Just last week I had my first live encounter with a person who used Chantix. (Live encounter defined as not Internet based emails from strangers). He has tried Chantix twice now, both times for three months each. Each time he came off the Chantix he said he started suffering what he described as the same withdrawals he had when he had tried to quit in the past and relapsed within days to smoking. He finally quit cold turkey and now he is off smoking for a few weeks and feeling much better than he has in a long time.
I should also note, both John and I are getting frequent emails from people regarding Chantix. There are many that praise the product as having helped people get various time periods under their belt smoke free, but the vast majority of these emails are from people who are still using the medication. We don't get many from people who got off the medication without problems and maintained their smoke free status.
Also particularly troubling to us is the number of emails we are getting from people with side effects, some quite severe to using the medication. One just sent us a link to an Internet board that had lots of people complaining of symptoms that were lasting a whole lot longer than the few days of withdrawal people may get when just going cold turkey. That has always been something I have seen as a problem with quit smoking aids out there, they either prolong the withdrawal period by keeping nicotine in the system or have their own side effects that cause people to experience physical complaints and symptoms much longer than people who simply go cold turkey. Cold turkey "may be" harder the first few days but physically, symptoms ease up quickly and it is a really safe method to quit. Here is the link to another string we have had previously at AskJoel that addresses this safety issue: "Isn't quitting cold turkey too dangerous?"
I am going to attach a video here that talks about my first encounter with a person using NRT in the form of nicotine gum in the early 1980's. From numerous emails and from observing comments written on different boards, I am starting to get a sense that people's experience with Chantix is often the same as it is with NRT, that the drug is simply postponing the readjustments that a person often goes through when they first quit smoking.
Video Title | Dial-Up | HS/BB | Audio | Length | Added |
My first encounter with NRT | 3.99mb | 16.1mb | 2.13mb | 14:37 | 11/16/06 |