Anti-smoking prescription drug Chantix (varenicline)

I’ll put in what I’ve heard — my Doc said he has a handful of patients that have used it an had success.  One of the pharmacy techs where I bought mine (insurance covered none $114 after the $10 discount card) used it successfully as well.  I am finding myself numb literally… my hands, lips and teeth seem to be numb.  Today being day two I have found myself tired and napping most of the day without any problems falling asleep at night either.  My quit date is next Friday.  I did quit for two and a 1/2 days (cold turkey) on the “Great American Smoke Out” and it was terrible.  The other times I quit — because a baby was involved — overtook the withdrawals.  I’ll post again tomorrow.

Week 3 is when things really started changing for me. I was still
smoking although I had cut back probably by half. However, the big
change was that while I still wanted the cigarettes, they just didn’t
give me the nicotine hit they had before. It’s hard to explain, but
I’ll try and those of you who smoke will probably understand.

When I smoked, after a puff or two, I got a nice relaxed feeling. If
it had been a longer time since the last cigarette, I would get a
light-headed pleasant nicotine high. The best high was the first one
in the morning. What I’ve learned with Chantix is that there are two
parts of smoking to deal with when I quit. First is the drug “high”
part. I had smoked so long and so steadily that my sense of well-
being was dependant on getting that drug in my system on a regular
basis, getting that feeling of relaxation and calm. I call that
my “mental” reaction to nicotine.

There is also my “body” reaction to nicotine. When I got nicotine
deprived, I felt chest tightness, headachey, irritability, jumpy,
real PHYSICAL feelings as opposed to mental well-being feelings.

What Chantix began doing in the third week was taking away
the “high.” I would smoke, but it didn’t change how I felt
mentally. I didn’t get a high. I still had body cravings for
nicotine, but the “mental” hit went away. As it went away, I found
myself smoking for shorter periods of time. A few puffs and a little
nicotine in my body and I was satisfied.

I was also learning how to manage Chantix. The nausea was less and I
could mostly manage it eating beforehand or immediately after taking
the pill. I also learned that for me Chantix does not last a full
twelve hours. If I took it around 7:00 in the morning, I needed it
again by 4-5:00 in the afternoon. When it wore off overnight, I
didn’t awake, but when I did get up, I RAN to the pill because the
craving was BAD. For me it takes about 20 minutes for the Chantix to
kick in.

My routine became: 1. Wake up and take Chantix immediately. 2.
Eat something. 3. Try to be really, really busy for about 20
minutes to allow the medicine to kick in and not smoke before it
did. 4. After the twenty minutes when the cravings died down, I
allowed myself my morning cigarette. I did it this way because I
really wanted to be able to quit without using Nicotine
replacements. I knew that sooner or later I HAD to withdraw from
nicotine.

During this period, side effects were minimal. With work, I could
control the nausea. The only other effect from the medicine was
really vivid dreams. They weren’t bad or scary, just vivid and
sometimes I had trouble in the morning separating reality from the
dreams.

My other physical symtom during this time is that as my smoking
really slowed down, my lungs began trying to clear and I coughed a
LOT. I knew it was good, but I surely had sore chest muscles!

Next I’ll tell about my first two weeks off the medicine. (Weeks 5 &
6)

Hi -

Been on Chantix for about a week. Not sure if I really feel an effect
yet. I see that the starter pack apparently ramps up the dosage, so
that may have something to do with it.

Also, does anyone else find the pills hard to dislodge from the packaging?

K.