Champix 4 - Enough Already
Having begun this with a fairly open mind when it came to Champix - a relatively new medication - in the 14 months since I first referred to it in my book, which was the end of May 2007 when its launch was announced in the U.K., I have decided upon a personal stance. I think it is bloody dangerous, and should never have been passed in the U.K. because many of these problems had already surfaced in the U.S., and caution - not hype - is the appropriate attitude for medical bodies to adopt when something new appears.
All you Champix apologists who are trying to claim that adverse reactions are “withdrawal of nicotine”, I refer you to the U.S. Surgeon General. The following link takes you to an article posted on the website of WhyQuit.com, which is not, as you might assume from the name, a pro-smoking group, but an advocate of quitting without pharmaceutical products. The article is called Champix and Chantix linked to Depression, Aggression and Suicide. Anyone considering using Champix should read this article FIRST, then investigate other methods, particualrly hypnotherapy, which involve NO RISK and produce far more long-term success anyway than any pharmaceutical quit-product (see evidence on this site and in the book). If you want to know more about hypnotherapy, visit the Central Hypnotherapy website.
Here is the rather grim Champix article.
Filed under: Champix/Chantix, Drugs on Trial, The Campaign by Chris
I have been taking Champix for 9 weeks now the worst feelings started 10 days ago extreme irritation actually wanting to assault people (didn’t do it though) I felt so angry at everything and everyone, spoke to a doctor a weekago who gave me diazpam to help calm me down considered quitting Champix but chose not to. The last 2 days have been very surreal I went to the supermarket and kept losing my shopping trolley and the panic of realising it wasn’t where I thought it was, yesterday morning I was just really low and felt that if I started crying I would never stop. I am so scared I had my husband hide any potentially dangerous pills and am now waiting to speak to my doctor who won’t be available for another 2 hours. I am scared to take a dose of champix but also I am scared to not take it!!!!
Cigarettes won’t make you suicidally depressed, and neither will hypnotherapy - get off this dangerous drug immediately!
Giving you another medication to quell side-effects like these is too risky. Has anyone ever tested Champix combined with diazepam? No, never! Hasn’t diazepam ruined enough lives all by itself?
Champix is supposed to stop cravings, not make you attack people or kill yourself! Obviously something is seriously wrong with this stuff, get off it immediately before something terrible happens. Hypnotherapy is far more effective anyway if you want to kick the habit, and it is stress-free and risk-free.
Doctors, rebel! Stop prescribing this dangerous and wholly unpredictable concoction before one of your own patients pays a terrible price. Don’t let complacency - or just not wanting to believe it’s true - be the cause of someone losing a loved one. Hypnotherapy and acupuncture have consistently higher success rates than NRT, Zyban or Champix. You know those medications have all been hyped, but this stuff is freaking people out - this is no time to close ranks, there’ll be personal tragedies all over the place. “First, do no harm.” It is your personal professional responsibility. Don’t shirk it, or you are personally guilty of causing that harm. How many more cases do you need to hear about, for God’s sake?
It is fairly explicit that you should be leery of using Champix if you are prone to depression. If you find yourself getting aggressive or melancholy then stop using it. BTW I’m on week 3 of Champix and this is the longest I’ve gone without a smoke in 25 years.It works. I don’t plan on going the whole twelve weeks but am going to wean off. (one week of 1mg daily-one week of 0.5mg daily) Has anyone else done this?
I’ll re-post and let you know how it goes. One more thing. Somebody with a book to sell does not come over as a disinterested third party.
Mark
“It works” Mark? Don’t you mean that for three weeks you have not wanted to smoke? That might be a good start from your point of view, but it is a bit early to start recommending it, especially when you consider the other posts in the Champix section of this blog (see replies to first Champix post), many of whom reported the same apparent ’success’ at first.
If you read around other sites on the web you will find many instances of people who have never previously been “prone to depression” suddenly becoming suicidally depressed on this medication, but not always immediately. I sincerely hope that does not happen to you, and I entirely agree with you that anyone who starts feeling like that should stop taking it immediately. Trouble is, we are being warned by sufferers that this doesn’t necessarily return them to normal.
One more thing. I am not, and have never claimed to be a disinterested third party. This is a campaign website, and although it wasn’t originally about Champix but the stupidity of Nicotine Replacement Poisoning, I believe my stated view “I think it is bloody dangerous and should never have been passed in the UK” in the ‘Enough Already’ post does rather indicate that I’ve come down off the fence regarding Champix.
Does the U.S. Surgeon-General have a book to sell? No. Do any of the people who committed suicide already? No, and they never will now. Do any of the contributors to my site, or any other that is collecting the Champix horror stories? No.
Does anyone have to buy my book to know my opinions, read any of the evidence or even read parts of the book for themselves? No, because plenty of it is published here on the site. This isn’t about selling books. I’m not a professional author, I’m a professional hypnotherapist. But if I hadn’t written it all down, people would be saying: “Where’s the evidence?” The book is the result of four years of research. It is a compilation of evidence, and some of it is published on Truth Will Out for free so you can assess it without buying anything. I’m not impartial or disinterested at all, Mark, I’m bloody angry at the lies and misinformation fed to millions of smokers by a gigantic money-making machine, and I’m out to prove once and for all that there is no such thing as ‘therapeutic nicotine’ because smoking isn’t a drug addiction in the first place. My real aim is not selling lots of books, it is to expose the 1.2 billion-dollar-a-year international poison factory that is Nicotine Replacement Poisoning, and hopefully destroy it as soon as possible. Anyone wanna help? Link up, spread the word.
I stopped smoking with the aid of Champix on 30th June 2008. I didn’t complete the 12 weeks’ Champix course but stopped taking them after about 8 weeks and successfully went cold turkey. However, although I no longer have any desire to smoke, my health has mysteriously deteriorated. I seem to have undergone a complete personaility change; I’ve been sad, depressed, aggressive, extremely angry (flying into a rage at the slightest thing) and utterly exhausted. Not just tired. Exhausted. And breathless - as though I’ve been running a race! Not like me at all - I am quite an energetic person.
It is very worrying to think these changes have probably happened because I took Champix.
Does anyone know how long it will take for these effects to weart off and I can get back to normal?
I would really like to know.
I feel your pain mary. I am living in the UK and was prescribed champix to quit. Was given no warnings to the harmful effects…3 weeks later I was having anxiety and anger problems. My girlfriend and I almost broke up. That was followed by a deep depression, which sadly has stayed with me even though I stopped the tablets almost 2 months ago. I have never suffered from these sorts of emotions before and I am a strong, gogetter normally. These tablets in my opinion block your pleasure sensors from cigarettes and somewhere in there it affects general enjoyment of life.
Some people are not effected by these symptoms, but we are all different and our brains function differently. I have been finding life an absolute battle since champix and if anyone is reading this wondering wether to use them, dont. The reason Mary’s health is deteriorating is becasue she is depressed and when you are depressed this can manifest physically. Do lots of excercise, thats the only thing that has helped me
I HAVE FINISHED THE 12 WEEK COURSE AND I HAD MOST OF THE SIDE EFFECTS SO I CUT 2 ONE TABLET A DAY WHICH HELPED A BIT.I HAVE STOPPED SMOKING AND READING SOME STUFF HAVE REALISED I SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN GIVEN THESE TABLETS AS I HAVE SUFFERD DEPRESSION SINCE MY TEENS BEEN OFF THE TABLETS 4 2 WEEKS AND THE WITHDRALS ISNT VERY PLEASANT BAD DREAMS LACK OF SLEEP CONSTANTLY FEELING THE WORLD AGAINST U ANGER TEARFUL PARANOID NITE SWEATS I HAD MY DEPRESSION UNDER CONTROL AND NOW ITS BACK WITH A VENGANCE
Hi Shelly, thanks for letting us know and hopefully warning others before they take this drug. Some sufferers have already spoken of the bad effects subsiding some time after you stop taking it, so hang on in there, I hope that you will soon be back to normal. If you can keep us posted as you recover, that could reassure other sufferers too.
Did you get any advice from your doctor beforehand about Champix with regard to depression?
I started Champix at the end of August this year, i took them twice daily for the first month and i went back to the doctors and got my second months supply which i still have. I weaned myself off by just taking one tablet now and again to prevent relapse. Champix worked wonders for me, the only side-effects i suffered were nausea which wore off after a few weeks and vivid dreams. I am so grateful that i found Champix, i still can’t believe how easy it was to quit smoking.
Hi Chris, Im not sure if you would remember me. Roughly 3 months ago I blogged on your site regarding starting the Champix course and giving regular updates… well, it has been a little more than 2 months since my last ciggarette. I had initially taken champix for the first 4 weeks or so and then gave up. Having tried cold turkey before, I knew and understood the symptoms / side effects of quiting nicotine (ie) the irritability, sleeplessness, vivid dreams etc… But initialy the champix only left me with wind… it then developed into the dreams and irritability (which i passed as normal nicotine cravings and mind-games) but after a few weeks on the 1mg pills, my moods, irratability and dreams were considerably amplified when compared to when I went cold turkey. Now, I did manage these side affects well enough not for them to take over me. As i had mentioned before… I am very weary about taking any form of chemical-based medication but felt that I was at a point where I had no other option but to atttempt medication so as to be able to stop smoking. With the decision to take pills…, I made a promise to my wife that if she saw any major change in my behavior, that I would stop the use of the pills. In fairness, she did not ask me to stop as she did not feel that the side affects had become that bad, but I feel that they did not seem that bad as I may have had a better grip on them and decided to give them up myself before they got out of hand.
Look, I still feel that champix did give me a great headstart! I have stayed away from cigarretes ever since and truly have had NO urge to smoke again. (well, I have had very, very mild “thought” cravings when sitting at home bored mindless since my car accident last week…) but nothing major. So, in summary…, I am glad that I took champix, they did seem to help in my quitting process but do feel that you really do need to be careful of them. Some people and their personalities just may not suite champix…. and the other way round too.
Nice to hear from you Luis, I do indeed remember you and thank you for further updates - this is what we need to hear! Thanks to Julie too: of course we need a balanced picture. Obviously there are success stories, nobody is suggesting otherwise. But it is interesting from both these posts that they stopped taking Champix quite early on, and that may be the key to avoiding much of the nastiness.
Luis is quite right to note that the variation in reactions between different people can be very significant, and it appears that he carefully monitored his progress and got his wife to do that too, promising to quit the medication if either of them became concerned.
So when he noticed, in his own words that: “after a few weeks on the 1mg pills my moods, irritability and dreams were considerably amplified than when I went cold turkey” - which incidentally proves it isn’t just the withdrawal of nicotine, otherwise the experience would have been no different - he quit Champix.
Julie also quit after a month or so, or tapered off. So it may be that Champix becomes more dangerous the longer you take it for, and may appear relatively harmless at first in most cases. The trouble is, the standard course is three months, after which there is an option to do another three months - which is way longer than the clinical trials were. Ooops.
Now - from a legal point of view - who is responsible for deciding to prescribe a drug for longer than it was ever tested for? And how can Pfizer claim it has been effectively tested for SAFETY when those trials were only run over a short period? In truth, real safety has been sacrificed in the mad rush to make as much money as possible, and proper scientific procedures - which would have discovered this problem through better testing - have been treated with utter contempt by the drug companies YET AGAIN.
Is it any wonder people are turning to more natural methods to improve their health, rather than play Russian Roulette with dodgy mind candy?
This site looks like Chris’s self publication masquerading as social welfare. Most of the long term smokers in the forum (google champix side effects) had tried hypnotherapy, and Champix was actually their last resort. There are pros and cons to every story.. I personally know 3 people who have stopped smoking long term through Champix. In Chris’s referral to other metods (see previous blogs), he firstly talks positively about the Alan Carr system, then pushes it to the back seats in favour of….., suprise! His own brand of hypnotherapy! Oh, and to cope with all the spare time youv’e gained from removing cigarettes from your life, you might take up reading…. Guess what? He has a book you can buy too, yippee! The dissent should be focussed at the way this (read all), drugs are prescribed. This should be with a thorough (professional) assessment of the individual patients needs. I this case, it seems that patients with any sort of history of depression should not be give the drug. But how could anyone remotely intelligent put full faith in the evidence and beliefs of someone(Chris) so clearly ‘in the same business’ (stopping smoking), as something he is so critical of?
Rory, how could anyone remotely intelligent reading up on Champix generally - not just on my site - not come to the same conclusion that I came to? Read back to the first post: I was not so critical at the beginning, but I’ve read a lot of horror stories since then, and unless you are going to accuse all those sufferers of lying, then clearly there is a serious problem.
This is not - as you imply - limited to people with a history of depression, far from it. If you are not already aware of that fact then you clearly need to read more independent accounts on all the other websites providing a forum for this debate, because that is the evidence I am citing. Your suggestion - that mounting evidence here too of horror stories should be treated with skepticism just because I have written a book about hypnotherapy and nicotine - is frankly stupid. The book is not about Champix, but you can read the one brief reference to it that appears in the book without even buying the book, because it is reproduced here on the site. So is some of the independent evidence that backs up what I’m saying. There is even more of that in the book itself, it’s a 400 page book. That’s for anyone seriously interested in these matters, which some people are, which is why they have bought the book. Your sly suggestion that this indicates a lack of intelligence is an insult to my readers that I do not appreciate, but I shouldn’t think it will bother them in any way. Especially if they have read Peddling Doubt in Section Nine, where there are other typical examples of comments that simply pour scorn on hypnotherapy and hope ignorant and negative people will just echo that. Of course that might not really be your agenda, Rory. Your comments might just represent your personal views, to which you are of course entitled.
