One problem with these medications is that they seem to have an adverse effect on some people who take them and these can be quite serious. According to a press release issued by the FDA:

These symptoms include changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts and behavior, and attempted suicide.

Now, the FDA has told the manufacturers that they must add new warnings, called Box Warning and develop patient medication guides that outline these risks.

Here is more from the release:

Healthcare professionals should advise patients to stop taking varenicline or bupropion and contact a healthcare provider immediately if they experience agitation, depressed mood, and any changes in behavior that are not typical of nicotine withdrawal, or if they experience suicidal thoughts or behavior.

If you take any of these medications and you have any concerns, please speak with your doctor.

~~~~

Image courtesy PhotoXpress.com

Post from: Blisstree

FDA Warning: Smoking Cessation Meds

At RealAge.com you log on and take a test about your exercise, eating habits, vitamins and supplements, social habits, diseases or illnesses and vices like smoking and drinking.

I updated my Real Age this week and I’ve gotten SEVEN YEARS YOUNGER as a result of my lifestyle changes in the last two years. Since last year I’ve reduced my Real Age by nearly THREE years.

Chronologically I am 35.4 years old, yet my Real Age is only 32.5.

When I began my dramatic lifestyle change two years ago, I took the Real Age test. I was 33 at the time, but because of my lazy-ass lifestyle, my pack a day smoking habit for 20 years, and the demon of anxiety and depression that controlled my life, not to mention living in a horrendous environment that made me sick with allergies all the time – I was 38.5 years.

Screw That.

In 2009 I’m upping the ante again. I never want to make any changes I can’t consistently do for the rest of my life. Last year I maintained my weight at 166. Being able to maintain for one year has given me more confidence because I know I made a true lifestyle change that will last. Now, I’m ready to step it up and make more – as I wrote last week in The Secret to Weighty Resolutions.

I started on Christmas Day so it’s been 14 days. I’ve been dedicated to running before the family starts their day. And I’m doing it. Few logistical issues I’m working out, but overall I’m loving it.

It’s dark when I head out to the 1 mile track at the park, so I get to see the sunrise during my run. Awesome. That scary looking guy – the only other person out there at that hour – was sent by God to protect me. He’s getting in his morning run in, the same as I am.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I follow my run with an hour of yoga. It’s still the kindest thing I do for myself.

I’ve lost 2 pounds. I’m logging my calories and educating myself about what I’m eating. In turn, I’m making better choices based on actual facts and not just my own theories about how many calories might be or probably are in foods I eat. It’s impossible to eat consciously if you don’t even know what’s in your food.

Go take the Real Age test and come back and tell me how old you really are. Are you happy with the results? What are you going to do about it?

Oh, and check out Weighting Line if you started the year with a weight loss goal in mind.

Post from: Blisstree

I Keep Getting Younger Every Year

About 10 years ago I was teaching English at a Lithuanian Teachers University. My students were all studying to be English teachers.

One day I showed up to class and they pulled out a newspaper. There I was right on the front page, above the fold, a big ugly picture of me smoking.

It was considered unseemly and improper for women to be smoking on the street. Women smoked, but it was appropriate for them to smoke in a park, in a restaurant or coffee house or at home. 

Of course, I smoked on the street all the time.

A photographer had caught me smoking on the street during the International Smoke Out.

Due to the language barrier, I hadn’t a clue about the International Smoke Out – but that didn’t stop them from putting me on the front page as the epitome of bad taste and stupidity.

To make it worse – I had burned my bangs off by trying to light my cigarette on a gas stove the week before. They were singed and sticking straight up.

This year I’ll celebrate the International Smoke Out by encouraging other smokers to stop the self-defeating behavior of smoking.

I’ll pat myself on the back and tell you that I’ve encouraged thousands of people to quit with my Chantix post right here on BlogFabulous, which has over 950 comments.

I’ll pat you on the back and tell you – you deserve to be a non-smoker.

