If you used Champix, question!

[nsd_user663_53649]

I am happy in my quit so far. However, I am using Champix. I have been told that when you stop using the champix that the urge to smoke is very strong is this true? did you have that? Does your resolve weaken? I want to know because if I quit the champix too soon I might leave myself open to failure which I certainly don't want. Or when you stopped using champix, was it no different than when you were taking it, you just refused to entertain the idea of smoking and got on with it? I know it sounds like a silly question, but as I said I will continue to take them for another month if I am not far enough on the road to give them up. I will have three weeks behind me on Monday, and I am delighted with myself, going around with a big grin on my face . ( no grumpiness at all, I feel like I have won the lotto, mad that.)

[nonico 7 Years Smoke Free]

Champix user

Hi biddypat

I quit using Champix and when I came off them I did not find that I wanted to smoke anymore than I did when on Champix. I think it's important to keep taking them for as long as recommended.

I think what happened is that by the time I came off them my sub-conscious had kicked in, and it had been convinced that I was a non-smoker.

Good luck with your quit

[nsd_user663_59642]

I'm so glad you asked that question, Biddypat, because I was wondering the same thing! I feel that stopping the Champix is the second big thing that I need to do for my quit, (the first big thing having been stopping the fags :D) and personally I'd like to know that I have the best possible chance of staying quit once I've stopped the Champix, so I shall be taking them for a while yet. Because I reduced the dose to one a day (because of side effects), I find that I have quite a stash of them, and have now been taking them for almost 4 months. :eek:

I'm not a qualified anything, but I would have thought it's best to take the full course, unless you know with absolute certainty that you are "cured" of smoking. If you find yourself getting dodgy side effects after a while (eg. anger, weepiness, confusion) you can always speak to your doctor/nurse/adviser about reducing the dose. The reduced dose worked for me....hence the stockpile of them.

I'd certainly have a word with a professional before making your decision. but whatever you decide.......keep that quit good and strong.

Val

xxx

[nsd_user663_59305]

Difficult one this as we all react differently to it. I could only take the bed time pill as the morning one made me feel so sick and giddy that I was totally out of it until way after lunch, around the 8 week mark I started taking it every other day, then at the ten week mark every third day, basically I reduced the dose as I'd had to when taking anti-depressants. I did notice a slight increase in cravings once the Champix was out of my system but to be honest I'm totally ok on my own now (touch wood - not tempting fate etc etc), the cravings I get are so easily disregarded I can't even really call them cravings anymore. What I will add though, I did have hellish cravings and mood swings at the beginning of my quit, so I'm not 100% sure they "worked" properly on me - the only thing in the early days that stopped me sparking up is that my advisor told me I would get no satisfaction from a fag after two weeks of starting the tablets, otherwise I feel I might have cracked as I did not feel the cravings were really alleviated at all. Good luck & keep us posted

[nsd_user663_43223]

I took champix for 3 weeks and stopped 1 week into my quit! 6 weeks free of nasty nic now and doing well they made me pretty sick so figured I might as well give it a go on my own, didn't feel any different about cigarettes just didn't feel sick!

[nsd_user663_53649]

Thanks folks for all your imput.

I know you said to talk to my gp about support, and while I love both GPs in our Medical center. I feel that I nearly know as much about champix as they did. I had it before, and it worked, I had done lots and lots of research, knew my limits etc. However when you visit the GP here it costs 60 euro, and my gp was only wanting to give me a script for one month at a time, so I had to pay full whack each month, plus an extra 60 to see him. I told him I would keep him informed If I had any of the side effects besides nausea, and please give me a script for the full three months, NO....... grrrrrrrr. Anyway I managed to convince him to give me two months, so when the second one ran out I was wondering about just stopping. I won't though as I have no side effects out from the morning sickness. I am doing really well, I have the reassurance that even if I tried to smoke now it would be like piddling into the wind, no satisfaction at all. But I am working more on my attitude now than my need. I have taken it on board that I didn't enjoy smoking I had to smoke, I hated having to skulk off and smoke , I was ashamed of walking into a room and knowing I smelt of smoke. I hated when people leaned in to kiss me and I had to turn my head in the fear of the smoke on my breath. I this time am not missing the smoking, it is like I had a massive falling out with a friend who turned out to be a bad friend, and I am over them. I do get niggles like now would be a nice time for a smoke, but I know that is habit, and I am now not taking any notice of them. sometimes they come fairly often but If I don't pay attention to them they completely go. So maybe because I picked up on a recent quit, or maybe it's champix, or maybe I finally have registered that I am not smoking again ever, I don't know. I just don't want to endanger that .

[nsd_user663_59642]

The cost of the prescription is £7.85 here and for that reason, when the time is right for coming off them, I shall take just half a tablet (from my stash :o) a day, rather than getting a prescription for the lower dose ones.

It's almost ironic that the cost of a prescription is about the same as the cost of a packet of fags. Never batted an eyelid about the cost of fags until I started struggling with the cost of food.........that is when I realised how pathetic and stupid it all was, to throw vast sums of money away and kill myself at the same time.

Now that I'm £45 a week better off, I'm grumbling about the cost of a prescription. :rolleyes:

Val

xxx