smoking again, but that's not failure of Chantix, it's our failure to control the habit, and avoid triggers.

On another note. A friend of ours tried Chantix, and it put her into fits of rages, just outright nutty rages.

reply to post by SpacePunk


Yeah that is kinda what happened with my friend, she was having uncontrollable rage, just before stopping the Chantix she packed everything she had into boxes in less than 8 hrs and vacated her house, she called a furniture co and sold them everything left in the house (appliances, couches, bedroom suites, ect.) The next day she realized that she was being irrational and went to her doctor, they told her to stop the Chantix, but she had already screwed herself up so bad, she even quit her job in a fit! She continued to have problems for some time after she quit taking them.

I am trying to figure out if this is what happens only when you already have exsisting mental problems or not.

Since I work 3rd shift I will be starting my first pill in the morning, and going to bed just after I take it. On the days I have to take 2 pills, I will take the 2nd one with my evening dinner.

Wish me luck and pleasant dreams!

reply to post by space cadet


My boyfriend is taking this and well he was not himself when I saw him. He too is bi-polar and is on medicine for that. He started the chantix a couple weeks ago and I was just up there this past week and he was very different than normal. He did have horrible/weird dreams. I swear I had an entire conversation with him in his sleep about canned squid~ LOL~ Anyways...he was very irritable, down and restless. I have been with him for a year and a half and he has never acted like this esp while on his meds. I dont know if the meds are doing anything in relation with the chantix but I asked him to stop it for a week and just see how he feels. He was very snippy with me and he is never like that, he even apologized for it because he knew it was out of character for him. The dreams are bothering him because he cant sleep because of them. My best friend also took this a couple years ago but she only had the bad dreams and some mild irritability. As for my bf, I would love him to stop smoking but this medicine seems to be doing more harm than good to him. A close friend of mine had a co-worker get those shots behind your ears and he quit cold turkey that day and he smoked for 30 years! It was 200 a shot and you only got one behind each ear...I have only heard of this a couple times and it seems like it really works, its just a little expensive. Good luck to you and congrats and trying to quit!

My first day on chantix, I ate a small b-fast and took the first one before going to bed this morning ( I work 3rd shift). No dreams today, but I woke up with an upset stomach. I was gripey and my hubby was pissing me off about everything. So far just a normal day. LOL!

I didn't notice anything different about my craving for cigs, I did notice my cigs tasted funny.

My second day on Chantix: no bad dreams , I did dream about eating some lemon pepper chicken and I would swear I could taste it, I wanted it so bad when I got up, I ate a lemon just to get that taste. I am having jitters too. So far I am still smoking it up, but they don't taste right. I am working on things like not smoking when I go to check the parking lot at work, or in the car (one of my must have moments) or directly after a meal, but it ain't easy. I break easy right now. Damn cigarettes.

I was a three pack a day smoker for more years than I'd care to admit to.
I heard wonderful things about Chantix so I gave it a try and I've been almost
three months without a cigarette.

I took Chantix for two weeks before I quit and two weeks after. I suffered from
NO side effects, but like I said, I didn't take it for very long.
I wish you lots and lots of luck!

Keep us posted and shoot me a U2U if you have any questions or need a
little support.

reply to post by Sundancer


Good for you! I am hoping to be a success story, and more than that I want my life free of them, I have already designated the money the normally spend on cigs, I have some great ideas for what I can do with it!

Day 3, still no crazy dreams, I am smoking slightly less, mainly because they just don't taste right, and I am trying to condition myself for Friday, my official 'quit date'. I am ill tempered today, that is for sure. My hunny and I went to Burger King and he orders a double stack, I ordered chicken fries, onion rings, and I noticed the bag felt a little light, I took his double stack out and near shoved it into the girls hand telling her that could not be a double stack, 'look at this' I yelled, 'it doesn't look anything like the picture' ' and what the hell with the onion rings, there must be a whooping 5 f****ng rings in here, I said Large!'

I stepped back and watched these poor cashiers move faster than I ever saw them move! But I felt bad, it isn't like me to go off like that! I yelled at my precious little chihuahua too, for scratching on my leg for attention.

Hope this gripiness slows some, I start taking 2 pills tommorrow!

Off from work for 2 days, I am back tonight and reporting that my cigarrettes taste like poo, but I keep on smoking, I have only cut down by about 3 a day. I am ill as a wet hornet. Weird dreams have now set in, nightmares in a sense, I went to bed worried about a family member who is in an abusive relationship, in my dream I killed her husband with much enjoyment. Hell, that could be normal though.

reply to post by space cadet


Don't get discouraged. Quitting's hard. You've taken a giant step in just deciding to quit, you CAN do this!

Quitting won't happen over night. If you're smoking three ciggs less than you were, then it's working. Good for you!!! It took my cousin 3 months to quit on Chantix. Try to smoke one less cigg a day as they taste nasty anyway. Hang in there!