Jane Doe's Story.

Due to breathing issues, I needed to quit smoking, my doctor recommended chantix saying only that it really works to remove the desire to smoke. Having no problems with my doctor or his recommendations I took the prescription and filled it.

I read the patient information, which warned of nausea, vomiting, gas, constipation and vivid dreams.  Glanced at the other insert with the tiny writing and saw it was for the doctor so I quit straining to read and understand it and took the pills as directed.

Things were going good at first. I was trying to deal with the severity of the nausea, gas and constipation until it just got too bad. I thought of calling the doctor but read at the Pfizer site where a lower dosage might help relieve the side effects. Out with the pill cutter and things got bearable and I continued taking chantix. With the reduced dosage, my personality started to change as I became more agitated with the little things bugging me more. My spouse noticed it and so did my family but I was not smoking so we all ignored the little things. We all contributed it to quitting smoking.

After 4 months of not smoking and little improvement in my breathing issues, I went back to the doctor. I told the doctor of my breathing issues and nervousness. I left the doctor's office with prescriptions for valium, an albuterol inhaler and told to quarter the pills. Over the next week, I became more nervous, could not sleep and had nightmares when I did. The morning after I started my menstrual cycle I woke up at 6 am in a panic, living my nightmare. Then I did some weird stuff and became very paranoid. We ended up going out and buying some cigarettes. Smoking did not help me! The next morning I woke up at the same time in a different nightmare. That evening a friend came over and right before they entered the door, I took a puff off the inhaler. I told my friend and husband I was feeling funny.

We started talking about what had happened the last two mornings. I had no idea of the passage of time as it had no relevance. I lost my ability to speak and lost consciousness even though I was sitting up.

My friend left in tears recommending my husband call the rescue squad. No one had ever seen me acting this way before or since.

When my mind returned to my body, I asked my husband what day it was and then what year it was. He told me and then asked if I remembered the last two days. I said I did not and he convinced me to go to bed to sleep.

I woke up a few hours later and wanted to go have my blood tested because I knew there was something wrong and thought I was having a drug reaction. I did not know I had taken a drug that would make me react this way but I had CHANTIX!

I ended up lead away from the hospital in handcuffs to a behavioral healthcare unit wondering what had happened to turn my life around so fast.

In about four short months, my stable personal life and profession turned upside down. I went from a smoker with shortness of breath on excursion to unable to care for myself. My husband, family and friends all wanted me back but not more than I did. It has been a long hard road from then until now.

The more I learn about chantix (varenicline) modeled after morphine and cytisine, the more I know it is a poison. My husband and I have both quit smoking this time cold turkey. There are still some lingering chantix effects. Please read and consider if you want to chance chantix for you could be playing Russian roulette with your brain or poisoning your body with something deadlier then tobacco. Little was known or believed about chantix when this happened to me but post marketing is showing the truth. Good luck quitting smoking but my advice is there are safer ways that do not leave you deaf, blind or speechless!