My wife of twenty years turned into someone else on Chantix.

Don't know who the crazy bitch was, but it wasn't my wife again until she got the Chantix out of her system.

Sorry to hear about your mother.

I took champix and it scared the shit out of me. After 2 weeks my mind felt like scrambled eggs and I felt the urge to jump off the balcony (and I was in no in way a suicidal or even depressed person before taking it). I obviously stopped taking it immediately.

It's mind boggling to me that it's allowed on the market.

For some they don't have any adverse affects, but if you start to notice even a modest change in your mood while on it, stop immediately. When it messes up your head it happens fast... like over 2 days.

Once I got into vaping I quit smoking, that's the route I'd advise anyone to go... no one has ever had an issue vaping.

oh one other thing... it should go without saying you can't trust the FDA. I mean, look at rates of diabetes and depression and all kinds of stuff. Our food is making us sick.

Michele Obama tried to take on the food industry and cut out all the sugar and stuff in the school lunches. She LOST. Instead they ran a campaign about how kids need to exercise more.

The "system" is more than happy to fill your body with shit and then sell you pills when your body falls apart. The FDA isn't going to get in the way of that.

Wow I'm late here. Sorry you're terrible wrong, school lunches and snacks don't make kids fat.. They get enough shitty food at home dude, or just bring it to school. Trust me I've seen it first hand. Becuase of her our school lunches are not at all high in calories. They give you food that feeds you for like 1 hour, maybe. Kids eat like shit and don't exercise, it's true.

I couldn't quit permanently smoking until I took Chantix, fwiw. It fucked with my dreams (but at least I could sleep), and mostly masked withdrawal symptoms.

That said, I only took it for half the recommended time.

Same here. It gave me some crazy fucking dreams. But let's be clear about what the drug is and does...it fucks with the receptors in your brain. Different people can and will react differently.

Did you try to vape prior to it? I know so many people who have quit smoking from vaping (maybe that's the new/healthier way). Some continue to vape, some have quit altogether. I'm a smoker and could never imagine taking something like that to quit, side effects don't seem to be worth it...

Vaping was tragic. At first I would vape as a substitute. Within a week or so I was vaping as a "substitute" inside and smoking outside.

I actually had to cut back off vaping which is probably lame but whatever.

Ah ic, yeah I guess we are all different. I probably should quit, but I like to smoke.

I had allot of the other symptoms also but the nightmares are what I remember most.

You can survive with the other symptoms but once you start losing sleep it's all down hill after.

Can't speak for chantix, but i did take wellbutrin once (it's indicated to stop smoking) and not only did I end up smoking CONSTANTLY, but gave me a 24 hour erection, fucked up my body temperature regulation (hot flash to cold sweat and back again in 30mins), and the exploding bombs of light that were going off in my head. Oh and the dreams were fuuuuuuuuckkked.

Fuck all of that shit.

I used it to quit years ago and I couldn't even finish the regimen of pills. Luckily I was far enough along having not smoked that I was able to fight off the cravings. Everything started off great , I was tapering down , cravings were becoming less frequent , withdrawal was finished , but one day I was just sitting watching television and the urge to just start breaking shit in my living room like some lunatic came over me. Lucky for me my GF was there and she talked me down but holy hell was that scary. Then from that day on I just kept getting rage filled thoughts and my temper was extremely short to the point I stopped on an off ramp and did a stand off/douche bag move outside a poor guys truck window for ten minutes because I thought he was driving to slow. It was getting more frequent and I was starting to question my fucking sanity till one day while having nothing to read , going to the bathroom , I grabbed my chantix box and started reading that big assed pamphlet that comes inside . Boom , right there in the warnings , mood swings , needless to say because I'm not in prison I stopped taking that shit that day. I still had like 4 more weeks to go on the regimen but it didn't matter because I had actually not had a cigarette in days .

TL- don't take chantix, its bad , mmmkay

I just started the second week dose. I had heard about the dreams and the suicidal thoughts. I was afraid to start b/c I have a long history with clinical depression, but have been doing quite well the last two years. Like better than I've done in years.

My cardiologist kind of insisted/pressured that I take it. I am usually very anti medicine. But, he laid the guilt trip on pretty hard about my kids growing up without a mom, etc... I felt almost like a douchebag by not taking it. So far, it doesn't seem to have done shit for me.

Anyway, yesterday I got out the inside pamphlet and was reading everything. It scared the fuck out of me. Its like this one pill could potentially make me the person I am terrifying of becoming (not to mention my brother has schizo affect disorder...the whole seeing things, hearing things, makes my hair stand on end). Fucking PSYCHOSIS as a side effect...OMG. Thus far, I seem like my normal self. I did notice a few days ago that I have started talking to myself though. Like straight up, in the grocery store, talking to myself. I have NEVER acted like that.

Not sure if you have read some of the other replies but from one human being to another, I would suggest stop taking it. You read that shit show of a pamphlet yourself, and that's just what they admit to. There are many other ways to quit that don't involve risks that are in some ways worse than what your trying to quit.

I don't know about everyone else but if the only two options were continue smoking vs. taking Chantix, I would rather die a slow horrible death years from now from cancer than take a fix that could cause me to kill my self and others around me. Usually that shit says "suicidal ideation" and "suicidal thoughts". No, the FDA is aware of and very quietly admits it's a risk enough that COMPLETED SUICIDE is listed next to nausea and back ache. I've taken more than my fair share of pharmaceuticals in my day, and I don't ever recall seeing that on anything no matter how "risky" it was proclaimed to be.

