My quit date was June 11. I used Chantix to help me quit. Late last week I quit Chantix, too. The side-effects were horrible. I just couldn't bear the thought of having to take those pills for months after I'd already quit smoking. I'd already been only taking half the daily dose, because taking 2 mg. per day was killing me, just awful side-effects especially at night, and my husband said it was affecting me emotionally, even though i may not have realized it. What i did realize was that Chantix helped me not care about smoking or the pleasure i used to get from it. It was just gone. But what really sucked was, it also helped me not care about much of anything else. I told a few people, when they asked me how the Chantix was working, that I have never not cared about so much in my life, ever. I just always felt "Blah". So i've remained a non-smoker since June 11. My husband and i went camping together last weekend, and he would light up a cigarette once in awhile. A couple times I took a hit off of one of those cigarettes, and just as I thought, the thrill was gone. They tasted terrible, it was disgusting and i got no pleasure from it at all, and haven't wanted to start again. I am enjoying the way I feel now, I know I am breathing better. Food tastes better, I can smell things much more clearly now (which isn't always a good thing....ugh) but after everything I went through to quit smoking, I don't ever want to have to start that process over again. Why put myself through that torture? I am now able to see other people smoking and it doesn't affect me at all, I can see people in movies or on TV smoking and I don't want to have a smoke too. I am reading a book where a number of the characters in the story smoke, and it doesn't bother me. I feel like I'm over the worst of it and on the right track.
I think having the right motivation helps, I want to go to Hawaii again next year with my husband, and without the expense incurred from smoking, we should be able to make that trip 🙂 I love knowing how much money i'm no longer wasting on cigarettes, and knowing that that money could be put to much better use.
