Chantix

[Stinky The Clown]

Y'ever pay attention to the teevee ad for it? Some cheesy melodrama about some mother quitting cuz her kid asks her to. The story is told in about 12 seconds and mentions the product about 24 times. The rest of the ad is some speed talker listing all the side effects .... like mental illness, suicide, death by this means, death by that means.

What the fuck?

[Violet_Crumble]

1. It's called Champix here and I've never seen an ad for it...

But I used it and it did the trick for me where everything else had failed.

[Rageneau]

13. Chantix worked for me, too. I'm now 2 1/2 yrs smoke-free after 40 yrs of smoking

Yep, I smoked 40 years. More, actually. But the first day I gave Chantix a real chance (i.e., cooperated fully with it) I got results. After a few weeks on Chantix, I quit a two pack a day X 40 year cigarette habit.

Free at last! Free at last!

Btw, I had no negative side effects, but (save suicide) they would have been worth it.

[QC]

15. Same here. I smoked for over half my life, and quit with Chantix

after many, many failed attempts.

I wish people would lay off the fearmongering.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. You do realize you missed the point of this thread, right?

[QC]

19. It has a point? n/t

[endless october]

2. those commercials annoy me.

however, on the support forum i used, there are a whole lot of people who think it helped them somehow.

i quit cold turkey using Allen Carr.

about.com has a great smoking cessation forum with a ton of really helpful people. can't recommend it enough.

[TheDebbieDee]

9. Who is Alan Carr? A hypnotist?

I am a big advocate of trying hypnosis BEFORE meds for weight loss and smoking cessation.

[endless october]

25. he wrote a book.

"The Easy Way to Stop Smoking."

while he's not a hypnotist, he's definitely a de-brainwasher. you go into the book smoking, you smoke while reading the book, and gradually as you read, you realize that there's no enjoyment in cigarettes and you just don't want to do it anymore.

the actual physical nicotine withdrawal is very, very slight. the emotional withdrawal of "i need a cigarette, why can't i have a cigarette, just one cigarette" is the biggie. that one gets nuked completely by the time you read the book. you only deal with the physical, which usually isn't even enough to wake you up at night when you're a smoker.

the brainwashing pop culture and peers put on us about cigarettes is strong. i had to go back and re-read a couple times, but i made it out and it was much easier than that nicotine replacement torture or just using willpower.

[parasim]

11. My doc ave me a prescription for that drug...

the only reason I didn't fill it it because I certainly don't need some drug pushing me closer to suicide.

Allen Carr is another thing, though. I've read the 1st 3 quarters of that book 3 times now. Have not had the guts to finish it yet, though. So it worked well for you? I really need to finish that book!

[endless october]

26. yeah, it worked for me.

been out of the smoking mess for 18 months now.

i went into it skeptical but willing to at least give it a shot. i really don't know if i could have done it without the book.

[HughMoran]

3. Was watching daytime TV on the Friday holiday - holy crap!!!!

They are targeting stay-home people something fierce! We (mom and I) agreed that there was at least one pharmaceutical ad during every single commercial break. Oh, and they are simply awful - one had (edit - it was Chantix) 45 of 90 seconds listing the side-effects. I go on DU and read about someone dying from it. It's awful - my mom and I agreed that they should NOT be allowed to advertise drugs as they are manipulating people to go "ask your doctor" about the drug. That's NOT how drugs should be pushed. :mad:

[laughingliberal]

6. I don't think it's appropriate to market Rx drugs and I think of how much they spend on marketing

and wonder how much of the cost of our prescriptions here are due to their advertising buys.

[malaise]

20. You want to see targetting

Watch LMN. I have a cousin who visits us and watches non-stop. All they advertise are drugs. I'd rather choke to death smoking than take a drug with the side effects of Chantix.

For the record I quit cold turkey.

[HughMoran]

23. I quit cold turkey too

The key was planning it for 3 months & analyzing every time I 'needed' a cigarette & cutting out those times alternately. By the time 'quit' day arrived, I had alternate things to do during each 'cigarette break'. Been off 'em for 15 years - woot!

[TroglodyteScholar]

4. I hated the idea of taking a pill to quit

But after failing to quit in every other imaginable way, I tried Chantix and it totally worked for me. Not only have I quit successfully, but cigarette smoke actually bothers me now. A bit weird, but I'm just relieved to not be spending my time and money on cigs any longer.

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. What was it like?

You just start taking it and you don't want to smoke anymore? Did it still take effort?

[seaglass]

14. It blocks the receptors in your brain that get pleasure from smoking.

When you first start taking it you can smoke until your quit date. It affected me immediately, the first day I started taking Chantix I lost the enjoyment for cigarettes. Even though I was still smoking I was getting nothing out of the cigarettes.

But it is still effort. If you are anything like me your nicotine addicted brain will make lots of excuses/justifications for smoking again - since I did not quit I can only say that it would seem if you are really motivated to quit smoking that Chantix would be a big help to start on that path (watching out for side effects of course).