The whole idea of quitting an addiction by popping a pill and going about life otherwise completely normal, is really upside down to me. It's the most absolute easy way out of smoking cigarettes by far. Well life has no free lunches. You want a quick solution with no effort? Well, be willing to inflict psychosis upon yourself and going on a rage filled rampages. The other extreme is quitting with nothing and allow your body to detox and heal the way it's meant to, which results in no risk and pure benefit. Unfortunately, we all use one drug or another to feel or not feel something, and doing it the way nature intended is gonna feel the way it's supposed to, which is like shit. If you really want set free of shit, you have to restore balance. Not take shortcuts and pay for it with some other part of your health.

To the OP, I hope if nothing else I maybe helped ya think a little more one way or the other about what is right for you. Good luck!

As a guy who works from home and likes to have the TV on as background noise, i can't tell you how many commercials I see first.. for a drug coming out (ask your doctor!) followed by a commercial for lawyers who are putting together a lawsuit for a drug that was being pushed only months previously. I should have written them all down.

I hate to break it to you but this isn't a conspiracy. The health effects are pretty well documented at this point. 2 years ago I took Chantix for 3 months and thought I didn't need it anymore (it's expensive without insurance or with insurance really). Started smoking again and now I've been taking it again for going on 2 months. Obviously I can't speak for everyone's mental state when taking Chantix but I have never had any issues besides a metallic taste in my mouth the first week and vivid dreams. Now, if you had spoke to your doctor before and they were honest with you then they probably should have mentioned that if you have underlying mental issues then the Chantix will amplify those issues. I'm not trying to shit on anyone's claims or start unnecessary arguments but the issue is probably your lack of research into the drug you are taking. As someone who has tried quitting smoking unsuccessfully for 20 years with every means possible (besides hypnosis), Chantix is a real life changer. I asked my doctor about the suicide/depression/anger claims that were made about Chantix and he simply told me, "if you have any of these issues then you should avoid it". So considering you need a prescription to get Chantix then I'm guessing most people don't do their research or aren't honest with their doctors about their mental state. Again, everyone may argue with what I'm saying but I have a feeling that most of these negative claims about reactions are from people that aren't being honest with their doctor or with themselves about their mental state at the time. For us that don't have any options left for quitting smoking, then I consider this drug a really positive thing.

This. I couldn't have stated it better myself. I took Chantix for two months and have now been smoke free for over nine years. I remember having some vivid dreams and I was a grumpy fucker for the first few weeks of taking it but, other than that, worked great for me.

I truly believe that if you do have any of these underlying mental issues, this isn't the drug for you.

Thanks, I guess the one point I didn't convey and the whole reason I posted was that I don't want people who need to quit smoking to be turned off because they read these negative things. It may or may not be for you. As someone else posted about Wellbutrine, I had tried taking that for quitting smoking a decade ago and it completely scrambled my thought process. These things can affect everyone differently.

How can you say they are sweeping it under the rug? http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm436494.htm

They made "neuropsychiatric events" a box warning. But you bring up a good point: always educate yourself on risks when putting chemicals in your body.

I got a couple of weeks into Chantix and one night in bed I started to uncontrollably shiver. The room was not cold and I was not sick. I stopped taking it immediately.

Corporations: messing with your brain chemistry!

I knew a woman who I used to bartend with years ago who took a full two weeks off work because she was one of the people who experienced psychosis side effects. Dissociation from reality is hard to recover from (she did, though, thankfully)

Kinda sounds like the Accutane side effects. It has alot of those same side effects.

for me Chantrix worked very well defeating a pack a day habit of decades, never slept better, been nicotine free for over a year now. I had tried doing the 'cold turkey' thing back in 2002 and was climbing up the wall on day three.

my other half used it for a short while last summer and managed to give up too.

only a very occasional drinker... which my guess is one of the areas that people who have problems with Chantrix and dreams prob stem from.

a few crazy dreams but nothing that made one wake up screaming. just a few odd ones.

The dreams were awfully strange. I kept dreaming of waking up and starting my day. Then I would wake up and start my day again only to wake up and start my day. Oh it was maddening. After the 5th iteration I just sat on the edge of my bed for half an hour hoping it was reality. Started smoking again 45 months later.

I've actually used Chantix on 2 separate occasions, as well as having quit smoking with most of the methods out there. I can tell you that a lot of the side effects listed here are also things that you would experience no matter how you choose to quit smoking. You will become very irritable, and have mood swings while your body is learning to adjust to no nicotine. Both times that I took Chantix, the only side effect that I associated with the drug was very vivid dreaming. I few other people that I know have reported the same thing. Some people find it disturbing, but personally, I found it quite pleasant. Just so you know, the last time I used Chantix was about 5 years ago. I haven't had any adverse effects that I'm aware of, but I also have started smoking again, so there's that.

My friend's mom was crazy on Chantix. I took it before her though, all I got was projectile vomiting for the first couple hours after I took it every day.

Wow....thank god those dastardly bastards at the fda put out this list of side effects for you to quote...they're certainly up to no good. Publishing this list... Openly. For everyone to read. On multiple venues on line. And in print. And with your doctor. Who goes over the side effects.

my ex-wife tried that shit in the 90s to quit. She was a raving loon for a couple of weeks until i made her stop taking it. Fucking pharmaceutical companies are poisoning our souls!!!

Ah ic, yeah I guess we are all different. I probably should quit, but I like to smoke.

This. I couldn't have stated it better myself. I took Chantix for two months and have now been smoke free for over nine years. I remember having some vivid dreams and I was a grumpy fucker for the first few weeks of taking it but, other than that, worked great for me.

I truly believe that if you do have any of these underlying mental issues, this isn't the drug for you.