Chantix To Quit Smoking
I’m personally not a big believer in using drugs as a way to quit smoking, but the hype surrounding Chantix is too strong too ignore. So I should at least weigh in on it.
Chantix job is too mess with your brain receptors that are looking for that nicotine fix by replacing the sought after nicotine with a placebo like effect. Basically, your brain thinks it’s getting some nicotine even though you’re not smoking. This eases your withdrawal symptoms and if you do smoke Chantix blocks the nicotine from getting to your brain which in turn prevents the “pleasure” of smoking from being felt, thus eliminating the physical addiction part of smoking.
As a way to quit smoking, Chantix is being hailed as some sort of magic pill and I can certainly see how it might help some people quit smoking, but most studies that I’ve seen referenced show that people who quit with this drug are most likely to relapse and begin smoking again. There is also a lot of studying being done right now over a potential link between Chantix and suicide. The success rate of Chantix is currently 1 in 11.
Like all other prescription drugs used as a way to quit smoking it only focuses on the physical side of addiction and not the emotional side. Your brain’s chemical addiction to nicotine is not the same thing as your emotional desire to smoke. Because both of these take place in your brain many people have difficulty separating the two types of addiction. Once your physical addiction to smoking is gone, usually a few days or maybe at most two weeks your emotional desire to use smoking as a coping or pleasure mechanism is still very strong.
Chantix as a way to quit smoking might work for you but your chances are not very high unless you also deal with your emotional addiction to smoking. You’re basically going to have to “re-wire” your brain if you truly want to quit long term. This is not an easy process and a lot of people find it helpful to use some sort of hypnotherapy or self hypnosis technique to succeed at it. Otherwise you’re really relying on pure willpower to cure your emotional need to smoke.