[lunatica]

24. When you take the pill for a few days

You find that your body doesn't crave the nicotine fix. Your brain will remind you when it's time to smoke but you can resist the impulse to light up because you don't go into that agitated state where you absolutely have to have it. The moment of wanting the cigarette passes quickly instead. This happens every time even when you haven't reached your real quitting day. So by the time the day you've set as your quitting day comes around you can quit.

What you have left to battle is the emotional dependence. The feelings of rewarding yourself while you drink coffee or taking breaks from work. Or the feelings of needing a cigarette to calm you down. But every time you pass on a cigarette on each of these incidents your brain lessens its demands and this happens pretty quickly. Some people feel a little nauseated when they continue to smoke. In time cigarettes leave a nasty oily nicotine in your mouth that's hard to wash or brush away. And in time the cigarette smoke feels acrid in your nostrils.

Nowadays it's not as hard to quit because smoking isn't allowed in so many places so you don't have to deal with the constant presence of smokers or the constant smell of cigarettes.

I was a smoker for 30 years at 2 to 3 packs a day.

[napoleon_in_rags]

37. Thanks for your input.

Maybe I'll give it a chance.

[TroglodyteScholar]

33. Yea, it definitely still took an effort.

A person will never quit effectively until they actually want to.

Basically, I couldn't even tell that I was taking anything except that I had very vivid dreams (not nightmares) for the first couple of weeks. So I had to take the pill and also do what amounted to quitting cold turkey. I smoked a cigarette or two in the first couple weeks, expecting that it might make me sick. Instead, the cigs just progressively tasted worse and didn't feel as satisfying. After I had been taking the Chantix for several weeks, I noticed that even just the smell of smoke did make me feel a bit woozy *sometimes*. I think it was worst when I took the pill on an empty stomach.

Anyway, after about 6 weeks I began tapering off my usage...taking it once daily for a few weeks, then taking a half dose once daily for a week...then I stopped. I won't lie and say I haven't had any cravings since then, but they have been very mild...and in general, the thought of a cigarette is now very unappealing. Even though I was very uncomfortable with the idea of taking a pill to help me quit, I was basically at my wit's end...and I'm SO glad that I had that additional help, because I feel a hell of a lot better as a non-smoker.

[napoleon_in_rags]

35. How long were you a smoker?

We're you a pretty hard core smoker? I'm thinking of talking to my Doctor about it. The reviews here are actually pretty good.

[TroglodyteScholar]

38. 29 years old, started at 14 (congrats, industry marketing geniuses--you're smarter than a teenager)

At my worst I had a 1.5 pack/day habit, but generally kept it to around a pack a day.

Also, I had quit half-successfully on two other occasions...one time for 6 months at age 18, and another for 2 years beginning at age 22.

I would recommend it highly--just be certain to self-monitor and tell your doctor at the VERY first sign of any depression/agitation/etc.

[napoleon_in_rags]

36. delete dupe

[tammywammy]

22. I took it a few years ago

Very easy to quit. I was good until the stress of a friend gone missing and I started smoking again. I'm working up to trying to quit again and Chantix will be what I do again. I had problems with nausea, so I only took the pill for a month, but I stopped smoking for almost a whole year.

[niyad]

5. I saw that ad the other day when I couldn't get to the remote to hit "mute"

as I listened to the (possibly fatal) side effects, I kept thinking, "and this is preferable to smoking?"" well, if you die, I guess you won't be smoking anymore.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. That's not the only such ad.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. They test the drugs on large number of volunteers.

Every minor issue that the subjects report, from a stuff nose to a bad week at vegas gets reported as a side effect, erring on the side of full disclosure.

If people advertised for placebos on TV there'd be a shit load of side effects.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. Don't forget the morning after pill..

Because the list of possible side effects is one of the things that's used by antichoicers to try to scare women off using it...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. It's become a popular argument with the snake-oil peddlers.

The side effects are worse than the disease! Try all natural collodial silver! It cures autism and realigns your chakras!

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Hey, Git 'er Done, always there with the facts, you are. But the point was not .....

How drugs are advertised, but the fact that they *are* being advertised. This causes people to beg their c=doctors to prescribe.

Thanks, though, for Gittin' 'er' Done.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

30. God forbid people should stop smoking.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. :snort:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

32. Pff.

If your OP really was about advertising in general, why the usual whinging about side effect statements?

[peekaloo]

18. The twisted side of me gets a kick out of those kind of commercials.

Miraculous live saving drugs that can kill ya.

[bigtree]

27. I'm thinking someone should introduce her

. . . to coffee.

[Romulox]

28. At least Chantix helps with a serious product. How about the eye wetting drops that list death

as a side effect, or, my favorite, the eyelash enhancing drug that may cause permanent discoloration of the eye. :silly:

And while we're on the subject: did you know that it is not medically necessary for a woman to have a period? :rofl:

[Stinky The Clown]

29. Butbutbut ....... because of increased sales volume resulting from all this advertising ......

..... or controlled products for which one must seek medical permission, we're lowering health care costs and/or enhancing the health of ....... Americans.

Right?

:sarcasm:

[applegrove]

34. Worked well for me. Disassociated the act of smoking from the pleasure centre of the brain

being stimulated.