You are quite wrong when you suggest that most smokers who post comments about Champix “had tried hypnotherapy and were using Champix as a last resort”. That’s just bonkers! There have been 400,000 prescriptions issued in the UK alone over the last year and a half, are you seriously suggesting all those smokers had previously tried hypnotherapy? Listen, the vast majority of people have never tried hypnotherapy for anything - partly because of ignorant, inaccurate dismissals like yours - so don’t expect to post that sort of crap on my website without me pointing out just what a half-witted suggestion that actually is… and clearly just an attempt to discredit my methods with an out and out lie. You know perfectly well that most smokers who have tried Champix have never tried hypnotherapy, although a few might have done. For obvious reasons, all those smokers who quit with hypnotherapy successfully and so never resorted to Champix are unlikely to be reading and contributing to Champix blogs, so you only hear from the ones who did not succeed with hypnotherapy, but in all the blogs I’ve read, there are very few of them anyway.
This is a campaigning website - did you miss that Rory? It’s not about me, I’m campaigning against public money being wasted on NRT when that is based on a myth. I’m campaigning against the appalling corruption of the testing and approval system that allows such things to be classified as medications, and allows that ‘approved’ status to stand even when people are killed by them. I am not alone in being horrified by that, and if you are not concerned about such a dangerous distortion of what used to be a more independent system, then you should be, because any one of those three people you mentioned might have died because of it, as others have already. This is now established fact, as this article posted on a legal website reviewing an investigation by the BBC proves. It’s dated November 28 2008, and is entitled:
Champix Problems in Britain.
As for Allen Carr, he stopped smoking with hypnotherapy, but later tried to claim he didn’t so I deal with that issue in the book, but I still regard Allen Carr highly in every other respect. His methods do not quite match ours, but they are a damn sight better than any pills, that’s for sure, and there’s no risk. As there are twelve million smokers in the country, and most of them say they want to quit, obviously there are not enough hypnotherapists in the land to cater for that, not by a long way. So I make the point that instead of poisoning people, the Department of Health should utilise the hypnotherapists, the Allen Carr people and the acupuncturists to do the work and train more, and I guarantee you no side effects, no fatalities from any of those therapies and a much higher success rate.
Most of all, sir, I am campaigning for hypnotherapy which has more of a rightful place - when it comes to true efficacy - in any hospital or medical centre than many of the drugs in the pharmacy, not to mention the lawless internet pharmacies, against which I am also campaigning. I don’t just make claims, Mr Gillard. I will back them up with evidence and demonstrations time and time again until the ignorance, prejudice and corruption that allows the current, sorry state of affairs is wiped out. Self-interest? It’s in the interests of everybody mate. I’m not on my own, these issues have been raised in many newspapers and on many websites, and just because you know a few people who took that stuff and didn’t try to hang themselves will be cold comfort for people who have lost their loved ones just because they wanted to quit smoking - something I could have fixed for most of them in two hours, just as I proved with the woman from Channel M television when they challenged me to do that.
What, you think I shouldn’t try to tell smokers they are being duped and drugged unnecessarily just because it looks like self-interest? Get real.
Ouch!
Yeah, well… I’m serious. People are dying unnecessarily, and the medical authorities are colluding with Big Pharma in this, and they have the audacity to tell millions of people that hypnotherapy, acupuncture and even the Allen Carr method are “unproven”. They are lying, and it is systematic and deliberate. Champix, Zyban and NRT all get to be officially called “evidence-based” when the real evidence is that they don’t work for the vast majority and even cause deaths. The spin they put on this is that smoking kills so many people that it is “worth the risk” - as if those were your only options - and by the time everybody realises it’s all a load of hype to make millions of dollars, they come out with another “magic pill” and the whole thing goes round again.
This whole process has become so unscientific now that to call it “science” is to add insult to injury. Thousands of people are being routinely killed and injured by ‘medications’ like Champix, and drug companies and medical authorities are blatantly insulting everyone’s intelligence by pretending that the testing, approval and control systems adequately protect the public when they manifestly don’t.
I stopped smoking using Champix 9 months ago. After failing several times at every other option to stop, nothing worked. Champix for me was FANTASTIC! No side efects, easy and no cravings. I’m so pleased to say I am now a non smoker and my health is heaps better for it. I took the whole 12 weeks course. I also know 4 other people through my work that also took Champix and had no problems with it as well. But the lady who lives down stairs from me said she was depressed and anxious and so stopped the Champix and got back on the fags. I think it has alot to do with your personality, she is a bit of a negative person and I don’t think she really WANTED to give up smoking. THANK YOU CHAMPIX!
My brother, mother and I all used Champix to stop smoking 1 year ago, and we are all happy to say we are no longer smokers. Felt a little nausea from time to time but only lasted a few minutes, no other side effects, we all did the full course. We are all very positive, up beat people which seems to make the difference. No body once addicted to anything is going like giving up their addiction no matter what it is, and making the decision to give it up can be depressing at times, like losing your best friend. So I guess you need to have the right personality to take this drug and have the right attitude to really want to give up smoking. It works! I luv CHAMPIX!
Ain’t it funny - you wait ages for comments from people who have been totally successful, are off the medication and are now happy non-smokers, having suffered little in the way of side effects - and then two come along on the same day. In fact, within half an hour of each other!
Not just two, actually: add up all the people cited in these 2 posts and you find SEVEN easy successes altogether, and only one who did not succeed - but we have a reason: she is a bit of a negative person (i.e. no failure of the medication, it was her fault.)
Hang on a minute though: if Helen is right in suggesting that any “addict” is going to feel bereft over the loss of their “old friend” nicotine, how come all the other seven apparently were not too troubled by this factor? Because they have the RIGHT PERSONALITY!
Bollocks: Champix is supposed to work chemically, blocking nicotine receptors. If it did what it was supposed to do, it would do that for all smokers - Pfizer never said anything about negative people having different nicotine receptors!
Are these posts genuine? Well they could be, it certainly isn’t impossible. But I smell a rat here, and not only just because they came in on the same day and sound similar to each other in key ways. It is also because I have read a lot of posts on a lot of blogs devoted to the Champix debate, and these last two posts also bear an obvious similarity to pro-Champix posts I’ve read before!
The thing is, there’s a lot of marketing going on out there, but some of it is disguised to look like innocent and genuine personal recommendation. What makes me suspicious with these two? Well, the common factors in this type of post are as follows: they often talk of several cases of total success, not just one - they often say there was just a bit of nausea, no other side effects, and it helps if you eat something - they NEVER comment on, or refer to, the horror stories in the blog, recommending Champix unhesitantly even though it is obviously harming some people - the posts often include some sly suggestion that if other smokers are not enjoying the easy success they claim Champix brought them, it is basically their own fault. This is so close to Pfizer’s official line that it has to be suspicious, not to mention callous when you read some of the truly heartbreaking accounts in this, and many other blogs.
Finally, just look at the last few words of each of the two posts above, and tell me you’re not at least a little suspicious that they could have been written by the same person pretending to be two different people. Add to that the fact that each post is almost exactly the same length, starts out with the same introductory point (we quit x months ago), both cite several successes, not just one… and both suggest that personality is a significant factor! Coincidence? I think not! I think Gerald and Helen should get together, they’ve got a lot in common!
In any case, that cheerleader-style “Go Champix! Yay Champix! We love Champix!” is wholly inappropriate when some people have already killed themselves after taking it, and a lot more have attempted to do so.
Those are just my thoughts, make your own minds up folks. Nobody gets censored here, Truth Will Out anyway.
Okay, it’s now five days since I wrote that last post. Don’t know about you, but if I’d been ‘Gerald’ or ‘Helen’, and I’d been a genuine contributor with a real success story, I’d have been straight back on here saying: “No, you’ve got it all wrong Chris! I really did quit with Champix, and so did all my friends! Sorry if we sound a bit over-excited, and of course we are sorry for these other people who seem to be suffering ill-effects, but we’re just so glad to be smoke-free!”
Wouldn’t you, reader?
Nothing. Silence. See what’s going on here? What kind of a person leaves bogus messages encouraging innocent smokers to use a medication that they already know has been linked with serious depression and suicide? This is what I’m talking about - smokers are being ruthlessly manipulated by people who have no scruples whatever, they just want to sell drugs and they don’t care if those drugs kill you.
If you have had any doubt about the things we are saying on this site, just look at that, as a perfect example of everything the Truth Will Out Campaign is against. Killer drugs, liars and profiteers - and they call that “evidence-based medicine”. Sick.
I have been on Champix….day 4 now! I have to say that I am very scared to continue on with this pill after reading everything I have about it…VERY FRIGHTENING!!!!! So far my side effects include tiredness…I’m not grumpy or moody but scared that I will become that way! I have 3 girls and I really want to do this for them but I don’t want to turn into a MONSTER in the mean time
I really don’t know what I should do!
Nicole, I am no longer inclined to be even-handed about this extremely unpredictable drug. If you read post no.90 from Jane on the string of comments after my original Champix/Chantix blogpost here on this site, you will see why. A friend of her family began suffering on day five, was advised to continue taking it and hanged himself four weeks later without leaving a note. Get off it Nicole, throw the damn stuff away. It doesn’t work in the long run for the vast majority anyway, don’t believe the hype.
If you want to quit smoking, read around this site for the safer, more successful methods - and if you don’t want to just take my word for it, investigate further on-line. Don’t take unnecessary risks, there are lots of ways to quit smoking that have never caused anyone to top themselves, hypnotherapy being the best. Ref. Our Homepage for the independent evidence for that.
Best wishes and Happy New Year.
I am on week 4 of champix, and have found it to be amazing. Yes, there are side effects but I seem to be getting them very lightly (vivid dreams that are actually quite nice) and nausea (than can be totally avoided if you take the tablet with food). I haven’t touched a cigarette for 15 days and have found it very very easy. Maybe I am just one of the lucky ones, but I really would recommend this drug to anyone based on MY experience. However, I am also sure that so many people can’t be wrong when you read the negative reviews - it’s up to you really. I think that as long as you are careful with it (I have weekly appointments with a non-smoking counceller and my doctor) then it can definitely be a good thing.
“Definitely”? That’s a very sure expression for a person who is only on week 4, Ali. If you read around the comments on this string, and also on the one following my original post titled “Champix/Chantix”, you will see that we have heard this sort of early enthusiasm before from people who have only been on the tablets for a few weeks. Some have then descended into horror stories. To quote Jane’s latest post (No.92) on the other string mentioned above:
“I myself had never dreamed that this drug I had regarded so highly in December 2007 would turn out to be a complete living nightmare.” She is not only referring to her own experiences with Champix - which became rather nasty - but the fact that a friend of her family had just committed suicide whilst on Champix. “One year more or less to the day this poor guy took his own life coz of this drug. I’m sure if I had took it for 6 months, I too would have gone even madder than it made me.”
Ali, it might also be worth you looking at Wayan’s posts on that string (12, 14 and 16) which started out all positive and then changed completely. That pattern is cropping up all over Champix blogs.
I sincerely hope that such a sudden, nasty shock does not happen to you. The far more common form of disappointment, though, seems to be that the urge to smoke returns with a vengeance once you stop taking the tablets. We already know that at least 80% of smokers will not be cured of smoking by Champix anyway.
Before recommending Champix to other people, I would suggest it would be wise to complete the course, come off the medication, and stay off it for a few weeks without smoking. Good luck, Ali - will you please keep us posted?
well i smoked for 28 years 30 a day, tried quitting a few times with patches, hypnotherapy the inhalater but to no avail. I then took champix and they worked for me. Apart from a bit of insomnia ive been fine.
All I can say is you need to find out whats best for you and try your best, everyone is unique.There is no quick fix you still need your own will power.
good luck to everyone whos trying.
Google ‘Champix furious seasons’
That will give all you enthusiastic Champix novices a shock.This drug is a killer.It killed someone close to my O/H.It would of probably killed me.I may be smoke-free but at what cost ?
This crap changed a lot more of me than people will ever know.Its unpredictable in how it works and most people who start taking it think its the bees knees.I suffered from weeks of nausea to mega-depression on this drug.
We had to bury someone not so long ago because of this drug.Somebody who had no history of depression-a happy go lucky chap with the rest of his life ahead of him.He wanted to stop smoking for his health and wealth.There are easier ways to quit.Acupuncture cured a hopeless phobia I had.I wished I had attempted this avenue when it came to quitting smoking.
Beware of this drug and take at your risk.
Mel’s suggestion that “there is no quick fix you still need your own willpower” will instantly ring a bell with anyone who has read my book. That phrase is repeated frequently by the NHS, medical authorities and any source of information which is steering smokers towards the pharmaceutical products.
