I started my course of Champix yesterday. Smoked as normal - and have to own up to being disappointed that I wanted to, it felt 'good' and so on. 'Impatient' is my middle name and the rational part of me (small as it is) knows that the Champix takes time to build up in my system and so nothing is likely to change near term.
However, I felt like I wanted to get on with the getting on, so wrote a list of 'necessary' cigarettes and 'habit' cigarettes. Decided that, starting today, I'd try to eliminate the 'habit' cigarettes. What that has meant so far is that I've smoked five rather than the eight I'd have normally smoked in seven hours. I'm not feeling too deprived.
My question is whether I'm doing the right thing. I've been reading numerous threads over the past few days and, inevitably, there are many different experiences. But am I right in trying to cut down now in anticipation of the day 7-10 days away when I'll stop - or should I continue as normal? And I'm fascinated by the people who have 'listened to their bodies' and stopped ahead of their planned date because it 'felt right'. Is that a common thing - will I just 'know'? - or am I more likely to have to take control and say "this is the day I've set, and I'm quitting from now".
I'd be thrilled to hear your experiences.
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If think the only drawback to Chimpex is it puts you on a guilt trip. You think you should not smoke but you know you are allowed too.
Day 2 on Champix for me was an eye opener as I went for 30 to 7 without really trying, so day 3 I kept thinking I should only have 3 today and spend hours beating myself up.
My suggestion is if you want to have a cigarette have one, you need to move on to the stage when you actually stop enjoying them and this will kick in. I gave up on day 8 because I could not stand the guilt trip any longer and I just wanted it over with. I'm now on day 7 of no smoking, yeah
I agree with Christine. Have a cigarette when you want one - but *don't* have one if you don't want it. Try not to force down a cigarette because you think this is a time you should be smoking.
It was about 13 days on Champix before I stopped. The desire to have a cigarette just gradually faded away. But you have still got to stop putting cigarettes in your mouth at some time, rather than force yourself to continue.
I think you should take the pressure off yourself - smoke one when you want one; miss out the ones that you don't really want. And give Champix a few more days to kick in.
Against all the advice, I didn't set a 'quit date' because I'd read it varies for different people so didn't want to stop before I felt Champix was going to give me the support I needed. I thought if I made a break for it too early and failed, that would be the end of trying to give up.
It's worked for me - almost three weeks and no desire to smoke at all, from the time I put the last one out.
I also started on Chimpex yesterday and although I was smoking as normal last night so far today I am pretty confused about my feelings. Normally by this point in the day I would have smoked about 8 - 9 ciggies but so far today I've only smoked 5 which is good and 1 of those were just my protesting to an argument with someone I thought, right thats it I'm going to have a ciggy even though I didnt really want one.
Even now not having smoked for about 2 hours I dont really need one, I just sort of think I would have normally had one by now so why not go and have one.
I dont really know if I should go and have a ciggy now even though I dont really have the need for one, its more a case of habit I think. It really is a very strange feeling, I want a ciggy (habit) then think about smoking it and I kind of get a sicky feeling in my stomach so decide not to.. then 5 mins later again I think I want a ciggy and I go round again!
anyway, cant really offer any advice to you but thought i'd share some of my experiences so far so you know your not the only one
No worries Ian. I found reading all the Champix threads on here very helpful (just look in the day 1 forum). Anyone is different.
I picked my quit day as day 12 but never made it that far, which was good. My advice though would be make sure you take them to at least day 8 as it suggests. I know you probably just want to get it over with, but I think if you take it to at least day 8 you will have a better chance of kicking the habit. Some on here went right through to day 14, so it just depends on you.
I also started on Chimpex yesterday and although I was smoking as normal last night so far today I am pretty confused about my feelings. Normally by this point in the day I would have smoked about 8 - 9 ciggies but so far today I've only smoked 5 which is good and 1 of those were just my protesting to an argument with someone I thought, right thats it I'm going to have a ciggy even though I didnt really want one.
Even now not having smoked for about 2 hours I dont really need one, I just sort of think I would have normally had one by now so why not go and have one.