The air is great over here. Visit my new website Quit Coping to find out about the emotional tole smoking is having on your self esteem and confidence.

Post from: Blisstree

Quit Smoking Today

 I’m nearing my 700th post on that one blog entry. It’s becoming difficult to scroll down and load up and more and more people are quitting smoking and wanting to share their stories. It’s taking a great deal of time for me to respond to comments.

What do you do when success is nipping at your heals? Well, what I did do is build a new website called . . .

Quit Coping 

Quit coping with smoking. Quit smoking to cope. Cope with your quit.

Chantix is a great tool. Actually, it’s a miracle in pill form if you ask me. But, without cigarettes we smokers are left with few coping skills.

Time to make some new ones some healthier ones.

If you smoke and you want to take back your life and find out what liberation and freedom from your nasty habit feels like come on over to Quit Coping and join the fun.

Post from: Blisstree

Smoker? Quit Coping.

 Totally cheated. Bought Cigarettes. Nasty. Smoked through the nasty. There was drinking involved. I went to a club, drank and smoked and it was really fun.

Plus, I left the Chantix at home on accident. Left the whole stupid suitcase at home, Chantix was in it. Craved, but only after I opened that door with a cigarette I think. Drinking is a trigger for me. Being away from my kids is a trigger for me. Feels a lot like freedom. But, not having to smoke is the real freedom.

Bad non-smoker. Lapse is not the same as a relapse, right? But, back on the Chantix. I am still a non-smoker who had a weekend cheat. No one has to ever know. Well, at least not my 5-year-old, who isn’t an avid reader of this blog yet.

Post from: Blisstree

Cheater, Cheater . . .

I think every single person, at least in America, personally knows at least one person with an addiction issue. Be it food, prescription drugs, cigarettes, beer, cocaine, heroin or whatever it is that’s stiffling their inner pain.

My dirty little secret is appearing in a blog carnival about substance abuse. Also, our little Chantix support group is getting some play! All aboard on the Chantix train!

 Whether you are the addict or you know one you’ll find some good stuff on The Carnival of All Substances. It’s hosted by Therapydoc at Everyone Needs Therapy. Well, duh.

Post from: Blisstree

Know Any Addicts?

I am on my fourth week of Chantix, a new smoking cessation prescription drug. If you are a smoker who has ever tried to quit you know the biggest battle can be desire.

To be honest, I didn’t WANT to quit smoking because I loved nearly everything about it. But, someone told my 5-year-old that I was going to die if I continued doing it. Then every flipping time I’d step outside for a smoke break I’d have to smoke through the sobs of my child, “Mommy, I don’t want you to die! Who will be with me when you die?”

Who can stand up to that kind of torture – or even enjoy a cigarette amidst such terrible anguish?

Then, on my Emmaus Walk retreat a few weeks ago, two of the speakers were daughters of women whose mothers had died of lung cancer from smoking. Their anger and grief was palpable. No doubt they were placed on that retreat by God to give me the message, “Ainsley will hate you and grieve intensely if you continue this nasty, selfish habit to the point where you make her watch you die.”

So, obviously, parents don’t really have a right to smoke in good conscience. Not even if they are totally addicted and love nearly everything about it.

I’ve struggled terribly with quitting though. I have tried acupuncture, nasty flavorless gum that gets stuck in my teeth, nicotine patches, sunflower seeds, Pavloving myself by snapping myself on the wrist with a rubber band, cold turkey, writing “I am not a smoker” on my wrists, self-loathing, Wellbutrin, electronic solitaire, buying only single cigarillos, prayer, faith and giving myself a ton of crap for my weakness.

Through every single method I still felt like I had angry Turrets Syndrome. It just felt awful. The whole thing – the physical withdrawal, the psychological withdrawal, the missing of my best friend (cigarettes) who had seen me through every up and down, the missing of my rebelliousness in persisting to do something bad for myself, even missing my adolescent sense of immortality – all of it made me want to freak out and bitch and moan and curse.

Chantix – say it with me, chant it, and scream it from the top of buildings – Chantix! It is literally some kind of miracle for smokers. Real smokers. Not social smokers or “can I bum a drag” smokers. But, people who derive at least part of their identity from smoking, should run to the doctor immediately and demand a prescription.