It simply isn’t true. My clients walk in an habitual smoker, and walk out two hours later completely free. They don’t need any willpower, except the minimal willpower required to book a session and actually turn up for it. For those who are quite happy to ditch cigarettes at that point in their lives, that’ll be the end of it. No cravings, no overeating, no weight gain.
Now Mel claims to have tried ‘hypnotherapy’, but gives no details whatever, just lumping it in with NRT as if they were both equally useless. Perhaps it seemed that way to Mel - or maybe that particular therapist was rubbish anyway. Or a beginner - anything is possible.
For it may be that Mel is a real person, and is not involved in the promotion of Champix in any way. But it is striking how these pro-Champix posts never mention the horror stories at all - with the one exception of Ali, who makes a vague reference with “I suppose all these people can’t be wrong…” but then goes on to suggest Champix is “definitely a good thing” anyway!
Those two points are mutually exclusive. If all these people suffering frightening side-effects that they wouldn’t have chosen to suffer had they known about them in advance “can’t be wrong”, then Champix simply cannot be “definitely a good thing”. Quite the contrary, it is definitely bloody dangerous and frightening, although obviously it doesn’t do that to everyone, or it would have been more noticeable at the trial stages.
So when Ali suggests: “It’s up to you, really”, he is actually suggesting that because these freak-outs don’t happen to everyone, the drug should not be dismissed as an option. Given what people have been telling us here about their own horrific experiences, that attitude is a bit too relaxed for my taste. We hypnotherapists, the acupuncturists and the Allen Carr practitioners know perfectly well that there is no need for anyone to be running any such risks at all.
Mel is quite right that everyone is unique, and I’m not suggesting that everyone will take to hypnotherapy. But the fact is that most people do, especially when it is done properly and adequately explained beforehand. So no-one should be encouraged to choose risky options until they have personally tried all the ones that involve no risk - I mean it just stands to reason, doesn’t it?
So why do the medical authorities ignore the methods that cannot harm you - and have a very respectable success rate, actually, despite the official medical mantra that they are “not proven” - prescribing instead things that could certainly harm you, which have a lower success rate anyway?
The answer is simple: They have no real authority. They are controlled by the pharmaceutical industry, which would not let them change direction even if they wanted to. What was once the National Health Service is now the National Medication Service. The medical profession isn’t really a profession any more. It has been hijacked by the drugs industry, and Champix is only the latest of a series of very nasty consequences of that.
It will take a lot more than hope to make sure it is the last.
Thanks for commenting on my previous posting. I wasn’t in any way suggesting that Champix is a perfect solution, I just wanted to put my point forward that I am taking it and so far (coming up for 7 weeks) I have not had any issues with it. I am perfectly open to the possibility that this could change, and I am under no illusions that when I stop taking it I will still need will power if I don’t want to start smoking again. I just wanted to put forward my opinion, as there is a lot of negative press about Champix but my experience of it couldn’t be further away from most of what I read. I am taking it based on the reccommendations of 4 personal acquaintances (I work in a pub and so deal with people who smoke/used to smoke on a regular basis), all of whom have succesfully given up using Champix. None of these 4 people suffered what I would call serious side affects (they just had the slight dreaming issues and nausea whilst taking the tablet), and so I thought I would give it ago (after consulting my doctor and non-smoking clinic of course). None of these 4 people have returned to smoking.
I realise that out of all the people who have commented on having bad experiences on Champix, 4 positive stories really isn’t a huge amount. However, I haven’t PERSONLLY had anyone tell me that they have had a bad experience on it which is why I decided to give it a go.
I am not in the medical profession and so there is no reason why anyone should listen to what I have to say. However, I just wanted to put forward the fact that it IS possible to take Champix and for it to work (to date). The internet is full of horror stories for just about everything, and you are more likely to talk about something if you have had a bad experience on it that you are if you have had a good experience.
I have no product to sell and nothing to gain by defending Champix. I just want to make the point that there are a huge amount of success stories with it, and that not everyone who takes it will suffer from horrendous side effects. Of course there are those that do suffer the side effects, I am not disputing that, but I think it is only fair for both sides of the story to be told.
Ali, it is precisely because you are not in the medical profession that your view is likely to be unselfconscious and straightforward. Of course we want a balanced picture, and welcome all comments.
There is only one problem, though, with people defending Champix. The picture that is emerging seems to be that the horror reactions are random, and although Pfizer have tried to suggest that only people with previous history of anxiety or depression suffer ill-effects, you only have to read around the blogs to see that this is completely untrue. Look at Josephine’s post following my article “Champix 5: No Wonder Drug”. It’s really scary, and she begs people not to risk it.
Ali’s comments are perfectly valid, but if someone reads Ali’s account, and decides to try it, can Ali assure that person that Champix won’t make them go crazy and hang themselves? No.
Now, I might be prepared to accept the argument that people should be offered the medication anyway if they are content to take the risk, if it were not for these factors:
Doctors are clearly not explaining the risks adequately, for whatever reasons, so for the patient it is an uniformed (and potentially fatal risk to take.
No-one should be encouraged to take a risky option when they have not been offered or advised properly about all the non-risk options.
This is especially true when at least three non-risk options (hypnotherapy, the Allen Carr method and acupuncture) all perform better than Champix, Zyban or NRT.
The only reason this is not common knowledge is because medical authorities are feeding smokers misinformation.
Drug companies like Pfizer influence medical authorities to such an extent that they can currently prevent this from changing. In other words the whole healthcare system is dreadfully corrupt.
Smokers are paying with their lives.
I don’t censor anyone, but I will add comments. Pfizer will love your comment, Ali, and perhaps you’d better round up your 4 friends and get them to add their voices too. Pfizer are gonna need ‘em, because the lawsuits are piling up already. The battle to ban Champix has only just begun.
Thank you so much Chris for your prompt reply! I am still taking Champix…day 11 now…and I am still tired! I have not been taking the pills at night for the last 3 nights because I feel that I don’t need them. After the last 11 days I would have to say it has taken LOTS of willpower not to smoke…this pill is by no means “MAGICAL” It has everything to do with your will power…the only thing I have noticed, is that smoke smells awful and it disgusts me when I see people doing it because of the smell…where at one time I would have LOVED the smell of smoke. My hubby is also on it…this drug makes him REALLY on edge, very moody and very tired. He hasn’t had vivid dreams but he does feel nausea. On the other hand, since we have quit smoking, he is enjoying breakfast…before he would never think to touch food so early in the morning…but he still “wants” to smoke but his willpower is helping
I should also say that my brother has sucessfully quit on Champix! It has been 14 weeks for him…only side effects he’s had were vivid dreams (which he enjoyed…said it was like watching a movie) a bit of nausea if he took it without food…and that’s all!
Whatever happened to Shelly? I’m concerned about her withdrawl symptoms. Chris, what are the withdrawl syptoms? What happens to us…so, we feel good for the 12 weeks we are on the medication and then we get depressed when we stop taking it? Or does it depend on previous depression? You know, we spend all this time researching what will happen to us when we take Champix but we don’t research what happend when we stop taking the medication!!!! I’m going to google that tonight!!!
Nikki, there simply isn’t an answer to that question because the difference between one user and another are so huge that nothing can safely be predicted, and that is why no-one should be prescribed this drug at all. Doctors cannot advise you with any certainty what you should expect, taking Champix is an utter leap in the dark.
Even now, the few people (like Ali) who are defending Champix are still on the medication. We are certainly not hearing success stories from people who have finished the course, suffered no ill effects either from taking it, or ceasing to take it and still not smoking. That is the only definition of success that would be valid. You cannot confidently recommend a drug, or claim that “it works” just because it seems to be working whilst you are still taking it.
I have not heard from Shelly since November. Many people taking this drug do not feel good whilst they are taking it, and what happens when you stop is anyone’s guess, but the most likely outcome is relapse into smoking. Nikki clearly still wants to smoke after nearly a fortnight on Champix, and so does her partner. SOME WONDER DRUG. “Really on edge, very moody and very tired”.
Now answer me this question please, somebody:
Here I am explaining to everyone that one session of hypnotherapy will wipe out your smoking habits with no risk, and no effort from yourselves. Champix has obviously caused some people to hang themselves, or try to hang themselves, with no previous suggestion of mental illness, and it doesn’t work for most people anyway.
Why on earth should anyone choose to risk taking Champix if they haven’t already exhausted all other options? It should be a last resort! Hypnotherapy has a far better success rate anyway - check out the evidence here on the site. What’s the problem - don’t you believe me? Are people afraid of hypnosis, or what? There certainly isn’t any need to be. Is it the cost? Why would anyone choose to risk their lives rather than pay for private therapy? For some people, the true cost of taking Champix has been horrific.
Seriously, I’m baffled. And I’m worried about all of you - not just because you’re taking Champix, but because you all seem to have accepted the hype that suggests it is worth the risk ‘because cancer would be worse’, and whatever I say about hypnotherapy YOU STILL THINK THAT!!!!
Magic pills, magic pills, still believe in magic pills… see what you’ve done, Doc?
Hi Chris,
Im a proper regular poster on here now!!Its like looking in a mirror when you read about how some people are so keen when they 1st start taking Champix-I know I was-yet as you are aware Chris I have seen 1st hand the horrors of what Champix can do.It did me alot of harm YET I have been smokefree for months now since I stopped taking it-YET when I came off it I was in limbo for ages.I think the fact that my O/H was so ill from smoking and quit also reduced my anxieties and helped me want to stay quit.I feel like the habit has been erased completly now from my life.We are now smokefree and I can honestly say that if my O/H was still smoking I know that I would be smoking again.I did have accupunture for a phobia I had and I told the lady who did it about my anxieties over smoking.She said that the accupunture I was having would help erase these anxieties.I therefore believe that the Champix helped me stop smoking short term and the accupunture I had for the phobia could of helped my anxieties.I am now a relaxed happy go lucky again person.I would appreciate your views on this as you have read alot of my posts that I have left on here.
To Nikki and her boyfriend.
You must be mad to take this drug.I hope neither of you ever suffer the way I did on the drug .If you feel suicidal stop taking it straightaway.I know somebody who hung himself-no history of depression or mental illness-this drug was to blame.Its dangerous cos its unpredictable-WHY TAKE THE RISK ??.Ive learnt alot from what Chris has said on this site.Got to admit I wouldnt be visiting this site again if I hadnt gone through what I did on this drug.I can tell you now when you stop taking it most of the time you start or want to smoke again-thats how I felt.You may be a success-but why take the risk?.I go on other blogs now and leave my Champix experiences to warn others about it.I even told my doctor about the suicide-he just defended the Champix!! what a brain washed dipstick.Good luck to you! Make sure you come back and tell us whether its been a succes.
Well I have taken the tablets for 12 days and stopped smoking 4 days ago, slight irritation with moods for first week and problems sleeping but so far so good, no cigs, no smell its great so far!
Here’s my twopenn’orth.
I’ve been trying for years to stop smoking. The first way that really worked for me was the Allen Carr method - it was like magic. And that worked as well for my parents.
But the Allen Carr method is a bit like antibiotics - you become immune to it if you start smoking again.
I’d managed to stop and start and stop and start - and my sister gave up with Zyban. She said it was a magic drug, so I went to my Dr who wouldn’t prescribe Zyban, because there’d been a death - instead he prescribed Champix.
I’m on about week 5 of the course and about 8 days into not smoking.
On the smoking side, it has done exactly what it said it would do. My smoking was considerably reduced and when I stopped, the withdrawal symptoms were simply not there. So on that side, I’m really pleased.
However… at times, I appear to have become bi-polar (manic depressive). I’ll be alright for a bit and then suddenly I’m up and down like a yoyo. At first I put it down to the actual nicotine withdrawals, but I’m usually alright by about day 3 or 4.
I’ve also noticed that this is particularly exacerbated if I happen to miss a tablet.
I found this site by googling ‘how to come off Champix’, because I’m acutely aware that it may be the side-effects of coming OFF Champix that is making me depressed…
In a word, I don’t know what to say - yes, it’s helped me to stop smoking at a time of my life when I didn’t know where else to turn (and for the record, my sister HAD tried hypnotherapy and it simply hadn’t worked for her).
But at the same time, I am not the sort of person who gets depressed - and this ‘depression’ isn’t actually related to anything. It’s a false depression, if you know what I mean.
And yes, today for the first time I also wanted to smash things. Which is really not like me!
“Out of character”, yes - that’s the phrase that is cropping up all over Champix blogs. And here we have the useful perspective of someone who can compare the reactions to previous quitting attempts, and assure us that the Champix experience is quite different from the usual unpleasantness of trying to quit the hard way.
“Nicotine withdrawal” is a mythical term - what this refers to is the way a smoker feels if they try to resist the compulsive urge to smoke (cravings) with willpower alone, which is usually very difficult. If it were truly nicotine withdrawal, it would happen to all my hypnotherapy clients as well, but it doesn’t. The vast majority feel absolutely fine afterwards, which of course astonishes them.
Zyban isn’t “magic”, and there have been quite a few suicides actually. Also, we now know its success rate to be about 13% in the long run, which is absolutely rubbish. What concerns me here is that only five weeks ago, apparently, a prescribing doctor should be still under the impression that Champix is “safer” than Zyban. That is nothing short of terrifying.
