Varenicline (Chantix™) Questions

[exjunky]

I've been smoking for 22 years. I've quit smoking once by weaning myself down slowly (on a bet!) and remained nicotine free for about a year and half, but I met a wonderful woman who smoked Virginia Slims, and sadly I started smoking them too.

I just found out about this Chantix stuff. I love the concept because I'm on suboxone for my opiate dependancy and it worked wonders, and Chantix is pharmacologically much like suboxone: it's a partial agonist.

Could I get a show of hands, an informal straw poll? Who's used Chantix and was able to quit? Who used it and was still unable to quit?

[xjunkie4u]

Right here Ex. It working for me for 3 weeks now. I slowed down like detoxing smoking less and less until after 2 weeks of taking it I quit completly. Welbutrin works too but I think chantix is better. It seems like Chantix takes away the "obsession" to smoke better than welbutrin allthough they both make smoking unrewarding. I may go back on welbutrin after I'm done with chantix as I was on it briefly and felt good on it, mentally.

[exjunky]

Hey we're screen-name twins. That's cool.

Anyhow, thanks for the advice. I like the principle it works on. The one time I quit, it was on a bet if you can believe it. I lost the bet and the terms were that I had to quit cigarettes in a month. And I never welch on a bet.

I set up a schedule where I had allotments of cigarettes for each day, e.g. starting with 30 (my typical number), then 29, then 28, then 27, until finally I was down to just one. In retrospect it's hard to believe such a brain-dead method worked, but it did.

[SoberKev]

It has worked for me. Please read through the other Chantix thread as I have shared some of my experience with this drug. I could not have quit any other way.

I have been quit for 4 Weeks, 1 Day, 22 hours, 16 minutes and 58 seconds (29 days). I have saved $215.47 by not smoking 1,197 cigarettes. I have saved 4 Days, 3 hours and 45 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 9/23/2007 8:35 PM

[barb dwyer]

I've gone from two packs per day to two cigarettes per day - in a month.

[karrotop]

Hi ex.....i've been on chantix for two months,and been smoke free for 7 weeks of it...aside from some stomach issues,i haven't had a problem at all.this has been the easiest quit i've ever had,and i've had quite a few in my smoking career...
try it....

[barb dwyer]

I'm telling everybody who will listen to try it.

[exjunky]

Thanks for all of your comments. Now that I've looked around I feel silly starting a new thread when this has been discussed at length just around the corner. Oh well, it's an important topic, so it deserves repetition.

I also love the principle that it works on. The discovery of partial agonists is one of the great advances of modern pharmacology. For all the talk you hear about personality traits and the psychology behind addiction, when you get right down to it, the brain operates on a chemical infrastructure. It only makes sense that if the brain has a chemical imbalance you can restore normalcy by introducing more chemicals. People who are repulsed by that notion haven't really thought the situation through very clearly, IMHO.

[xjunkie4u]

Ex, it sounds like you have a sound plan. For me the detoxing or cutting down from 1 pack to 2 per day worked very well on Chantix . You said your on Welbutrin? That makes smoking wothless (not rewarding) from my experience, how does it affect your smoking? I want to go back on it after chantix for mild depression/anxiety after chantix and you say it helps for narcotic cravings too. If so, that's perfect for me as opiates are the only drugs I ever crave and unfortunately I have to take some recently for gall bladder diseasr. I stopped using dope or any illegal drugs/booze 4 years ago and left that life behind but am discouraged at taking pain shots and pills from the ER for extreme pain. all as percribed, but it messes me up none the less. Even though my life is not going so well these days $ health, etc. I can be very glad I quit smoking and don't have to stand in a methadone line. all the best

[jlo34]

I quit just before Chantix was getting popular. I quit on wellbutrin...

I do work in a doctor's office, family medicine, and we have had tons of people who have had great success with Chantix. My AA sponsor who has smoked 2-3 packs for the past 40-50 years quit on Chantix!!! That was absolutely unbelievable!!!

Good luck on your venture!!
Blessings,
Jen