Chantix and cravings

I have been a smoker for 15 years. I am the type of person who loves to smoke however I get real annoyed by the smell of smoke on my own body so I carry body spray and hand sanitizer with me to wash out the odor. I also always have gum so my breath doesn't smell like an ashtray. Although I did not like smelling like it, I still smoked. I associated everything with smoking. Any chance I got, I smoked. With today's economy, smoking just got too expensive for me. I also turned 30 this year and I noticed how much my skin has changed. I'd figured smoking is not going to make me look any younger so I had my OBGYN write me a script for Chantix and followed the enclosed directions. I took Chantix for a total of 2 1/2 weeks. The first 7 days I continued to smoke. On the 8th day, I STILL continued to smoke. I was hoping I would wake up and the craving to smoke had disappeared as if I never was a smoker. Well it was not... I had my usual morning smoke and I spent the rest of the day violently vomiting to the point where I did not even want to smoke. The smell of a cigarette made me sick again and again. I felt this way for at least the remainder 1 1/2 i continued to take chantix. Honestly, it felt like I was knocked up with morning sickness or a very bad hang over. I don't remember reading those side effects... :P Anyhow, so I had to make a decision, to either waste the $127 bucks it costs me to buy this ( no my insurance did not cover it) or to continue to smoke and smell all the time. I did the logically thing and quit smoking. The thing that helped my cravings was the nausea. If it was not for that then I would definitely say I would have started smoking again. I feel so great that I do not smoke and I still get cravings every now then. They pass and once they do I am so proud I did not give in. My skin looks 100 times better and I get compliments on how good I smell now! It could have either been mind over matter that made me quit or Chantix. Either way I am smoke free!!! :)

I stopped smoking the third day into the first week. I'm in week two now, and have had half a cig a couple of times...but it doesn't taste good or do a thing for me. My cravings are minimum, no mood swings...don't even want to drink! (I haven't even finished a beer since I started.)

My side effects have been slight nausea even when I eat before taking; severe joint pain; insomnia; exhaustion, intestinal distress. I'm willing to put up with this for a few more weeks, but I may do as others have suggested and cut back to one pill a day by week three.

I quit 23 years ago and then, like a fool, started smoking again. The first time I quit I used hypnotism. I paid for five sessions and only used four. Worked like a charm...but soon after, I plunged into a severe clinical depression. It wasn't until years later that I connected nicotine withdrawal to depression. So, I'll be very careful this time around...it's taking a lot of guts for me to risk going through another bout of depression.

I took Chantix for about a month. It lessened my cravings to smoke, but I started getting heart palpitations really bad. I ended up in the ER one day and the Dr. told me that he had never seen that side effect. He looked up the side effects in his palm pilot, and found that it was the very last side effect in the list. I decided to get off Chantix to see if that would help. Well now I'm going to be on Toprol for the rest of my life. They won't say for certain whether it was the Chanitix that caused it or not. Coincidence? I'm not sure. All I know, is that my heart was completely fine before it, and now if I am an hour late taking the Toprol my heart goes insane. My cardiologist has no clue what happened (I've been to two). I'm only 33 years old, and taking this medication for the rest of my life.
Has anyone experienced heart palpitations after starting Chantix?