I have been on Champix now for about 6 weeks. It has sort of been a double edged sword for me. I really do not like taking medication for anything let alone something that affects my brain, however i had friends that quit very easily on it and figured i would give it a try.
I have been smoke free now for one month and it has been very easy to resist any urge to smoke. However my personality is suffering and i have been quite miserable. I am normally very calm and mellow, i’m the person that doesn’t get mad and is always nice to the point of fault. I have noticed lately that i am getting very angry A LOT, and not just a little angry, feeling like a want to hit people. (mainly my husband:p) I have also had no energy and just felt sad a lot. This is so not like me, but i am lucky that i am very self aware and have noticed these changes and am keeping myself in check. I can see it being a very dangerous drug for someone that does not have a high degree of self control or self awareness.
I cut down to one pill per day but have now decided that i am no longer going to take it. I just really hope that it does not take that long to become myself again.
Thanks Josie, hope you’re feeling yourself again soon! I think you are right to play safe and get off it, there is certainly evidence that the longer people take it, the riskier it seems to be, generally speaking.
Will you please keep us posted on a) how long it takes to get back to feeling normal, and b) how you feel about smoking once the drug is out of your system?
Hi
I’ve just started my first day of Champix and obviously after reading this along with other websites i am really nervous but “dont want to believe everything i read on the internet” and give up without giving it a chance.
I am prone to depression and suffered badly from postnatal depression two years ago, i have also suffered from anxiety. So this has made me really nervous!! I feel fine today (although i do have a slight headache im not sure if that would have been there anyway) I am also smoking as normal.
Chris i have never had hypnotherapy for smoking but anyone ive spoke to doesn’t recommend it, they say its a waste of money. I have had basic acupuncture on my ear but this didn’t work!!!
I would definitely be willing to give hypnotherapy a chance and ditch the tablets if you could recommend a good hypnotherapist to me in Belfast? Do you have evidence of success rates?
At the moment i am undecided about continuing and if i do i will keep you posted. If i do get a recommendation for hypnotherapy and it works then i will also let you know!!!
I have been on Champix now for 8 weeks quit for six and I to have noticed changes, mainly irritability and generally feeling down at times. However, saying that it is not out of control and I have smoked for 20 years and have tried everything to quit, Alen Carr and Hypnotherapy being 2 of those methods. I feel much better knowing I have a higher probability of being alive for my children and will monitor the side effects I have had to ensure they do not increase, and will go back to my doctor to monitor my health when coming off Champix.
It’s horses for courses Dawn, not everybody responds well to hypnotherapy for smoking, but about 80% will if the therapist is a smoking cessation specialist AND PROVIDING the client gives hypnotherapy more than one shot at the issue if necessary. I’ve heard people state that hypnotherapy “didn’t work” for them, but when I pressed them for details it turned out they only ever had one session!
Now it is true that about 60% of would-be quitters are fine after the first session, but the other 20% will either not stop immediately for some reason, or start again later. Neither of these is a problem for the therapist provided they return, because there is always a reason and an experienced therapist can seek it out and deal with it.
In practice, I rarely do third sessions for smoking. If there is no response to sessions one or two - which does happen in a few cases - I certainly would not advise a third, but I have no hesitation in encouraging a second - some of my greatest triumphs have been in second sessions! The reason I rarely consider a third session is because there will always be a few clients who are not going to stop at that point in their lives anyway, no matter how talented their therapist may be, and I don’t like flogging a dead horse even if I’m getting paid for it. I’m only interested in success, I’m not interested in wasting anyone’s time or money.
So good luck Dawn, will you please let us know what happens when you come off the medication?
Amanda, your doctor should have known that Champix is contra-indicated if there is a history of anxiety disorders or depression. Those are official warnings and any doctor ignoring that is negligent and putting their patient’s life at risk. Look at all the data on the ‘net (google “champix warnings, side effects”) and see if I’m not right. Don’t take any more tablets, do the research then go and ask your doctor whether they had been properly advised of this by the people who advise them on the safety of medicines.
Who are these people you’ve spoken to who say hypnotherapy is a waste of money? They are suggesting that I am a fraud. Let them come to my office here at Merchants House, 24-25 Market Place, Stockport, U.K. any day from Monday to Saturday, stand face to face with me in my office, look me in the eye and tell ME that hypnotherapy is a waste of money and that I am a fraud.
Only one person has ever called me a fraud, but it wasn’t face to face. His wife had come for a session to stop smoking - just one! - and he rang me the next day to say it hadn’t worked and so I began to explain that we sometimes need to spend more time on the issue, but he wasn’t interested in any meaningful discussion. He was aggressive, rude and quite ignorant, and then he actually called me a fraud.
I immediately invited him to come to the office and repeat that to my face. He said he might just do that. I suggested that now would be a good time for me, but he suddenly remembered that it wasn’t really a very good time for him, because he had to go somewhere else which was already arranged. So I asked him where he was right now, got the address which turned out to be quite near, and said “I’ll be there in ten minutes” and put the phone down. Ten minutes later I was knocking at his door.
When he opened the door, he only opened it a fraction, and seemed quite a different fellow from the one who phoned me. He wasn’t calling anyone a fraud, for one thing. He seemed confused when I demanded to know how the correct spelling of his surname. He was even more confused when I shoved a cheque for the fee from his wife’s session into his hand. Then I explained:
“This is NOT a refund. The client pays for session time, regardless of outcomes. I just don’t want that money in my account. No-one has ever called me a fraud, you are the only one. If I were a fraud, after all these years that would certainly not be the case, would it? So it says more about you than it says about me, and it would offend me to have any monies from your household in my practice account. Goodbye.”
I’m not surprised his wife continued to smoke - who wouldn’t, living with that idiot? Probably couldn’t wait to die, I expect. She should try Champix… or preferably, crush up the tablets and put them in his dinner, do us all a favour. No-one will notice the difference when he exhibits aggressive behaviour, then if he strings himself up, no-one will think… no, wait! There’s a flaw in the plan: Champix found in his system at the autopsy, she’s the one with the prescription, it won’t work. Damn!
Amanda, I don’t know anyone in Belfast so I cannot give a particular recommendation, but I will say this: Champix has killed people, or rather caused them to kill themselves. Hypnotherapy is risk-free, as is the Allen Carr method and acupuncture. They all have better long-term success rates than Champix, Zyban or NRT. Why would anyone try a dangerous, unnatural medication with a lousy success rate BEFORE exhausting all the risk-free methods - because it’s cheaper? Okay, I’ll buy that for NRT because no-one has topped themselves because of a nicotine patch. But not the other two.
As for evidence, just click the “evidence” button on this site. Or Google “scientific evidence for hypnotherapy success for stopping smoking” and have a read around. Then ask yourself what you’re waiting for. Take care, don’t take the Suicide Pills.
Thanks for your reply Chris.
Im pleased to say that i have stopped taking the champix (which means i only took them for 5 days in total) and bought Allen Carrs book which i finished in a day!!! I had my last cigarette last night and am so pleased to say i havent even had an urge to smoke i feel free!!!! I could never of imagined a book would do that!!!!!!
From reading the book i can see how Champix was never going to work for me as I would always have been anxious about them and therefore would probably have smoked more!!!
maybe Champix might help you to give up smoking but the risk of side affects were too great for me and having suffered from mental illness before i definitely would not want to go back there.
Thanks for your advice!!!!!!
Well i haven’t taken a pill since Feb.16 and it was probably about the 23rd i started to feel normal again. There was about 3 days after i stopped taking them that were really tough, feeling very depressed, tired etc. One of those days i even spent in bed.
Now that i am feeling normal i can see just how bad i was feeling, tiredness being the worst of the symptoms, and not normal tired, sleep sitting up kind of tired. Yesterday was the first day in a long time i woke up in the morning and didn’t struggle to get out of bed and i had lots of energy and felt happy.
I am glad i quit smoking however if i had to do it over i would not take champix again.
There you go, readers.
Well done, Amanda! And you’re welcome to the advice - that’s what I do for a living!
Josie, glad you’re back in the land of the living. Of course I’m glad you ditched tobacco, it’s just a shame you were put through all that - and it could have been worse - when Amanda obviously hasn’t suffered at all, and neither do my hypnotherapy clients.
Take care, don’t take the Suicide Pills. Help without the risk of harm is what smokers really need, and help is out there in a number of forms, not just hypnotherapy. Although hypnotherapy is certainly the easiest of all, because you don’t even have to read a book!
Having said that, reading my book seemed to impress the guys who posted reviews on Amazon.co.uk. By the way, if anyone would like to buy the book but doesn’t like shopping on-line, you can now order it from any Borders store.
Nicotine: The Drug That Never Was. Author: Chris Holmes ISBN No. 9780955682902
It is (I believe) the first book ever to prove that tobacco smoking is a compulsive habit, not a drug addiction - one of the few points Allen Carr actually got wrong. Most of what he says about smoking is absolutely true, of course. But my book tells you all about hypnotism as well, so it is far more interesting than any book that is just about smoking! It’s also much more entertaining that any of Allen Carr’s books - especially the chapter about Allen Carr. But don’t take my word for it! Read the reviews and the testimonials - they’re all genuine.
A quick update. I posted a while ago and am still not smoking after nearly 5 months (and don”t feel that I will again).
I used Champix for only the initial two weeks and a third week at half dose to get me over the initial “hump”. For me, this method worked but to be fair, I don’t know if I could or would want to do the full course.
Anyway it’s an interesting website, good blog and I might just buy your book.
Cheers Mark
Thanks Mark!
Actually, it’s a bit of a relief to get SOME cheery news about Champix, or this site begins to look totally biased, which it is certainly not intended to be. The key to avoiding side-effects does seem to be quitting the medication early, that observation has come up a number of times now.
Congratulations on your new liberated status!
I have been taking Champix now for 2 weeks and i feel so different… i keep crying, my head hurts so so badly.. i feel totally down and as a rule i am a happy go lucky person… i feel as though the world is against me..
I am considering stopping these awful things, could i just do this…?? any help will be very gratfully received.
Sally, get off it quick. The world is the same as it was before, and no-one is against you, it’s the medication twisting your perceptions. Stop taking it immediately, and you should start feeling better very quickly.
By all accounts it can take a little time to really get back to normal, but you will. There are other ways of stopping smoking that don’t involve these horrible experiences. Ditch the scary Champix.
Also, read around the other comments on this blog, the whole Champix section. It’s not just you, Sally - lots of other people are freaking out as well. Read the Champix blogs on other sites - just Google “Champix suicides”. Don’t hesitate - stop taking it, do some research to reassure yourself that it IS the medication, go back to your doctor and complain about this medicine.
In fact: anyone reading this, if you’ve had similar experiences - or know someone who has - make sure the prescribing doctors concerned are being informed and that they are reporting it. This dangerous drug must be withdrawn. It is killing people.
Hypnotherapy is the most successful smoking cessation method - see the Evidence section on this site. It has never harmed anyone, and neither has acupuncture or the Allen Carr method. For more info about hypnotherapy click here.
I am a smoker and I have never taken anything to try to stop smoking (to be honest I can’t think of a time when I have tried to stop) But the reason I was looking into champix and stumbled across this site was due to my ex boyfriend and what I believe were his ’side effects’ from champix.
He has never had any history of depression in the past and the best way you could describe his personality would be as happy, fun-loving and very laid back.
He started taking champix around 6 or 7 weeks ago, and within around 10 days I noticed a serious change in him. Constantly snapping at me about everything and anything, even going out of his way to cause arguments. Then he started snapping at our 3 year old quite often (i.e things that 3 year olds normally do would become “unacceptable”) and she seemed to annoy him more than anything.
Then last weekend (Sunday night) he came home from work about 23:30 and within 5 minutes of him walking through the door he just flipped (over the fact that there was no bread left!) screaming, throwing things and hitting his own head off the wall.
Then he started to make cuts on his arms (not wrists, but in a self harming kind of way) and when I tried to stop him from doing this he punched me in the face. I was literally in shock at what had happened and tried to back away from him when my daughter woke up and came through to the livingroom screaming and scared about what was going on. I picked her up to comfort her and try to take her back to bed but he carried on hitting me (whilst holding my daughter at this point) because I was refusing to let him hold her mainly because he had blood all over his arms and she was terrified because of his shouting.
I have never been so scared in my life and I am heart broken this has happened. My neighbour had to call the police because he would not let me near the phone or out of his sight. I eventually managed to get my daughter to leave the room so she didnt have to watch him continuing to beat me up. The police had to kick in our front door and literally drag him off me to get him to stop. It was like he was possessed.
He was arrested and has been released on bail, on the conditions that he does not come near myself or my daughter. And of course we have split up and will never be together again because I cannot risk putting my daughter in a situation like that again.
I cannot stress enough to people that he is, or shoud I say “was” not the type of person who would ever do a thing like this (which is probably why I am so devastated and shocked by it) We were together for 10 years (since the age of 14) and I have spent my entire adult life with him. Up until recently, we had only had 4 arguments for our entire relationship so it was not like the arguing had gradually gotten worse building up to this either. He does not drink at all (never has) and he has been nothing but a loving, caring father to our daughter.
