A while back I was considering Chantix if all else failed , now its looking like all else has failed !
My stops are fairly frequent , after slipping back it always takes a good few months to re summon the courage to try again . hindsight on this whole on /off pattern ends up pretty de motivating . So if chantix can help I'm definately interested .
so I'm back to the drawing board . earlier discussions on this kind of fizzled out with out any
posting member claiming success . Yet it is suposed to be successful .

I'm wondering whether to do this tsm style or hold to a kick it date after one week as
my doctor said .
Secondly my doctor reckons it'd interfere with NAl , although if I drank and took NAl once a week , i'd probably be ok .
So in any case I shall try champix but to give it the best shot I shall attempt not to drink more than once a week . To do that i'd like to get the holiday period out of the way .
So around mid Aug I wish to attack ending my far too long cig addiction .
For now if anyone has experience or comment please speak on this . Thanks .

Hi Elfern,

You didn't say why you are giving up. Is it the length of time you have been trying? If so, have heart. I was getting VERY discouraged when I was PMd by someone who was extremely encouraging. I was told that there have been people cured at the 14 and 18 month mark. It was also suggested to me by BenTSM that you chew the pills - I know - GROSS- but Dr. Eskapa said that they may not effectively get into all peoples systems so chewing helps with this. One more thing, Ben was told to try 75 mg. and it worked for him!!!!!!!

I think it is great that you are still going to try and are looking for alternatives but maybe hang in for a little longer. One more thing, I was told that a really good indicator that you will be cured is if you, at some point in your treatment, have had a night of very little consumption for no reason you can understand only to go right back up to normal or higher levels immediately after.

Keep us posted and best of luck.

Hello Claremont

I think perhaps you misread me there . My interest in Chantix is for my cigarette addiction
and this is what I wish to deal with .
Where alcohol is concerned I'm really just fine and thanks to tsm . i'm sure some people
might wonder why I still drink and reckon I'm not cured . However I drink at safe limits
and it never ever gives me any problems at all . I can live with three glasses a night it's vastly
better than the two bottles (or more ) I used to have . I don't intend to stop unless continued extinction makes it feel natural . Continued extinction I'm sure is going on now but it 's very
slow . recently the third glass is quite a struggle for me , a while back four glasses was the norm . The desire just gets weaker .

I do hope though that when I start Chantix i'll be able to maintain more Af 's because that is necessary for the chantix to work . What you said about people getting results after 18 months is I believe right . In fact up to three years .

Thanks for your concern . I'm now going to read a few of your posts see how it's going for you .
All the best .

I've been nicotine free since December 1, 2009 thanks to Chantix. It is part of the reason I take Nal now. I was looking for something that worked in a similar way on my alcohol addiction. Chantix should not have any contradictions with Nal. It binds to the nicotine receptors in your brain and shouldn't interfere with the dopamine pathway that Nal works on. If the nicotine receptor isn't activated, it won't produce dopamine. In my non-medical mind, I would think that Nal would work nicely with Chantix.

Quitting smoking is not easy no matter the method. I quit cold turkey once before and Chantix was most definitely the easier of the two. It relieves most of the withdrawal symptoms, you will still have them, but they aren't as severe. Most people have to quit Chantix due to the side effects. I talked to about 20 people who had used it before I started the program and found that it worked for about 50% of them, but the other half couldn't handle the nausea. I got nauseous with the morning pill, but it was gone in about 20 minutes and was less severe if I ate breakfast before taking the pill. The other side effect that we all experienced was the “vivid dreams.” It was odd, but not a deal-breaker for me. I had vivid DREAMS, not vivid nightmares. Most of the men that I talked to were able to finish the program and stay nicotine free. Half of the women quit due to the nausea, but those that completed the program are still nicotine free.

I say go for it. You will feel like **** for the first week or two, but it does get better. I don't even think about smoking anymore. Don't try to TSM nicotine, pick the quit date and stick to it. If you smoke while on Chantix, the nicotine will be blocked, but you don't want to be on this stuff for the rest of your life.

I tried to quit smoking a dozen times or more. I could go without for a month or two and then back to smoking. I had smoked for 20+ years. I have been hypnotized, I tried cold turkey, cutting down, everything I could think of. Finally I tried Chantix for about 4 months and after that I decided I was finally ready to give up smoking for good. My wife quit with me, which was very helpful to do it together. She didn't use anything to help her. She has that "willpower" thing that I lack. Anyway, we have been tobacco free for 13 months. I never would have thought anything could help me do that. It gets easier and easier. I hardly even think about it anymore. There are a few side effects, but it is so temporary compared to the years of life saved by not smoking. I am now on Naltrexone for about 5 months and I am hoping for the same results as I experienced with the Chantix. I cannot express how much better life is without smoking. I am sure the same will be true when I can have an alcohol free life again.

Good luck to you with both Naltrexone and Chantix, keep us posted!