I dont really know if I should go and have a ciggy now even though I dont really have the need for one, its more a case of habit I think. It really is a very strange feeling, I want a ciggy (habit) then think about smoking it and I kind of get a sicky feeling in my stomach so decide not to.. then 5 mins later again I think I want a ciggy and I go round again!
anyway, cant really offer any advice to you but thought i'd share some of my experiences so far so you know your not the only one
mike
Hey Mike
Know what you mean, but just remember that guilt trip thing. Good luck to you.
This site is so brilliant... It's the people who make it, of course.
Sue, many thanks. I absolutely hear you about giving the Champix time to do its magic, thus giving yourself the best possible chance. I'm just so nervous that I'd get to e.g. day 14 and find that nothing had changed. But it's reassuring to hear your experience - that it did indeed 'just happen' for you.
Mike: other than the 'sicky' feeling, that's about where I am. I kinda always knew, but it brought it home to me when I made the list, how the 'habit thing' works. For me, on a typical work day: after brekfast with coffee, two in the car on the way to work (even though it's only a half hour journey) then, without fail, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00 and so on. So you get to one of those times and you think "It's time for a smoke" - you never really question whether you 'need' it. It's not helping that I'm pretty lightly loaded at work today - smoking was always a good way of passing 10 minutes if you were bored...
Christine: day 8 sounds good. By one of those weird coincidences, it's my birthday...
Good luck with the Champix....just relax and let it do its thing. My husband has also just started the tablets and looking for a result quickly, probably because I am 3 weeks ahead of him.
By end of second week you will have stopped....most of us just seem to loose interest, but again everyone is different.
Well done both of you deciding to stop smoking a huge decision in itself
I also used champix and stopped on day 8/9 but we're all different and some take longer than others
My advice is to have a fag when you want one as you've just started champix don't try and force it OK
Let the champix do it's work while you carry on as normal your bodies will know when it's time to stop completely but you'll probably find the need to smoke will lessen after the first few days until you really won't want to smoke at all
Let us know how you're doing even before you stop if you want to there's always someone around on here
Below is my standard welcome and advice post which I try and give all new members
Welcome to the forum and well done on the decision to quit possibly one of the most important you will ever make and you will be losing nothing but you will regain control of your life and that has to be good
You will find all the help and support you need on here as we all help each other just like a family we are here for you every step of the way cheering the good days and sympathiseing with the bad but the good far outweigh the bad
Read the posts on here you will find a lot of tips and advice and in the signatures of a lot you will find links to other sites just click on them Here are 2 I find very good to start you off whyquit.com and woofmang.com Read, read and then read some more as the more you read and learn about why you smoked and about your addiction the easier your quit will be
This link is good for the psychological part of quitting
That was my first sign that Champix was having some effect on me. They weren't nightmares just incredibly vivid and memorable. I'd wake up in the middle of them, then go back to sleep and re-start the dream where I'd left off. It was liking having a DVD running in my head with a pause button.
The dreams and the slight nausea (which can usually be managed by always eating when you take a tablet), they were the only side effects I've had.
Sue: part of the fascination of the coming days is the journey. (Not quite as fascinating as whether or not I'll reach the destination, but...) Will I just wake up one day and feel like I don't want a cigarette? (That sounds way too good to be true - but it seewms to have happened for lots of ppeople.) Will I get the nausea? (even if I take with food/water). Will I get the vivid dreams? (Not yet, but I'm well used to them, having inadvertently left patches on overnight during a previous quit attempt). Will I get tetchy/miserable/depressed/suicidal (probably the first two, probably not the last two). Will I get any other physical symptoms? (The last major course of drugs I did - Roaccutane, an acne treatment (I was 50 at the time, goddamit!) - had me nearly bent double in pain. It worked, though).
Anyway: onwards, upwards. (Have done two car journeys today and one dog walk without a cigarette, mostly to prove I can... The pre-dinner G&Ts and the wine after dinner will likely see a 'relapse' . I need to remember, I'm allowed to relapse in the coming few days.)
