Champix and other medicines

I want to stop smoking... again. I stopped smoking 13 years ago for 10 years with the help of the medicine called Zyban. I first would like to make some comments on my experience with this medicine as I believe it is similar to Champix. To avoid danger, it appears absolutely necessary to go to a responsible and conscious doctor. I went once a week and received acupuncture help too. Very important also to follow the instructions.

My need to smoke stopped after the 14 days period I had decided with the doctor and and I kept taking the medicine almost 6 weeks as she insisted I had to end the treatment. The side effect was difficult to handle: I start crying all the time, for any reason. Instead of having anti-depressing effects, I have never been so depressed. But my doctor said that the side effects had no comparison to the nocive effects of cigarettes smoking in the long run. She convinced me with that remark. As I am thin, I thought after a while that the dosis of the medicine was maybe too strong for me and the doctor agreed and told me she was indeed giving the same dosis to people weighting double o triple than me (I was and am 47 kgs for 1,65 m tall). I start taking half of the dosis and it became much better. When I stopped completely the medicine, I stopped crying immediately !

Without the help and the exchange of information with the doctor, I would not have been able to go thru.

3 years ago, I start smoking again on and off. Why ? Because I though I had become "strong" enough and it was at first social. The first year, I'd smoke one day and then not during two months and so on, then, I would smoke during a week 3 or 5 cigarettes a day and stop again. Then, I start smoking more regularly, but "quitting" also regularly for a week or more, or some days. When I smoke now my consumption is between 5 and 10 a day. I'm still in this pattern but every time with more "emotional" dependency while at the same time, when I do not smoke, I do not really suffer from it maybe because the no-smoking is not definitive. I think it is the "never again" which is so difficult to accept. But when I was in the "never again", I used to wonder why I had ever smoked.

Now, I analyse that I smoke mainly for two opposite reasons : the cigarette is a "friend" when I am alone and a "pleasure" and a "sharing" when I am with friends who smoke. I am well aware it is a non-sense to live in such a contradiction. 

I hate cigarettes smoking, it harms me as everyone.  i KNOW that after a couple of days without cigarettes, one feels much better physically and emotionally. So now, I wish to decide to stop completely again however I feel I'm not yet completely ready to decide :-(. Let's say, I'm thinking about it. I'm lso hesitating between medicine again or deciding on my own a day to quit. I found this site and liked it. I'm a belgian, french speaker (so please excuse the english) and decided to inscribe myself. I will start with the method "to quit on a specific day" and work on my mind everyday to succeed. I know it is possible and I know it depends on me. From my own experience (but we are all different), nicotine is not such a depending stuff, it is our head which is the main obtacle. 

It is important to write even if it might not seem so interesting : it is part of the process of convincing our minds. Knowing that many people share the same "fight" is also a great help. To read about your experiences is a great source of encouragement.