Thankyou Lepomis and Stubby
Well there's two more people doing admirably and past the six month mark .
Whatever temptation may arrive I pray you hold to it now , because you've a precious relief.
The whole thing is a thorough nuisance , that I have to start a stop yet again after all the attempts is a huge drag . I believe in carr and Trimpey's point that the desire puffs itself up into something formidable on the mental plain , especially as one approaches the kick it date
with all manner of anxiety . I'm hoping that that at least will be less on Chantix .
Thanks for the info you gave there . i'll let you know in a while .

"It takes 6 months for your brain to realize that there has been a change in it's chemistry, and another 6 months for it to re-wire itself."

I'm sure I heard this from an addict trying to kick some habit, I just can't remember who or what. I think it is valuable information in that: it may be true, and it requires you to give any change a full year to work. For the first 6 months I constantly thought about smoking, and dreamed of it every night. I only remember having one smoking dream in the past month. My old 100% triggers of coffee, red meat, or sex, now only really "trigger" the nicotine craving about 10% of the time. The craving comes across as: "Damn, a smoke would be nice right now!" but I remember that I don't smoke anymore and forget about it.

In two weeks I will be in Mexico on vacation. Cuban cigars are legal in Mexico. I (used to) really like Cohibos. I've been having an internal debate for the past few months if I should abstain or not. I think I can handle it, but I'm sure there are a few people on the board who are familiar with addictions and how it only takes one to go into full relapse. On the other hand, I don't really want to test this addiction anymore. There are plenty of other things to smoke in Mexico that are nicotine free.

Hi Elfern - Oops - did misread you:-)

It took me three times of quitting to finally quit. I always quit and then started for, sat, the summer and then quit on labour day and then smoked at Christmas, etc etc etc. The hardest part was not smoking when I was drinking. They just seem to go hand in hand, like wine and cheese?? Well, it's been years now and sometimes I look at people smoking and romanticize it -like in those old movies where the people always look so cool when they smoke BUT then I remember how it tastes and visualize a smoker's lung and remember what people smell like when they smoke - pretty gross stuff. It is not just a chemical addiciton, it's also something that we physically do to occupy ourselves out of habit. I had a friend that used to sit on her hands when she was quitting because she didn't know what else to do with them. It's an oral fixation as well- that's why people tend to gain weight when they quit - hand to mouth.

Have you tried hypnosis? I know some people that worked for and also, my ex was successful with laser. Maybe combined treatments?? I dread my grandson giving up his soother - I look at him and think, man, that's what it's like to give up smoking.

Best of luck - keep us posted!

Ok, so Ive been smoke free for just over a month now. My wife has been smoke free for about 6 months roughly, she used basically all of her Chantix 3 month pack. I on the other hand used only the starter pack. Took it for one week, til my quit date, cutting down on how many I smoked.

On my quit date I actually had a half cig....since that day I have had none. I thought I was feeling some of the side affects from the Chantix, like being lethargic etc... so after 2 weeks, I stopped taking it altogether.

I figured, I used the starter pack to break my smoking pattern and get used to the idea of not smoking, now Im using a bit of will power. They say the cravings come in spurts lasting up to 3 minutes max, which seems to be true. You get a craving wait 3 minutes, and it goes away. At times its been difficult, but I timed my quit date with how many packs of cigarettes I had left and vowed not to buy a packa again.....so if I end up bumming a smoke off someone in the future, thats ok, as long as I dont buy a pack again.

And like alcohol, my life will be mainly smoke free. Its all about breaking the pattern.

Side note: I went running the other day, had the oddest sensation. After running for sometime, I wasnt out of breath (because I havent smoked in a month) that felt great, but my legs began to hurt really bad, and it was hard to stand up....then it hit me. Wow my legs are tired! Never felt that before, because I was always out of breath first!

Ive said NO to alot of activities because of my smoking. Im alot more active in the past month, thats for sure.

i quit smoking just over 4 years ago in a way that i found very very surprisingly easy. my prior attempts had been nightmare difficult (and unsuccessful). i went to a guy in Boston MA who is called the mad russian. he does some kind of bioenergetics. he holds group sessions of about 2 hours, and charges $65 per session. i'm not sure of the success rate, something like 80+%. he says he erases a persons attachment to a substance, and i believe works on other addictions and food as well. all i know for sure is that i left one session and have not smoked since. crazy, because i was a 30 yr 1 1/2 pack a day smoker who had tried to quit and failed many times. i had no withdrawl symptoms, and only an occasional thought of lighting up, but those passed quickly. i know people may think i am nuts for falling for this, or that i'm trying to promote this, but no. it is just something that worked for me. google the mad russian, and read the articles for yourself. he doesn't have a web site, he is both old and old school.
i hope this info helps someone. i am beyond happy to be cigarette free and will go to Boston if tsm fails to turn me into a moderate or occasional drinker. the method he employs requires one to never reintroduce the addictive substance.
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