Anyone used these to quit smoking ? A friend of mine says the Wellbutrin didn't work for him but the Zyban did. I hear they are the same. Anyone ?
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Anyone used these to quit smoking ? A friend of mine says the Wellbutrin didn't work for him but the Zyban did. I hear they are the same. Anyone ?
Tried them all,only chantix worked for a few mos.They all have potentionally lethal side effects for people in our age group.
After 3 mos. off the cigs I gained 25 lbs,my BP went from 115/85 to 160/120,I was freakin miserable.
Started the cigs agian, lost the wgt,BP back to baseline,Truth is in a way I love to smoke,good luck.
W&Z are the same drug.
I've taken Chantix with horrible results. I became a complete ass! I was very short tempered, even more so than normal, and much more violent. It was never directed toward others, I managed to take my anger out on a steel door that now has multiple sets of knuckle prints embedded into it. That coupled with the VERY vivid, lucid dreams I was having made me put the stuff down only a week and a half into using it.
My mom had very similar results with Wellbutrin when I was younger. Although, that medicine made her crazy for a few days. Im talking crazy to the point of handing me $200 and the car keys and telling me to get out of the house because the "voices" were telling her to kill me. So for a week or so of the summer when I was 16, my mom spent her time in a psychiatric unit detoxing to get all the Wellbutrin out of her system. It was pretty scary how the medicine effected her.
My dad has also had very similar results to mine when he tried using Chantix.
For what its worth, my mom is now about 3 weeks smoke-free from using the patch with no ill effects.
I tried Wellbutrin and all it did was cause me to have dreams that were so weird that Rod Serling would probably have bought a ticket to see them. Then I tried Chantix and was done with smoking in less than a week and have not lit up in over six years now. Good luck in your efforts to quit.
Same chemical different brand names. Some insurers began to jack the rates on people taking Wellbutrin because it was indicated for depression not for smoking cessation. Depressed patients represent a greater health risk, therefore an increased cost to the insurance company. The company changed the name to Zyban to avoid unfortunate insurance increases and the associated labeling of patients as depressed who were not. A drug to quit smoking equals improved health in the patient and less insurance risk and cost. QED.
What is not discussed is that every person needs to observe carefully for any unwanted side effects when taking a new medication and report them to their medical provider without unreasonable delay. There are so many potential effects that ten people could have thirteen different reactions to the same medication. The mind still remains a chemical black box with some of this stuff.
One of the most serious side effects is not even mentioned on the packaging.
Taken with certain other drugs, (my bet is on that is what happened to T.S. mom)
can cause dangerous levels of certain brain chemicals (seratonin syndrome) that can result in all sorts of problems up to and including death.
They may list it these days, but it was only made public in the last 4 years or so.
As for other side effect like weight gain and anger issues, those are also the side effects of withdrawl, so its anybodies guess what caused them.
I say, count how many cigs you smoke a day, and using what your normal max number is, remove one cig from that number every 2 weeks. It may take a while to get yourself down to the point where you can quit without cravings and mood swings.
But be real, it took you a long time to get to this point as a smoker, its ok to take a while to quit too!
Thanks for the replies. I quit non filter Camels in Dec. 2000 after 36 years of them. I chain smoke tobacco pipes since then ...... which worked for quitting the Camels .... but now I am having a hard time giving up the pipes. Fifty years smoking between the both of them. :banghead:
50 yrs here also jim,remember when they came out with antibuse for alcoholics?
Did not work,same go's for what they have for smokers I think.
Like giving up the booze,you either do or you do not use it.
I think quitting the cigs is far more difficult than alcohol,Good luck to you.
I have not heard this theory before but it makes sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magpie
Have you tried chewing? Chances are that you will be long dead before your lips fall off!:pQuote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
Seriously I have heard that chewing is harder to quit than smoking.
I know 5 long term (25+ years) smokers who succeded in quiting using this method. Its an addiction like any other. Both physical, and psycological.
If hanging out in the bar, or kicking back with a beer inspires you to lite up, then you have to avoid placing yourself into those situations which work against your willpower.
The after a meal cig, the after sex cig, and the first thing in the morning cig are the hardest ones to let go of!