The only thing that has been different in his life recently is the fact that he was taking champix. I don’t think what happened can be put down to nicotine withdrawls either because he quit smoking just over 4 years ago for around 6 months with nothing near the side effects he has experienced this time round.
I would advise anyone, especially anyone with young children etc to think twice about taking this drug - whether your doctor has recommended it to you or not. It can alter someone’s entire persona within weeks and although no one has died in my case, it has completely ruined my life, and it breaks my heart that my daughters life has been ruined as well, as she will never live in a house with both her parents ever again.
I cried when I read this post from Lauren this morning. I’m a family man, and although it is technically true that no-one has died in this case, in a way it’s not true, because a family has died. This is an absolute tragedy, and what makes it much worse is that it should never have happened.
In 2007, a well-known and talented musician called Carter Albrecht was shot dead by his neighbour in the U.S.A. He was behaving in exactly the way Lauren describes in her account, and trying to kick his neighbour’s back door in, for no obvious reason. The neighbour was confused and alarmed, and because Mr. Albrecht wouldn’t stop and apparently couldn’t calm down, his neighbour fired through the door and Carter died as a result. He was behaving completely out of character.
When it emerged that Carter Albrecht was on Champix at the time, the case became a focal-point for all arguments about whether the drug was dangerous or not - and because Carter had also been drinking, defenders of Champix leapt on that as if it were the true cause. But the man Lauren is talking about here “doesn’t drink at all (never has) and he has been nothing but a loving, caring father to our daughter”.
Pfizer have also tried to suggest that aggressive and violent reactions are linked to a history of mental problems. But Lauren says: “He has never had any history of depression in the past and the best way you could describe his personality would be as happy, fun-loving and very laid back”.
Pfizer have also tried to claim that bad reactions are a result of “nicotine withdrawal” - but if that were true, my hypnotherapy clients would experience such things, and they don’t. And Lauren points out that this man quit for 6 months four years ago without anything like this happening. She concludes: “The only thing that was different in his life recently is the fact that he was taking Champix.”
Given to him by his doctor. It has destroyed his family, his future, and he will obviously never be the same again because of that. It killed Carter Albrecht, and too many others have killed themselves, or tried to kill themselves. Already, there are more complaints of bad reactions being officially logged against Champix than any other drug… but was this one of them? How many more reactions like this are going on, but nobody realises the cause? How many incidents like this are still going unreported?
Lauren, my heart goes out to all of you - none of you deserved this. He was only trying to improve his health, for God’s sake - probably for the sake of his daughter, as much as anything else. It’s heartbreaking, but what is particularly horrifying is that the doctors who are handing this stuff out are clearly way too ignorant about the risks involved. Champix should never have been passed as if it were safe in the first place, because it clearly isn’t, and putting warnings on the packet simply isn’t good enough. Every day, smokers pick up a packet of cigarettes that says SMOKING KILLS all over it, and just hope it doesn’t happen to them.
Even if Champix had a reasonable long-term success rate… which it doesn’t, certainly not compared to hypnotherapy… this kind of random, devastating reaction means it is just not worth the risk. Hypnotherapy, the Allen Carr method and acupuncture all involve NO RISK AT ALL.
Finally, Lauren: although I completely understand that your top priority is your daughter’s safety and security, please believe that it wasn’t his fault. He took that medication in good faith, in fact he was following medical advice. No-one deserves to lose everything that is dear to them just for doing that. Read around the Champix blogs, and you’ll find more and more accounts of reactions like this. There are numerous accounts of people returning to normal in due course, once this evil stuff is out of their system, and although I am not in a position to fully assure you of that, I certainly hope that turns out to be the norm.
Given that you were so happy together before - and for such a long time - and this episode is so totally out of character, it may be too soon to decide you can never be together again. The fact is, if he had never taken Champix your daughter would never have been at risk in the first place and neither would you. Obviously, after a reaction like that he would never dream of touching Champix again, so if he is one of those that returns to his former self - and maybe everyone does, I really don’t know yet, I don’t think anyone does for sure - why should you all lose so much just because of those lying bastards at Pfizer?
Doctors: don’t prescribe it, you don’t want to be responsible for causing this kind of mayhem. Smokers: go for the no-risk alternatives. Pfizer: I have only the deepest contempt for you - and your well-paid legal representatives - because you all know damn well you aren’t telling the truth and it’s all about money in reality. You don’t care how many lives are wasted or ruined as long as you all get well rewarded. You are truly the scum of the earth.
The sooner that horrible concoction is banned the better, and anything I can do to hasten that day, I will do without the slightest hesitation.
Hello,
My friend satrted taking the drug 2 weeks ago, she started to feel un-emotional last Monday by thursday she was saying she couldn’t feel anything for her children, luckily enough that was the straw that broke the camels back and hasn’t had one since, but she is still very cold, she split up with her boyfriend on Saturday (much to his suprise) whom she was really besotted with….also she is dealing with some really bad family news at the moment, so I just hope th tablets wear off soon, so she can deal with her life with a sound mind…………
Hi,
i have just started researching champix and as a health worker am horrified by what i am reading. recently my husband has had a change of personality. Aggressive, withdrawn, secretive, yelling rather than talking and much more, also having recent diagnosis of diabetes. I could not understand this behaviour. Then i found the sample packet of Champix. I contacted a friend who i knew was taking an anti smoking drug and asked about it. He said he would talk to my husband about getting off these as he himself had had a psychotic episode at work, attacking someone, fortunatley colleagues pulled him off. This friend has to be one of the most “together” people I know and i was shocked to hear about this. Again disproving the fact that “should not be given to anyone with history of mental illness”. You dont’ need a history to develop these problems on this drug. i can’t help wondering if the diabetes is part of this too, as i don’t know how long my husband has been taking this - he kept it secret to surprise me when he quit smoking!
Hiya, I just thought I would update you on my situation as it has been a couple of months since I last posted.
I am happy to say that I haven’t had a cigarette since December 24th (12 days after starting on Champix). Not only have I not had a cigarette, I haven’t even been tempted to have one. Giving up has been so easy, it is unbelieveable. Unfortunately I have now turned into one of those smug non smokers that annoys everyone, but it is worth that now that I am smoke free!
I didn’t take the full course of Champix, due to the fact that after taking it for 8 weeks I really felt that I had kicked the habit for good. I just stopped taking the tablets one day (which was about 7 weeks ago now I think), and have not suffered any side effects from coming off the drugs. Neither has my desire to smoke come back in any way, shape or form. I have just come back from 6 days in Austria with 9 friends, and I was the only non smoker. You can still smoke in bars and restaurants over there, and so I was surrounded by smokers and all it did was reinforce how happy I am to not be a smoker any more.
Anyway, from looking at the posts on this site it is clear to see that I am in the minority, but I do want people to see that you CAN take Champix successfully, with absolutely no bad effects. I have tried giving up so many times over the years (patches, gum, hypnotherapy, Alan Carr) and nothing has ever worked. When I did give up for a month or so, I was miserable and constantly fighting the urge to smoke. For me, Champix has made quitting smoking so so easy and I am grateful to it.
I will now be honest and say that one of the people I mentioned in a previous thread who was also on Champix has now had to come off it due to the nausea. She was actually being physically sick every time she took the tablet, and just couldn’t handle it.
It does sound like I have been fortunate as I have had no side effects, other than mild headaches during the first few days, and mild nausea that can be totally avoided if you take the tablet with a decent sized meal. I am now off the tablets and have had no adverse withdrawal effects either.
I do also know of 3 other people who started Champix at the beginning of January, and all 3 people are now non-smokers (2 are still on the drugs). Only one of them are suffering from side effects, but these again are minor.
If I am ever asked in the future whether I would recommend Champix, then based on MY experience I would say yes. I would just give the following advice:
1) Make sure you take the tablets with a proper meal
2) You may get headaches during the first couple of days - these can be easily got rid off by taking normal painkillers.
3) Expect animated dreams
4) Ask family members and friends to look out for any signs of changes of mood etc
5) Have weekly Doctors appointments and/or visits to a smoking cessation clinic.
6) Don’t feel you have to stay on the full 3 month course OR take the full dose every day. Consult your Doctor if you feel you don’t need the full amount and they can recommend cutting down to one tablet a day or coming off the drugs early.
I am not saying that everyone should take Champix, and I am not saying that I don’t believe that it can be dangerous. I am just pointing out that I have found it to be a fantastic anti-smoking tool!
Thanks, Ali. Can I just add a little piece of extra advice?
7) Before deciding whether or not to try Champix do read around these blogs where quite a lot of people who were only really trying to improve their health seem to have been seriously affected in obviously unpredictable ways which - if they had only known that Champix can do that to people, but most of them were not told - could easily have been avoided. Some of them are dead, some (like Lauren, who wasn’t even taking it herself) have lost their partners, been attacked by Champix-crazed loved ones…
Oh yeah, and do try to swallow them with food, or you might get a bit of dyspepsia…. WHAT?????
Ali, obviously you were lucky. That is what the damn drug is supposed to be like FOR EVERYBODY. But what disturbs me about your readiness to RECOMMEND it based entirely on your own experience, is that in order to do that, you would also have to pretend you didn’t know about all these other experiences people are writing about. But you DO know, don’t you? And you didn’t bother to advise checking that out!
Just having weekly assessments or asking loved ones to monitor your behaviour… these are inadequate suggestions that Pfizer might come up with, to suggest that if you treat Champix with care and respect, it won’t turn around and rip your head off without warning. What about the case of Karen McGhee, who woke up in hospital with no recollection of getting up in the middle of the night and trying to commit suicide? She was found by her nine-year-old daughter hanging from the bannister with the pelmet from the curtains around her neck. Her heart stopped five times on the way to hospital.
Who can monitor your behaviour in the middle of the night? When you are driving alone? What about people who live alone? People who take Champix secretly, to surprise their family by stopping smoking?
Clearly these things don’t happen to everybody, but it is now clearly established that with Champix, they do happen to some. Tell them that, Ali. And also make sure they understand that before these horrifying reactions actually occur- by which time it is a bit late to stop taking the medication, obviously - no-one has a fucking clue who it is going to be, so telling them that it didn’t happen to you actually tells them nothing about what is going to happen to them, and may lead them into a false sense of security that will disappear like smoke if their world caves in.
Read around the blogs. And then, ONLY take Champix if you are quite prepared for the slight, but very real possibility that a member of your family may have to cut you down from the bannisters, dead or alive.
I once had a client who was a heroin addict, and what made him retreat into that soporific existence was the fact that when he was sixteen, he discovered his best friend hanging from a tree at the spot where they used to play together. I’d like to be able to tell you that I used hypnotherapy to make him all happy and well again, but he only came for one session. I wouldn’t really expect to be able to sort that one out in a single session, would you? Wouldn’t wish that on anyone really, eh?
Try telling Karen McGhee’s nine-year-old daughter that Champix is a “fantastic anti-smoking tool”. I’m not having a go at Ali, though - he’s only telling us what happened to him, in the interests of balance, and so that we can see that however evil Champix may prove to be for some people, it isn’t all bad. Hitler loved his dogs, didn’t he - there may not be any such thing as PURE evil.
Mind you, he still shot ‘em in the end anyway, once the grim reality became impossible to deny any longer. You getting all this, Pfizer?
hi. im on day 5 of taking champix…..first 2 days of feeling sick but didnt last long…….maybe 1 hr longest.set my stop date as day 8….started feeling sore back and a little bit of a sore chest ……had my first vivid dream last night was really funny and real….usually cant remember my dreams……take 2 packets of crisps and a milky way every morning then my pill dont feel sick now at all….. started to have longer periods between the fags now ….have a friend hwo tried and is now smokefree for 16 weeks and was off the tablets by week 6….anyways ill try keep u posted on how i get on..
I love this site to bits.
Open your eyes people this site is just one big advert for a simple book for the gullible amongst us.
Champix is a fantastic tool against the dreaded weed. It completely cured my vile addiction over a year ago and I’ve not looked back.
While I agree it’s not for everyone the only side effects I had were the normal effects you would get going cold turkey.
Please do not let some bloke with a book to sell stop you from trying all available cures from this horrible ADDICTION. And never stop trying to stop whatever way works for you.
Good luck.
Hello Richie, thanks for your contribution.
Just because you write the word ADDICTION in big letters doesn’t make it any less of a nonsense, as the book proves. But you haven’t read it, have you? Of course, you don’t need to, because you already ‘know’ it’s an addiction, because the scientists say so, and you found it hard to stop smoking by yourself.
Yeah, so did all my smoking clients, but after one session of hypnotherapy - during which nobody mentions ‘nicotine receptors in the brain’, by the way - they are fine! No ‘cold turkey’, no cravings, no willpower needed, nothing! So what happened to their ADDICTION, Richie boy? Explain that one.
As I’ve pointed out before, no-one needs to buy the book to find out what it’s all about, because quite a bit of it is published here on the site for free. The book isn’t about Champix anyway, it’s denouncing NRT.
Champix is a “fantastic tool” is it? Doesn’t work at all for most people in the long run, whereas hypnotherapy does.
“While I agree it’s not for everyone…” - is that all you have to say about the rising death toll? None of this is necessary, safer methods work better. I’m trying to save lives here, not sell books. Everything I’ve written about Champix is on the site, not in the book.