Not only am I cured of physically craving nicotine and whatever other 200 toxic chemicals are in cigarettes, but I am not morning the loss of the part of me that loves smoking. I am not thinking about cigarettes in an obsessive forlorn way. I am not thinking about them at all in fact. When I am overly stressed or bored or tired or anxious or about to have a minor freak out I am not thinking, “I need a cigarette.”

I’m not mourning my loss of smoking, my loss of freedom, my loss of my best friend or my loss of identity as a smoker. I am just going about my business as if I were always a “non-smoker.”

I am a non-smoker.  

No thanks, I don’t smoke. I can seriously, for the first-time ever, see myself saying this and not falling over laughing hysterically with a smoke in my right hand.  

I feel like I’ve been set free. I feel like for the first time since I was about 13 years old those shackles have been removed. I am not chained to the idea that I must always have a pack of cigarettes with me, or that I must always have $5 on me to be able to buy some. I am totally free.

Chantix retails for about $100 a month. But, my insurance actually covered it so it only cost me $50. Considering the “sin tax” on smoking a pack a day this is a total bargain! Lots of people only need it for one month. But, I am a known cheater so I’ll take it for the full recommended three months.  

Seriously, if you’re like me and you’ve loved your cigarettes, but you feel like you must stop smoking. Try Chantix. It is a real life miracle drug.

And man, I smell so good now!

Post from: Blisstree

I Am A Non-Smoker

My true motivation is that someone told my daughter that I will die if I smoke. While true, I think this was totally inappropriate and I feel a little bit of anger and resentment about it. Of course, what I’m really angry about is that I HAVE to quit smoking and I love smoking and don’t really want to stop doing it.

In my perfect world, smoking would not only not kill me, but it would be healthy like exercise or my daily vitamin.

But, in reality my five-year-old daughter bursts into tears and with true pain begs me to stop smoking so that I don’t die because then who will be with her and take care of her.

Who can smoke in the face of that? Apparently, I can. Not only have I expected two pregnancies to cure me of my life-long habit, but I’ve quit at least once a week for the last year since my son was born. I’ve quit so many times and tried so many methods, I’ve come to the realization that smoking is like shackles on my life and I can’t seem to find the key to get them off.

At my recent OB/GYN visit I asked about the new miracle pill and he gave me a prescription. I thought, I don’t care what it costs I’ve got to get rid of these shackles once and for all. I hated that it controlled me. Turns out it was covered by my insurance. Even better.

I nearly wept with unadulterated joy when the pharmacist told me to take off the nicotine patch and smoke during the first week of taking Chantix for the best effect. Permission to smoke for another week! YES! Without guilt or harrassment from my five-year-old conscience. Could it get any better?

I’m currently into my second week. I stopped smoking a few days early while I went on my retreat because there was no smoking allowed on the grounds. It’s going okay. I think I’ve grieved enough for my lost right to smoke, surrendered my precious identity as a smoker, broken the physical habit and addiction. Hopefully, taking this pill will help me get over my urges to cheat and have just one, just this once.

 I’ll let you know how it goes. And really, you should stop smoking. If you think you’ve got it bad, you can read just how much I loved my cigarettes at So Sioux Me.

Try the Chantix. Couldn’t hurt. I haven’t had any night terrors, by the way. Thank God for that.

 AMENDMENT on Sept. 27, 2007:

This is Tracee Sioux from Blog Fabulous/ Chantix, where you’ve been hanging out and getting support. Because readers are finding it difficult to navigate 700 comments, I have built a new website called Quit Coping.

Quit Coping will be using the same tone and texture you enjoy here on Blog Fabulous, but it will allow more interactivity and connection with other quitters. It won’t take so long to load up and I’ll be better able to encourage everyone personally.

Please continue our wonderful discussion at Quit Coping,com.

I am greatly honored to be part of your transformation from smoker to non-smoker.

Sincerely,

Tracee Sioux

Quit Coping

http://www.quitcoping.com

Post from: Blisstree

Chantix