My experience was that I 'lost interest' once I started in 2 tablets a day; I'd been on the tablets 14 days by the time I hit my quit day. That was the day I'd set up with my stop smoking advisor. Don't worry they will kick in and if you don't want to smoke don't.
i started champix on 8th october and didnt feel like they where doing much also. as the days went by i found i wasnt having certain fags. i then started going the other way and thought that as im allowed to smoke i should make the most of it. on day 8 (which was saturday just gone) i decided to stop and havn't wanted to start again.
the only advice i have at the moment is take each fag as it comes and don't have one if you dont think you need it.
also if you have any problems, ask the people on here, they helped me over the weekend!!
Werzal: I just read your weekend posts - excellent! Good for you. One thing that occurred to me. My wife quit (cold turkey) ~19 years ago, but has been incredibly good about me continuing to smoke - has never complained. If the roles had been reversed, I'd have made her life hell till she quit. I hope you have my wife's tolerance rather than mine...
I just smoked and smoked until my quit day (14). I thought that I might as well do so in preparation for stopping. It did get more and more of an effort though and I was apprehensive about being able to stop until a couple of days before the day in question when I started to look forward to it in some ways.
You might want to reserve all your energy and will-power for the quit itself and do exactly what you feel like until the day itself.
Good input, KT. I guess I just feel like I want to be doing something to prepare. Not smoking in the car is perhaps a good thing to achieve, because that's a real reflex. If I haven't done it for ten days before my quit day, it's got to make things easier - right?
My wife quit (cold turkey) ~19 years ago, but has been incredibly good about me continuing to smoke - has never complained. If the roles had been reversed, I'd have made her life hell till she quit. I hope you have my wife's tolerance rather than mine...
no point trying to forcesomone to quit because the chances are they will fail if they dont really want to do it!!
Angela: that's the impression I kinda get too, although I'm sure much depends on your GP and the story you tell. I guess it's too expensive (have you seen how much it costs?) for them to give it away for fun. I imagine the issue is, they 'know' the drug works if you have the will power - but it doesn't work on its own. They're looking for you to demonstrate that you have the will power. If I were you, I'd tend not to think about that in case it makes you panic. It sounds like you're doing fine.
Know what you mean, but just remember that guilt trip thing. Good luck to you.
Christine: Thanks, will do.. have come to terms with it a bit now.. if I want one I smoke, if I dont, I wont!
Marg: Thanks Marg, this is the first time I've tried Champix and so far its going really well, the need to smoke is def not what it used to be!
Ian: I think the habit is def one to watch out for. One thing I noticed from my previous quit attempts is that having a ciggy break was a good excuse to have a break, even if just for 50-10 mins, so what I ended up doing was to keep taking the breaks but just not smoke during them. That helped me massively, so I would suggest you keep taking your hourly breaks but at that point ask yourself if you really want to smoke or maybe just take a quick walk instead.
On a side note I noticed something strange this morning and wonder if you had the same! First thing I got up and smoked my morning ciggy as usual, but instead of it feeling less pleasurable it felt just as it did before starting champix. This worried me as the previous day I did notice the morning fag was different, I was worried maybe they it had stopped working. I then had my second at 10am as per my normal routine and took the pill with breaky. Anyway since taking the pill at 10 I've not had a ciggy since (normally upto about 6 or 7 by this point and still on 2). So i'm feeling a bit better about it again now.
Anyway, last day of 1 pill today, tomorrow upto the 2 pills so that might make the morning ciggy not as nice as it is at the moment as I will still have some of the stuff left in my body from the previous evening.
Mike: good stuff. I think I may take you up on a version of your suggestion. My hourly break is always cigarette/coffee. Perhaps if I just do the coffee and, as you suggest, walk away from my desk for a few minutes.
I keep ****ysing each cigarette, wondering if I'm 'enjoying' it as much as I used to. The fact that I'm not sure it does tells me something, I guess. I'm noticing that I'm 'double dragging' more, though, which tells me the Champix is starting to work.
There's no doubt, your mind is a vital part in all of this - which is where this board is so great, helping you to see things/think about things in a different way, and learn from other people's experience.
Four so far today - could have been anything up to eight a week ago. And it's not hurting...
LOL at this board's 'censorship'. It won't accept 's p e c i a l i s t' because of the reference to the drug, and now I see it won't accept 'a n a l y s e' either...
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and the rational part of me (small as it is) knows that the Champix takes time to build up in my system and so nothing is likely to change near term.
Day 5- Need some help here!