Just because Champix didn’t wreck your life - how self-centred are you?
I agree with Richie,Champix has stopped me smoking long term aswell.Champix has also stopped alot of my friends and family smoking.This site is just to advertise this book.
You arnt a medical person anyway by the sounds of it.
Champix is a smoking miracle cure and is cheaper than hypnotherapy-which neva worked for me.
The only thing I got from Champix was mild nausea and a few weird dreams-but I stopped smoking on day 7 on Champix and took the hole course of 12 weeks.
Nicotene addiction is real and Champix stops the cravings and makes it easy to stop.If you can give proof there is no such thing as nicotene addiction proove it.BUT YOU CANT.
Actually I already have, but of course you haven’t read it.
“You arnt a medical person anyway by the sounds of it.”
Yeah, Harold Shipman was “a medical person”, and it was precisely because people like you just assumed he was superior because of that training that he was able to become the biggest mass-murderer in British history.
I’m not going to reproduce here what I have already written elsewhere - as I have always said, the site is about Evidence, so if you really are interested in the facts, read the Evidence. As I pointed out to Richie, you don’t have to buy the book to do that, a lot of it is published right here on the site for free.
OK readers, I seriously doubt these last two contributions are genuine - or if they are, I really cannot understand how they can talk about Champix AS IF it isn’t killing people. Richie just says: “While I agree it’s not for everyone…” - which is just horribly inadequate, isn’t it? Read around the blogs, I’m not the only one saying these things, so the suggestion that I’m just trying to promote my book is bollocks.
I am an expert in smoking cessation who has helped thousands of smokers quit, usually in just one session. I know what I’m talking about, whereas “marsha” obviously doesn’t… that is, if “marsha” is even a real person. I have pointed out before how these bogus pro-Champix posts are usually structured:
the use of poor spelling and faulty grammar is supposed to make this look like a guileless, honest straightforward opinion…
the mention of not one, but several “friends and family” who have “all” stopped smoking successfully with Champix (unlikely, since we already know that it doesn’t work long term for the majority)…
the attempt to insist upon the smoking habit being a nicotine ADDICTION…
the claim they’ve tried everything else without success, usually specifically including hypnotherapy (to try to cast doubt on my claims for its success), when in fact less than 2% of the population have ever tried hypnotherapy for anything, which makes it pretty dubious that all these rabid inarticulate pro-drug people will all have tried it!
the use of phrases like “fantastic tool” and “smoking miracle cure” to describe a drug that is randomly causing horrific and all too often fatal side effects in so many people that there are now more official complaints being lodged against Champix than any other prescribed medication. And it fails most smokers anyway in the long run.
There is also a possibility that Champix affects spelling in a very curious way: “marsha” can apparently spell “nausea” “miracle” “hypnotherapy” “advertise” and “weird”, but we are supposed to accept she has difficulty with “aren’t”, “never”, “nicotine” “whole” and “prove”!
Nice try marsha! You see, I may not be a medical person but I do have a first class degree in English and I did spend six years teaching textual studies in a university. So if you are going to send bogus messages to my blog, you’d better be cleverer at those things than I am, or I will tear them apart - just as I tore apart the so-called “scientific evidence” of the animal experimentation involving nicotine in the second part of Section Five of the book. Which is getting more rave reviews on Amazon.co.uk, by the way. Nicotine: The Drug That Never Was. Check it out.
Hi,
I have tried many times to stop smoking, with patches, hypnotherapy, behavioural programmes, acupuncture and a long etc.
I know my addiction well , which in my case is mainly psychological. I have recently stopped and have used Champix, purely because I had not tried it before, although had stopped a couple of times cold turkey and have been ok for a while. My difficulty is in maintaining the non smoking behaviour. I have as from today stopped Champix because it is starting to make me feel weird and don’t want to be on it long term after reading this blog , but mainly because of how it is making me feel.
I am only taking 0.5mg since day 1 and have continued to do so as my physical addiction is not very strong as recommended by the psychologist on the program that I am on. I had a few headaches the first couple of weeks and felt a bit hazy in my head, I also have had problems with wind and feeling bloated. More recently , I cannot get to sleep easily and have had nasty vivid dreams a couple of times. I also think my moods are starting to be a bit erratic for no apparent reason so I think I have had enough of this weird drug which is also costing me a fortune. Fortunately, I bought the starter pack so I didn’t waste a lot of money. I am doing this as part of a group program which lasts a year and members choose what they want in terms of support to stop, Zyban, NRT, Champix or nothing. I will talk to the person who runs the group, but I am stopping regardless of what her advice is.
My idea was to take 0.5 mg every other day for about a week and the stop. Any thoughts on this?
Thank you
Im saying Champix worked for me and other methods didnt.
Ive red the replies on here and some seem to be made to feel sucidal and get depressed.
Do you know anyone who killed from this drugg?
It is a miracle drug as far as IM concerned as it stop me hand alot of me friends smoking and we all not smoking nomore.
But you aint a doctor and doctors aree qualified and smokin nurses at the clinics are trained to give advice and serport when wee quit.
So who do you know who is dead now from this drug.
Oh ill reed yer bits out of the book aswell.
tar Marsha.
Don’t take my word for it - Google it: “Champix suicides“. Read all about it, then ask yourself: did my doctor tell me any of this?
“… you aint a doctor and doctors aree qualified and smokin nurses at the clinics are trained to give advice and serport when wee quit.”
If doctors and nurses are not instructed to give proper warnings, then they don’t. That is negligence by the people who hand down the instructions, the prescribing authorities. If they are instructed to give proper warnings, but they fail to do so, that is negligence by the doctors and nurses. Qualifications don’t really have anything to do with it from a legal point of view.
Look folks, no-one is suggesting that Champix has never worked for anyone at all, so there are bound to be people popping up to say: “It worked for me and I’m fine.” But before they start calling it a “miracle drug” and encouraging everyone to take it, they need to look at the bigger picture, because it obviously does very different things to different people, and I’m not just talking about whether or not they carry on smoking.
No, I’m pointing out the well-established fact that this drug does not work in the long term for the MAJORITY of smokers, so it just isn’t worth the risks. In fact, even Pfizer have never said it worked for the majority. The best result they ever managed to get in a clinical trial was 44% not smoking after twelve weeks, but the placebo (dummy pill) used in the same trials scored 18% anyway, so the Champix only made a difference at twelve weeks for 26% of smokers - just a quarter.
But that is not the real success-rate, that was just at the twelve-week point. A follow-up trial showed that half of them were smoking again anyway 28 weeks later… so as ‘miracles’ go, it’s not really up there with the loaves and fishes, the walking on water and raising Lazarus from the dead, is it?
You see, if it did no harm - like hypnotherapy, acupuncture and the Allen Carr method… which all have a better success rate anyway… I’d say give it a try. But for a lousy overall result like that people are being encouraged by medical personnel to take a drug which THEY NOW KNOW, BUT USUALLY DON’T TELL THEIR PATIENTS BEFOREHAND causes horrifying and sometimes fatal reactions in some people, completely at random - well it’s insane, isn’t it.
Marsha made the point before that Champix is cheaper than hypnotherapy. My successful clients save the cost of the session back in less than a month, and from that point on they’re quids in, with no risk at all to their health and well-being, success rate upwards of 70%. Champix could cost you your life, and is pretty unlikely to stop you smoking anyway in the long run.
NOTE TO MACU: If you’ve noticed that your moods are starting to be erratic I think you should quit immediately. The guy Jane mentioned who reported back on side-effects like that, but was advised to continue taking the medication later hanged himself without leaving a note. No previous mental problems or depression is his case either.
hi…. im nearly finished 2nd week of champix…..been smoke free for 6 days now ….still feel a bit of sickness nowand again but otherwise going fine so far but if i start feeling strange ill stop taking them….only goin to take them for 6 weeks no longer
Why wasnt I tolld any of this when I started Champixx ?
I still feeel like smokin but I wont have one.
Iwas tolld I was addicted to smokin and nrt would help me stop or I cud havve Champix.
So Are all these doctors lieing to us all thenn?
Im not very clever anyway as I am disabled and have trouble as it is-I am confused now as Im been told 2 different thingzs.Im gonna show my doctor yur book.
ta marsha
Ah! Looks like my doubts about marsha were unfounded! Sorry marsha!
“…not very clever”? Ah, but you see that has nothing to do with it. Notice how I was boasting about how clever I was in post 61, but it didn’t stop me misjudging you, did it marsha?
And believe me, however much people may doubt their own brainpower, that won’t stop them from being personally successful if they are given the RIGHT information and the RIGHT kind of help. Many of my clients have significant self-doubt, but it doesn’t stop them being successful anyway, much to their own amazement usually.
Personally, I’m not afraid of getting things wrong from time to time, because I know exactly what to do about it. I hold my hands up, and say very loudly and clearly: “Whoops! Made a bit of an arse of myself there, didn’t I! Sorry everyone! Let’s correct that immediately.”
This is what I believe Pfizer and the Department of Health should do right away, before anyone else dies because of their mistakes.
“I still feeel like smokin but I won’t have one…”
Some miracle.
“So Are all these doctors lieing to us all thenn?”
To be fair, probably not where Champix is concerned. They’ve been told a load of drug company hype, and it’s a while before the true facts become apparent. But with nicotine replacement, I’ve yet to meet any GP who has the slightest faith in that nowadays, but they certainly aren’t contributing to this blog, are they? That’s one silence that is certainly not golden, Doc. It is actually shameful.
Oh thatz okay.
I now me spelling is bad sumtimes.
cannot help thatt.
been diabled physicallly after a accident lonng timeago and sumtimes cannot plaice words anymore.
ill show me docor the book k asz may help sum other peoplle.
ta marsha.
That explains the unusual inconsistency I picked up on. In general, I don’t take much notice of whether people can spell correctly or not, but at first it looked like one of the bogus posts I’ve seen on this, and other blogs. Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong! Especially as I’m not a cynic by nature… but taking on the government, medical authorities and drug companies would probably bring out the cynic in Uri Geller.
Actually my own spelling isn’t that great, although it has improved. When my wife proof-read the book, she found hundreds of errors I’d not noticed. Years ago when I used to mark students’ essays and exam papers, I realised that some people’s spelling is faultless and their handwriting beautiful, but they’ve got nothing to say - whereas other papers look dreadful, but are far more interesting to read. If, indeed, you actually manage to decipher them.
Thanks Marsha, for contributing to this debate and for showing your doctor my book. Don’t be too surprised if the doctor simply dismisses it without reading any of it, though. I certainly won’t be.
In fact at this point I would be bloody astonished if any doctor, anywhere, acknowledged the existence of the Truth Will Out Campaign, or engaged with the public debate here, either over NRT or Champix. They all seem to have lost their voices. One year on, and still not one nurse, doctor, pharmacist or drug company representative has contacted us to defend either NRT or Champix. That’s how much faith they have in the products, apparently.
Maybe when you qualify in any of those disciplines, you are awarded a framed certificate and a big bucket of sand.
Hi there,
Since my firs posting I have to say I have been coming off champix and I will be glad when I take the last half pill this wednesday. I have taken 0.5mg every other day as I was advised by the person runnin the gorup I attend as supposed as stopping suddenly and I have to say it has not been too bad. I have been a bit more tearful than usual for a couple of days but have had a difficult family situation recently and my back has been playing up and a few other things as well so it is hard to know what’s what . I am however, very determined no to even have a puff this time could be my time to stop for good. Not thanks to Champix though, because I had actually stopped before all the stressful things began in January and managed for 2 weeks of full on stress without smoking before I relapsed again for 3 weeks and now I have stopped again for 3 weeks. When I stopped in mid January it felt just as easy, if not easier, as with the firs week of Champix and I did not feel weird and hazy in the head and everything else I have had with those bloody pills. Again I don;t think I was given enough information about how it can make you feel and that is just not good enough. Thanks for your advice and information on this site and keep up the good work.
Thanks for that, Macu! After the abuse I’ve been getting for saying these things on a certain Australian medical site, such encouragement is most welcome!
The mad thing is, none of this unpleasantness and risk is necessary at all. Most smokers can be ’smoke-free and happy to be’ in just a couple of hours spent with a hypnotherapist who specialises in smoking cessation therapy. No weight-gain, no risk - I’ve done it thousands of times.
On the Australian site mentioned, several posts accused me of simply attacking Champix because it is competition, with nothing but a profit motive. Actually the truth is completely the other way round - I’m just fighting back. They don’t like that, these Champix-pluggers. But they’re also getting a bit nasty now, because they know that it’s only a matter of time before everybody knows that taking Champix is like playing Russian roulette. And with a lousy long-term success rate anyway. And as for the absolute farce that is Nicotine Replacement Poisoning, just read the latest blogpost “Department of Stealth 2″.
Hypnotherapy is by far the easiest, quickest and safest way to stop smoking, AND it prevents weight gain when it is done properly. If you would like to know more about it, there is plenty of detail on my Central Hypnotherapy site.
me frend jim bourght book from internet and we s howed to docotor.he said wass such thinzs as nicotin adddiction and said it was proven.
yur book more er logicall than waht doctor saidd.
we started smokinn anywayy azs we got cravings for em again.me frend jim and me boft on that stuff champixx.
ta marsha.