Gotta ask,have been married for 36 yrs,what the after sex cig??
I've dipped many a tin of Copenhagen. Started when a tin was $0.35 and quit when it got up around $6.00.Quote:
Originally Posted by 32t
If cost was a factor give your wife $1.00 from your razor fund every time you light up.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
She told me if I bought another handgun she was leaving ...... and I miss her sometimes ....... :hmmm:Quote:
Originally Posted by 32t
I get that for some people, going cold turkey does not work, or rather is very uncomfortable.
But as someone here already mentioned: how about making a daily ration of tobacco in whatever form you use, and then doing a bit less every other week?
My apothecary told me that he once got a customer off codeine addiction that way without the guy noticing. He always bought a couple of bottles per week, which is legal as it is otc. When the company stopped making that brand, the apothecary told the guy that he knew the recipe and could make it for him. And unknown to the guy, he reduced the dose with a couple of 10s of micrograms every 2 weeks, until all he was taking was pure syrup.
At that point he was going to tell the man, but the man got admitted to the hospital for something unrelated. In the hospital he got no coughing syrup, and suddenly discovered that he could stop cold turkey without a problem :)
If it works for codeine addiction, it could work for nicotine as well, without messing up your brain chemistry with anti depressants.
A slow weaning process does work well, as was mentioned, reduce one cigarette daily a week at time. And, truly, this works well with any substance one could come to depend upon. Once you're at six or seven cigarettes, or the chew equivalent, daily, the body washes out about that much nicotine in twenty four hours. After that there is no decrease that the body can detect as an "absence of the drug" producing withdrawal symptoms. Any "Joneses" that are left are psychological.
It seems there is a collateral industry that developed to get people off the substances the other side of the industry has gotten them dependent on. The folks who just quit, seem to stay quit longer and more often than those who struggle long and hard with chronically unsuccessful external treatments. The quitters seem to simply decide they are done and live with the decision.
Then again, telling someone to quit when they have a lung cancer seems cruel, and they happily smoke through their oxygen infused tracheostomy tubes.... until the end. ;)
When I quit, the doctor gave me Wellbutrin. It did help, but it had the nasty side effect of making me less antisocial.
i decided to quit on my 37th birthday after 23 years of smoking the last decade was 2 packs+ a day... it took me 2 months to get cigarette free, it will be 10 years next month... i used a low dose patch for two weeks at the end. smoked a couple nice cigars until a year ago but now do not even feel inclined to do that now.
it takes time and i was not pleasant when i gave up the cigs.... i look at the prices now though and say thank God i quit when they were only $4 a pack ( $10.50 when i last noticed)
E-cigs.. works like a champ!
I know about those and I've heard good things but I want to get away from the nicotine completely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wintchase
Is no Nicotine in E cigs,tried um.
Oh tobacco how I love to hate you and then love you some more....
Dipped for 15 years quit by smoking, smoked (2pack a day or more if i was bouncing) for 5 years quit by dipping, quit dipping by smoking again and smoking by dipping again. Found pipes and cigars. smoked $500 a month worth of cigars. Had a baby, now I smoke $36 a month....I will smoke multiple a day, but only when I am working at the Tobacconist shop and they are free.
I wish you luck Jimmy!
I quit smoking 3 or 4 years ago using Chantix. The only side affect i had from taking it was RAGE. I would catch myself snapping on whoever for the littlest things.
I still like to smoke cigars and will always like to smoke, but now i dont NEED to smoke.
Colin
I had a bad reaction to Wellbutrin it gave me thoughts of suicide. They came on fast and unprovoked I was actuality in a great mood then looked at my M9 and thought "hey there is an idea put that to my head and pull the trigger". This happened twice in a bout a 10 minuet span so I locked up my M9 and M16.
If you use a pharmaceutical, do not smoke!! I know a gentleman that had two heart attacks when he tried the combination. He finally figured out the problem but it killed a portion of his heart muscle.
I was fortunate and found that on an evening that it made no difference to me I was able to quit. That was 20+ years ago.
~Richard
I know with Chantix i was allowed to smoke when on it. It was part of the program to quit. I know you cant smoke using the nicotine substitute stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Geezer