It's Not a Miracle Drug But I Used Chantix to Stop Smoking

A friend of mine called me and told me he had found something that was helping him quit smoking and it was working. It was a medication called Chantix. You can get it by doctor prescription, he said, but it was pretty expensive. The best thing about the medication was that it had kept him from being "mean tempered". Now if something could keep HIM from being mean, then it was a good thing for society in general. I have not tried everything out there offered to quit smoking, but a lot of them.

I have used the nicotine patches, the nicotine gum, regular gum......usually ended up wearing the patch or chewing the gum and smoking too! Smoking less or smoking less often was impossible. "Cold turkey" was the worst. It took no time at all for the "mean" to come out from nowhere, at any given time, over the most trivial things, at anyone! It could be bad. It WAS bad.

I first talked to my pharmacist about the medication. She said that many people were using Chantix and it appeared to be working for them. The only one or two that had started smoking again were people that really didn't want to quit. (In her opinion). So....I called my Doctor's office and requested an appointment. He was delighted that I would want to try to quit smoking, explained to me how the medication worked on the brain (not that mine is different than yours, but it surely doesn't think like most people so I wondered....)and that it seemed to work for the people that had asked for it. Wonderful! A miracle drug at last!

I left the Doctor's office and went directly to the pharmacy, got the prescription, (it costs no more for a month's script than the cigarettes needed for 30 days) got home, read the medical information notice and set a "quit date". Great! I was all set to be a non-smoker! The medication box is so cute.

It has a little drawer, you push the tab, pull out the med sleeve and remove the necessary pill for the morning or evening. It also has a web site for 12 months support. I immediately signed up even though I didn't think I needed them. Upon reflection, everything I had done in the past had not worked more that a few weeks so I decided to do some things differently this time! My "quit date" arrived and I stopped smoking.

Guess what.....it is not a miracle drug after all.

I really had to want to quit smoking. The web site has some very good information and support after all and I am glad I signed up for it. My friend was right about the "not being mean" part. My emotions have been very easy to control. Sure the things that used to really bother me, still do, however, I find that controlling my reactions are fairly easy with Chantix. Before.....no control at all. My new mantra is "one is too many and a thousand is not enough!"

Overcoming the problem areas

What do I do with my hands? Well.....I stay really busy. I have also found Associated Content which fills the void times that I used to just sit around and smoke! How cool is that?

There is the problem of eating. One of the things that would drive me back to smoke is if I were to start putting on a lot of weight. Now I know I will probably put some on, but I am talking a LOT of weight, like 30 to 40 pounds or more. Today I try to watch my diet. I have started using the treadmill daily that has been in my garage for years.

The last thing I want to be is.....one of them. You know, the ones that start waving their hand in front of their face while you are smoking. (I was already smoking outside where you had banished me, when you chose to walk up to me! DUH!) Or, the best yet are the ones that have this overwhelming need to tell me why smoking is so bad for me. Every smoker in the WORLD knows smoking is bad for them! Get a life. So far, I don't even really notice when someone else is smoking or not. It just does not matter....that is great! (Yes I do know since I live with smokers) I do not want to hear from someone that is intolerant of me.

So why quit?

Money is the most important thing. No....not that I cannot afford the cigarettes.....I will not willingly give the politicians any more money. I have to pay federal and state tax but I don't have to buy cigarettes. Society has made smokers social outcasts. Actually, smokers are just an easy mark. Alcohol and drugs are really more of a problem and probably kill more people, but much harder to locate. Beside, it is maybe more "politically correct" to drink alcohol and use recreation drugs than to smoke.

I am a non-smoker.

Well, not yet. I have not smoked, not even a drag, however, I do not picture myself a non-smoker. Maybe in a year or so......

Now, where to I go to get off the gum?