Oh I do apologise, Doc! I’ll just recall all the copies of the book you never read at all, and just shred them, shall I? After all, Doctor knows best!
I told you the doctor would just dismiss the book without reading it.
So he said nicotine addiction was proven, did he? Yeah, that’s why I wrote the book. Some people have tried to suggest that I’m only saying all this BECAUSE I “have a book to sell”. But they’ve got that the wrong way round: my aim is to destroy the nicotine myth and Nicotine Replacement Poisoning. If I tried that without producing clear evidence, they would dismiss me saying “Where’s the evidence?”
So that’s what the book is. 400 pages of evidence, some of which is taking the research that is supposed to indicate that nicotine is addictive, and tearing it to shreds. I had a lot of fun doing it too, because it is in fact unbelievably dumb. And I prove - beyond a shadow of a doubt, though I say so myself - that cravings are nothing to do with nicotine whatsoever. The Nicotine Tale is a lie, and your doctor is simply ignorant of the true facts, and will look very silly in the long run, once everybody knows it.
Thanks for your contribution, Marsha!
champixx dont work (me spellling badd) anyhow cos me frend jim andd me r smokin again.docor says we can ave patches iff wee want.6 of mee frends smokin again aftere champix-abouut 1 monfth from stopp takingg itt.got em cravings forr faggs agan and jim me frend went too shop onn highh streezt and gott 20. Nowzs me frend jim annd mee cannot stop smokin.
Doctor wantz us too go patchess -but wee arre not surre.
you arre a nicee kindd mann who me frend jim and me like.
me frend jim says good bookk-he tis always readind boooks,
ta marsha.
Try zyban (bupropion HCL) few side effects,easy to get on with stopped smoking in 2 weeks,mental dreams though quite funny,take care all Scott
Oh and one other point,hypnotherapy can,and has been proven to cause schitzophrenia and other phycoses in vulnerable personalities,we just are not made the same.Take care Scott
Here’s a little tip for the future, Scott - if you want to come across as if you really know what you’re talking about, it might be an idea to use a dictionary for the more difficult words like schizophrenia - which does not have a ‘t’ in it - and psychoses, which you just got completely wrong.
“Take care”? If you really want people to take care, don’t recommend Zyban! It only has a long-term success rate of about 12% anyway, and has been linked to sudden deaths, convulsions, suicides and seizures. This is from an old story in the Mail on Sunday:
“Eighteen smokers have died after taking Zyban - the new ‘wonder cure’ for nicotine addiction, The Mail on Sunday reveals today.
The deaths, reported by GPs to the Department of Health, have occurred in the seven-and-a-half months since the drug was launched. Those who died were mainly in their 40s and 50s - although one was aged just 21.
Health Department figures also show that 3,457 Zyban users have suffered a disturbing range of suspected side effects - from chest pains to fits, seizures and depression.”
So that was the death-toll after just seven and a half months. And it doesn’t work anyway for 88% of smokers. Bad advice, Scott. Really bad advice.
I’ve been a hypnotherapist for nine years now, and I’ve worked with thousands of people. If there were any risks involved I would know about them by now. What I certainly do know about are the many lies and scare-stories put about by drug-pushing scaremongers like Scott here, who is trying to present himself as a little sweetheart with all this “Take care, take care all” bullshit as if he were just a genuine, happy ex-smoker.
Hypnotherapy is simply a means of communication. Trance is a normal state we’re often in anyway. Daydreaming is a trance - that IS the hypnotic state. Clearly Scott doesn’t know that, or he would realise that suggesting hypnotherapy is dangerous is EXACTLY as silly as suggesting that talking to someone who is daydreaming can cause psychosis or schizophrenia!
Question, folks: What is the opposite of ‘vulnerable’? Answer: Invulnerable.
Do you know anyone who is invulnerable? No, neither do I.
The word ‘vulnerable’ is being used here exactly the same way the word ’susceptible’ is often used in connection with hypnosis by people who don’t know the first thing about it, and the aim is to spread fear and alarm. In fact the only thing Scott says that I quite agree with is that we are not made the same. Quite right, mate: I’m not full of shit.
Hi
I am on day 4 of taking champix and have been reading your site with interest. I was aware of the dangers of taking Champix before starting, just as I am aware of the dangers of smoking. I have tried other methods without success and have decided to take a ‘risk’ by chosing the Champix route. It is very helpful to be able to read about people’s bad experiences of the drug as I will obviously be looking out for any symtoms they experienced. However the success stories are encouraging too.
Many people take this drug because it is recommended to them by others who have used it with success, just as there are those who recommend other quitting methods. I understand why you are rather harsh on people who post on here recommending the drug based on ‘their experiences’ as you know that taking it could damage someone’s health, but if nothing else has worked for them then their next cigarette could be the one that does untold damage anyway.
For me it’s about weighing up those risks, and I will always recommend anyone to read here before deciding to try the drug… whether it ends up working for me or not.
Did I come across as harsh?
Well, to understand the reasons for that I guess you would have to see this from the hypnotherapist’s point of view, especially those of us who specialise in smoking cessation. You see, we know for sure that no-one needs to be taking any serious risks like this. We also know that the Department of Health, the medical authorities and the drug companies don’t want ordinary smokers to know that, so they have created a gigantic misinformation machine that boasts false ’success rates’ for drugs, and plays down risks and dangers, whilst lying about alternative methods and using publicity paid for by taxpayers to spread those lies far and wide.
Then there are people who are involved in the drugs market who pose as ordinary people when they come on a blog like this, but their real agenda is to attack those of us who are trying to warn the public that they are being told lies - such as the nasty little suggestion from Scott about hypnotherapy which is completely untrue.
One point I would like to make very clearly is that professional private hypnotherapists like myself do NOT work with mentally ill people. That is the field of psychiatry, and in the past there have been people in that field exploring the use of hypnosis in the treatment of the mentally ill. If any of that work has ever led to problems I wouldn’t be particularly surprised, but that says nothing useful about hypnosis. It merely reflects the difficulty of treating mental illness, whatever therapy is being used. Do the drugs they prescribe sometimes make matters worse? Yes, for sure.
There have also been a very small number of cases of stage hypnosis causing problems - very small, that is, relative to the number of people who have ever taken part in them - but that is because the stage hypnotist is doing his act with people he has never met before, and wouldn’t have a clue if they were unstable or mentally ill. Even so, it is very rare for any problem to arise because most of what goes on in stage shows is just daft larking about, so as long as none of that touches on their mental issues, it wouldn’t bother them anyway, as there is nothing about trance states that involves any risk. We drift in and out of trances all the time.
Notice how none of that has anything to do with modern, professional hypnotherapy? So when someone like Scott comes along, recommending a drug that was first recognised as a killer ten years ago and has a lousy success rate anyway (Zyban), then throws in a suggestion designed to frighten people about hypnotherapy, he can expect short shrift from me.
My views about Champix have changed over time. When I first mentioned it on this site I was quite open-minded, but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories now and the fact is, Champix is going to end up killing a lot more people than Zyban, and all for a long-term success rate that is not much better. The underlying suggestion in your post, Tonya, is that you have to weigh the dangers of Champix against the dangers of carrying on smoking…
Only if you completely ignore hypnotherapy, the Allen Carr method and acupuncture, which all have better success rates anyway. No risk with any of them. It’s just common sense to only try the risky options if you’ve tried all these already, and most of the people who have been encouraged to take Champix have not.
It was your response to Ali that I thought was harsh and condescending…..’But what disturbs me about your readiness to RECOMMEND it based entirely on your own experience, is that in order to do that, you would also have to pretend you didn’t know about all these other experiences people are writing about. But you DO know, don’t you? And you didn’t bother to advise checking that out!
Hypnosis didn’t work for me, and I know of three others that it didn’t work for either. But I tried it on the recommendation of a friend. I think more people know of failed hypnosis sessions and are therefore scheptical about trying it for that reason. I was told I’d probably only need one session… err no, I had two, still smoked and never went back. How often does that happen? The guy probably thought I was cured and put a tick against my name.
Are you not being misleading when you say to one poster ‘Here I am explaining to everyone that ONE session of hypnotherapy will wipe out your smoking habits with no risk, and no effort from yourselves.’
And then you say in a later post… ‘In practice, I rarely do third sessions for smoking. If there is no response to sessions one or two - which does happen in a few cases - I certainly would not advise a third, but I have no hesitation in encouraging a second - some of my greatest triumphs have been in second sessions!
RESPONSE TO TONYA.
I would seriously advise you and Champix newbies to take the damn stuff for a while longer and then see what happens. I’ve been on this thread for ages and Chris has been with me the whole time .This drug will probably start to take effect on you in more ways than one over the coming weeks. Short term it may stop you smoking - long term you may experience side effects beyond belief… sickness, weird dreams, depression, anger and possibly suicide. Before you say anything-it screwed me up completely and a friends relation on my O/Hs side committed suicide by hanging himself.
Even though I have quit smoking, when I came off Champix the desire to smoke returned and I ended up having acupuncture for a phobia I had, and even though this was not the reason for the acupuncture I have since lost the desire to smoke.
I suggest you come back in few weeks and then let us know how you are getting on.
Have you tried an electronic cigarette? I suggest you use one of these instead of taking this potential suicide pill.
I used to think Champix was the answer to my prayers - but it isn’t, and I support Chris 100 per cent in his campaign to get rid of this drug.
I am a smoking cessation specialist, not all hypnotherapists are. The fact is, most of the smokers who come here will be smoke-free in one session. If this was a service provided by the NHS, that would be regarded as fantastically successful. No-one would expect an NHS hypnotherapist to have a 100% success rate in just one session, that would never be possible because initial client responses differ. So if there was a problem with the response, you would simply go back.
With NRT, we now know that the overall success rate in the long run is only about 7% and of those, the average number of NRT courses undertaken by those individuals is seven. So you see, even with a useless method like that, people are quite prepared to persist with it as long as the service is free at the point of use, and the recommended ‘medical’ method.
Most smokers have never seen any hypnotherapy, but they have seen stage hypnosis. So their perception of hypnosis is that it is some sort of mysterious magic trick that is supposed to be instantaneous. At the same time, they don’t quite believe in magic tricks, so they might be prepared to “give it a go” - but with a triple dollop of doubt, fear and skepticism - not realising that the outcome of a hypnotherapy session is not decided by the therapist.
So if the client’s immediate response is positive, as it usually is, fine. Everybody happy. If not…
If not, there is always a reason. How often does that happen? Well, a damn sight less often with hypnotherapy than with Champix, Zyban, NRT and willpower, yet smokers will often return to those methods because a) they have been seriously misled about their actual effectiveness in the long term, and b) because they are funded by the taxpayer.
So the doctor and the quit counsellor can let you down any number of times, and most smokers will still return to them for their ‘expert advice’. We hypnotherapists know that we have just one chance - or two at the outside -
Why is hypnotherapy not available on the NHS? Well actually it is, for just a couple of applications, but smoking isn’t one of them. That’s got nothing to do with effectiveness, it’s because GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Co. have already grabbed that massive hunk of taxpayers’ money and they ain’t letting go of any of it, as long as they have massive lobbying power with the Department of Health, regardless of how many smokers die needlessly as a result.
Perhaps I was a bit unfair on Ali, but this isn’t just about whether methods work or not for one person or another. Champix is - without a doubt - causing suicides and other severe reactions in fairly random and sudden ways. Hypnotherapy has never done that, and it is far more successful in long-term outcomes - as is the Allen Carr method AND acupuncture.
In your second paragraph, Tonya, you are pretty negative about hypnotherapy generally. Yet you and Ali both know, from reading these blogs, that Champix is randomly causing fatal reactions. All I was thinking was that even if I had quit that way, I really would hesitate to recommend it to someone else KNOWING that I certainly cannot assure them they’d have the same experience I had, and knowing that I would feel absolutely dreadful if they killed themselves.
And of course, if Champix killed you or Ali, your families would be reading this blog with very different feelings about all this.
Ah, my mistake, didn’t know that this wasn’t for newbies.
Best of luck as you do have an important message.
No, IT IS for newbies! I’m grateful to Jane for her support, of course, but I’m sure she doesn’t really recommend that people should take the damn stuff for long enough to experience a bad reaction themselves, she was just expressing her annoyance that someone with no personal experience of the horrors she went through was having a go at me for warning people about Champix.
Who are we trying to warn? Tonya! And anyone who hasn’t yet been harmed by Champix, but could be.
Now, I want to clarify an important point. Personally, I think Champix should be withdrawn. The Truth Will Out Campaign, which is really calling for Nicotine Replacement Poisoning to be scrapped by the NHS because it is useless and based on a myth anyway, has also made a call for Champix to be withdrawn part of the Campaign aims also, because it is too dangerous and doesn’t produce enough long-term success to be worth people taking risks like that.
However, until such time as Champix is withdrawn, I believe smokers should be free to choose that option PROVIDED they have been fully and truthfully informed about the likelihood of long term success, the actual record of bad reactions so far, and true facts (for a change) about the success rates of risk-free alternatives.
