The FDA or someone needs to stop the casual prescription of this drug. Doctors are prescribing it with not a clue of the possible horrible withdrawal period, and side effects. This is major malpractice in my opinion.

Pfizer needs to step up and make available (publicly) help for the scary, debilitating withdrawal. If the drug does something with the dopamine then there must be a way to ease the withdrawal. I wonder if anyone knows the answer.

Lisa

I was one of them ‘happy-go-lucky’ guys that never let anything bother me. I never yell or was never aggressive or violent. In the past three years, I a miserable SOB. My wife, who has stayed by my side, has had to put up with the mood swings, the aggressiveness, and most of all, I’m not the person I used to be. I now have to see a psychiatrist who has been trying every antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication he can think of. Every once in a while, he hits on one that makes me act ‘normal’ (i.e. not a jerk), but as all of you know, these drugs come with side effects. After a year of anti-depressant shopping, I’m now fully impotent with no libido. None. So the drugs my doctor gave me to make me feel ‘normal’, ruined my sex life. I’m a 50 year old man and have been married for over 25 years.
So now I make a decision to quit the medication that makes me ‘normal’ or quit my loving sex life with my wife.

I went through crazy times where I quit my job (a highly-paid professional) and started verbal arguments with half the town I live in. I’m now the official jerk in town. A big difference from the ‘happy-go-lucky’ days. I only put two and two together recently after seeing blogs like this. I saw a therapist who agreed that a drug like Chantix has the potential to change your personality forever.

These drug makers are criminals for sure. Funny thing, I brought up my suspicions to the MD who prescribed Chantix to me and he quit seeing me. Every time I called for an appointment, I got a different MD. Because he knows what it did to me. Your MD is in the Phizer’s back pocket. Who can fight that?

I didnt notice how bad I was really getting until my sisters from NYC visited—they told me I had to go off of the drug, after 2 weeks on it. I did and continued to not smoke with the patch.

I also destroyed my sense of “pleasure”
in anything (which, with food, while stopping smoking, is good, I suppose), but I dont see how anyone can drink alcohol while on it (vomiting), have sex pleasurably, or even listen to good music. It works on your pleasure centers, folks….think about what you “enjoyed” while you were taking it. Chances are, nothing. They have used a smiliar drug for addiction to opiates—it is just not a long term solution.

I wish I could recommend this drug, but, in good conscience, I cannot.