I have been nicotine free now for almost two years. In this time I have helped hundreds of people achieve their own success stories by sharing my thoughts and giving advice on side effects. I have only been forced to not allow one post in this two years, mostly due to the negative tone and the insistence that Chantix had changed them.

Two years later we see a little news that Chantix carries a suicide risk and may cause mental illness. I am not your doctor so you can never take my facts and use them as medical advice. The only thing one can say about Chantix is that it has helped you quit smoking and people who quit smoking go through a lot of problems as they adjust to addiction.

Using Chantix could cause the very same side effects if you used a negative reinforcement method to stop. I have blogged before about the more than 4,000 chemicals that are in smoke. Some refuse to take this one pill due to the media and continue to ingest those chemicals. If you can make it rational that the 4,000 chemicals  in smoke are ok, there is no therapy that I know of which would help you stop.

I would take Chantix again if my blog doesn’t help me to stay smoke free. In these two years there has only been an urge four times to smoke, but it was easily dismissed as not a real need. Will I make it to four years? If this blog is still here it serves as a reminder of all the pain we go through to quit and is a paper weight that helps to stop the years of nicotine abuse from flying into my face.

May you all still read and post your stories, as I had no idea it would serve everyone else the way it has.

This has been a wonderful project for myself to stop smoking, and the responses from all of you confirm my suspicions that Chantix is a wonderful drug to stop with.

With all the concern that people have about alcohol and Chantix, I had no such adverse reactions and trust me I did use it as a crutch a few times when emotional. One thing you do not want to do is trade compensation measures, aka trading tobacco for alcohol.

I’m sure most level headed people will agree with me here on my next statement. If you do drink alcohol while on Chantix, do it lightly and make sure you are in a good mood and plan to stay that way. I insist that you sit down, watch a movie and make sure you have enough material to have a good time.

You’ll find yourself in a weird place in a year of not smoking, all the lost time you didn’t realize you had all along. Myself and free time is good and I even went back to school and am getting an Associate’s Degree to start with. I could almost pay for school with the savings alone.

If i give up smoking will my personality change?

I hate to tell you this, but yes it will. It’s not a bad thing really, as I’ve come to find out.

Your personality will be one that is productive, and not driven by a reward that has nothing to do with what you are trying to accomplish.  You’ll have more concentration than you did before, leading to that very same productiveness.

Your new self will face adversity, instead of running from it, and you’ll be more respected by people around you that do not smoke. You’ll have more self esteem, which leads to more self worth. You’ll stop forcing yourself to always be one step away from being able to smoke.

Smokers will say you are a jerk now, mainly because you are not on the same bus to death that they are. You’ll be hated because you are no longer a smoker, and ‘better’ than they are. You’ll also have a change in behavior and you won’t want to ‘hang out’ with those that won’t return the favor of understanding you don’t want to smoke any longer.

In all, you will change when you stop smoking. Anyone who says you’ve changed for the worst are obviously not looking at the big picture, and just wish you’d start smoking again.