While I’m waiting for that sort of level playing field though, I won’t hold my breath for obvious reasons. Onward, troops! Link up, spread the word.
It is clear to me that all the people visiting this site don’t
want to give up smoking 100%,I was one of those people I “enjoyed” smoking and I was about 60% intent
on giving up the ugly habit,but to no avail,thats why I turned to Zyban.I know of two people who gave up with sheer willpower alone one being my sister,on asking her how she did it,her reply,you’ve guessed it she wanted to stop 100% and with that behind her did it quite easily without the dangers of any drugs or hypnotherapy.and speaking of Zyban some folks hear including Chris may not know that nearly 2 million yes 2 million Americans use a drug called Wellbutrin XL for depression,and guess what…….It is Zyban! at exactly the same strength 150mg tabs look it up and read the studies and double blind test results you’ll be quite surprised.However my parting advise would be
to be as close to100% committed if you can,you must want trully to stop,and trying to stop smoking half-hearted,well you WILL fail,and get down about your failure like I did when I failed using patches,as for Chris he sounds a brave man trying to take on a company like GSK,but I send my good luck
but then will he be taking on GSK to get Wellbutrin banned as well,I think not,maybe you should do a little more homework yourself Chris,take care all Scott
I’m not just taking on GSK. I’m taking on A.S.H., all drug companies that make Nicotine Replacement Products or indeed any product based on the notion that smoking is nicotine addiction - which it is not, as the book proves - all the official bodies involved in the regulation and approval of pharmaceutical products and the medical authorities. I’m taking on the Royal College of Physicians, and particularly the stupid piece of ‘research’ entitled “Nicotine Addiction in Britain” which is supposed to prove there is such a thing, but actually doesn’t, as my detailed critique of that lazy, careless, complacent piece of work shows (Section 5 in the book, Case Mysteries No.4).
I’m taking on Edzard Ernst, and all his little friends who constantly snipe at alternative medicine on behalf of their paymasters (Big Pharma), but pretend they are wholly independent, ’scientific’ writers.
Oh, there’s too many to mention them all by name - just as there are too many drugs like Wellbutrin to take on all those cases one by one.
It’s really very simple: the healthcare system has been bought by the pill factories and ’science’ went out the window long ago. It’s not like the people who work within the system don’t know that. It’s just that they don’t know what the hell to do about it, just like the bartender in a Las Vegas casino wouldn’t know what to do about the fact that the place is run by the mafia. So if he witnesses any wrongdoing himself, who is he going to mention that to - the cops? The last guy that talked to the cops got whacked, surprise surprise. That’s how they keep everyone else silent.
The Mafia
So the nurse got struck off. Did you hear about this today? She used a secret camera to show how badly elderly people were being treated by the NHS, out of concern for them, because that concern is natural to her, she’s a nurse. Well, she was, but now she isn’t. She didn’t just get disciplined, suspended or sacked, she got struck off the nursing register, so now she can’t be a nurse ANYWHERE.
They SAID it was because she failed in her duty of care, because she prioritised secret filming over her nursing duties - although it was entirely her professional concern for the appalling standard of care that prompted her to do it!
No, it wasn’t REALLY because of that, AND EVERYBODY IN THE NHS KNOWS IT. It was because she blew the whistle - she talked to the cops, so she got professionally whacked, not only as a punishment, but as a warning to anyone else working for the Mafia that might be thinking of telling the world the truth about anything.
Am I ‘brave’ for taking these bastards on? I don’t think that comes into it. For evil to triumph it is only necessary for good men to do nothing, so I’m doing something.
Folks, if you think what happened to that nurse was a very bad sign of the way things are going - SHAMEFUL, in fact, in a democracy, to have your professional integrity, identity and livelihood maliciously destroyed, just for telling the truth - then link up, spread the word. Pick up your whistle and blow. Do it for her: because if she was your friend, or a family member, you’d be livid right now. Don’t let the bastards get away with it.
Let’s all blow our whistles until their ears are bleeding. Truth Will Out.
Oh, by the way, Scott: I don’t know if this was a sneaky suggestion or whether it just came out that way:
“I know of two people who gave up with sheer willpower alone one being my sister,on asking her how she did it,her reply,you’ve guessed it she wanted to stop 100% and with that behind her did it quite easily without the dangers of any drugs or hypnotherapy.”
There are no dangers in using hypnotherapy, Scott. And when people come to see me for smoking cessation, very few of them want to stop 100%. They may have very mixed feelings about that, which is why the session takes two hours. If it takes more than one session, this too is the reason. It is part of my job to deal with all of that, and in doing that of course I need the cooperation of the client.
Most are successful despite their mixed feelings at the start, much to their own surprise, usually.
No Chris it was’nt a sneaky suggestion,my apologies I
was typing with a bit of haste,it just that I have read some scare stories myself about hypnotherepy,however I can’t really comment because
its only what I have “read” and we all know that its a possibility its bullshite.
I do agree with your analogy Mafia,NHS,and the big pharmas,no one likes there living taken away,
especially whistle blowers,maybe we should make a stand,but I need to be more informed,thats why I visited,people are susceptible to scare stories I was mearly trying to add a positive experience.Scott
After nine years in this profession I have heard all the scare stories about hypnotherapy, believe me! They are very much like the scare stories schoolchildren tell each other - the innocence of the listener is an essential ingredient. You have to know why it isn’t possible to know for sure it isn’t true, and most people have no idea what is, and what is not possible with hypnosis.
It’s all down to the illusion of Stage Hypnosis really, which is why I included the section on Stage Hypnosis in the book. Hypnotists do not really have any power over anyone, but Stage Hypnosis makes it appear as if they do, so all the scare stories are based on that idea (or nearly all of them).
Any general suggestion that trance or hypnotic states could involve risk is exactly the same as suggesting that daydreaming is a hazardous practice! If you would like to know more about such matters, select the Read The Book option on this site, or visit Central Hypnotherapy.
Hi there,
Just wanted to update you - over 4 months on and haven’t touched a cigarette since before Chrismas. Whether this is down to Champix or down to the fact that I am determined never to smoke again I don’t know, but either way I am proud of being a non-smoker!
I realise there are lots of stories on the internet about suicides/deaths relating to Champix, but is there any actual documented evidence? I’ve seen some reports on Zyban but can’t recall seeing any hard evidence about Champis causing suicides/deaths. I’m not disagreeing with you all and saying that it doesn’t, but I would like to see some actual facts and/or proof.
Thanks,
Ali
(by the way, I’m a female Ali, not male!)
Hi Ali, congrats on your smoke-free status!
It is striking that most of the reports about suicides and warnings seem to date back to 2007 - I too would like to see more recent updates. This report from June 18 2008 is probably the most important one I’ve found so far.
I started taking Champix on December 1st 08 and took them for 14 days, during the time I took them I felt progressively more and more ill, I contacted my doctor twice and was told its normal to fill ill on them and to keep taking them.
On 14 th December 08 I was admitted to hospital with chest pains, 1 week later and a lot of tests I was discharged, no diagnosis, just sent home, since then I have been diagnosed with Diabetes and Reynauds Syndrome, have balance problems, problems with my endocrine system and have been off of work (now lost my job), so how do you go from healthy to feeling ill and being admitted to hospital in 14 days, then 6 months later have the same mystery symptoms, my guess is that as Champix works on receptors in the brain it messes with a whole lot more than just dopamine receptors.
Can I prove this, the answer is no, I’m a layman and the doctors tell me it isn’t the case, they know because they looked on the manufacturers website, so coincidently within the 2 week period I was using champix I turned diabetic, suffered circulatory problems, endocrine system problems and lost my balance and gained vision that comes and goes as it wants, lost the ability to work, drive my car and generally do tings that normal people do, also I dont know where the end of this is, nor do the doctors..
If you google Chantix lawsuit you will find that in the US there are a whole heap of people with similar problems to those I’ve suffered, and am suffering now, find another way to give up smoking, I wish I had….
I’m 47 years young and have smoked since 16. I used to be a laid back, easy going, life loving, flower power type of girl. In July 08 my doctor prescribed champix as none of my many previous attempts worked. All was great, stopped smoking by day 8, yippee! Then on day 13 the happy switch in my brain went off. For two days I didn’t feel safe enough to leave my room and by day 3 all I wanted to do was die by painting my bathroom blood red. Needless to say, I ended up in hospital under suicide watch and being dosed with valium. All the doctors who saw me put the sudden change to a full blown psychotic meltdown down to the champix. After a week I was sent home with valium and was set up with numerous appointments to keep an eye on my progress. Life eventually got some semblance of normalcy back but I didn’t feel the same levels of joy and contentment. In March 2009 I was finally diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety with thoughts of self harm. For someone who had never experienced depression and anxiety before, it’s scary. The blame was put on the unknown long term side effects of that poison I took last year. Now I live life as best I can on anti depressants and valium topped up with heaps of love and support from my family, friends and local gp. I know this drug works well for a lot of people but I really dont think it’s worth the risk of ending up like me.
This is exactly why I won’t give up until this horrible drug is banned, and the lawsuits against Champix give Pfizer the biggest legal kicking any pharmaceutical giant has ever had.
Just one point, Deb - actually the drug does not “work well for lots of people”, despite what you may have been told. In truth it fails at least 80% of smokers in the long term anyway. So, DEFINITELY not worth the risk.
Most successful methods are also the safest: hypnotherapy, the Allen Carr method (which is just another form of hypnotherapy really) and acupuncture.
Hi, Just wanted to let you know that I’ve finished taken champix after 12 week course and while it did seem to work to stop the cravings from nicotine I now find myself withdrawing from this poison, as you call it. Though these feelings of anxiety, anger, some obvious depression didn’t just start when I finished the champix, they started a few weeks ago. Good thing I know what it’s being caused by otherwise things could be bad. I’ve been so angry at times. Haven’t harmed anybody, but I’ve wanted to. I will tell my Doctor about these symptoms but will refuse any anti depressants he may offer because they also make me feel bad. I hope this stops soon so I can get on with caring about life and family, as this too seems to be affected. Also after reading some of these replies and feeling this way I going to not recommend this product to any one. Wow I just realized that this started when I started weening off this, I decided to ween even though I was told by my doctor there was no ween and you just stop. I didn’t want to risk withdrawal from champix but now realize that its part of this.
“Haven’t harmed anybody, but I’ve wanted to.” I find that chilling - that doctors are freely choosing to prescribe something which can make their patient feel like harming other people.
“…feelings of anxiety, anger, some obvious depression…”
This is supposed to be MEDICINE. Does anyone remember a time when medicine was supposed to make you feel BETTER?
That’s why I’m calling Champix a poison. It kills people, and even the ones it doesn’t kill often report feeling the way Rob does - much worse than they did to begin with. Why do we avoid consuming poisons generally? Because they might kill you, and even if they don’t, they are very likely to leave you feeling much worse than you did to begin with.
Rob, thanks very much for your contribution, and may I wish you a full and speedy recovery. I am also very glad that you are going to report the suffering this nasty drug has caused you - everyone who has suffered should do that, or the bereaved if they are unable to. Only this week a client told me about a relative who leapt to her death from a motorway bridge here in Stockport whilst on a course of Champix. Every single case of harm should result in an official complaint to the medical authorities who STILL haven’t done anything to stop this insanity - so if you, or anyone you know has suffered because of this lethal drug, please - make sure it gets reported.
Champix should never have been passed as if it were safe enough for human consumption - it certainly is not. BAN CHAMPIX. SCRAP N.R.T. Spread the word, by Facebook, twitter, anyway at all - Truth Will Out is all about keeping smokers informed, protected. No-one should be suffering like Rob, no-one should be lying dead on a motorway just because they wanted to quit smoking - something I help people do every fucking day without the slightest risk to their health - do you hear me, all you complacent fuckers at the B.M.A.? Do you hear me, at the National Institute for Chemical Excess? Do you hear this, at the Medicines and Healthcare Rubber-stamp Agency? YOUR WONDER DRUG IS DESTROYING LIVES. Hypnotherapy could be saving the vast majority of them, and you lot are still pretending it doesn’t work for smoking, partly because you can’t stand being wrong and partly because you love being wined and dined by the global drug-pushers.
Mark my words: Truth Will Out will push Champix/Chantix and Nicotine Replacement Poisoning right off a cliff. Lie all you want, the people will find you out. Carry out all the fake “Cochrane reviews” you will, smokers will realise it is all a PR exercise to make it look as if ’science says’ methods like acupuncture and hypnotherapy don’t work! ‘Science’ sold its soul to the Devil quite some time ago in fact, and now it says whatever it is told to say. It said Champix was safe enough for general use, when it obviously isn’t. It said Prozac worked better than the placebo, when it didn’t. It says that smokers are “up to four times more likely to quit” with NHS services, when in fact the services only make a difference of a half of one percent (see blogpost Dept of stealth 6 - The NHS Lie Exposed).
The Alternative
People are learning the truth about mind-body medicine every day, despite all the misinformation put about by medical authorities and those working for the drug companies - so really it is only a matter of time before it is just common knowledge that hypnotherapy is by far the easiest and the safest way to quit the habit, as well as solve quite a lot of other common problems.
If you would like to know more about hypnotherapy, click here.