Chantix for quitting smoking

[queenkmineo]

I've had an awful experience that I must share and find out if anyone else has gone through it.  I currently take Lexapro 10mg, a mild antidepressant, and it's wonderful for me.  A little over a month ago, I requested a prescription for Chantix to quit smoking.  Even though I'd heard lots of negative things about the side effects, I thought it was worth trying.  After 4 weeks of taking it, I did notice that my mood was being affected, so I decided to stop taking it.  About 4 days after I stopped, I developed an all over body shaking and jerking all over my body, making it impossible to stay asleep.  Not to mention the terrible dreams that would awaken me because I was sobbing.  The scary thing is that I couldn't tell the dreams from reality.  By the middle of that day, I began hallucinating terribly, entering into a condition of total amnesia, as well.  Thank God my mother was here to witness it and make sure I was okay.  That entire day, the entire night that night, and the entire day the next day was an endless scenario of me talking to invisible people, terrible hallucinations, my mom said she just kept assuring me that it was some kind of withdrawal from the Chantix, etc.  At one point, I decided to walk to the local grocery store to buy cigarettes, but ended up "acting out" in such a way to cause the store staff to call police.  I don't know how, but I was able to give them my mom's phone number (she says I was gone for about an hour, and was so relieved to get the call to hear that I was ok).  The police brought me home, I was absolutely distraught that there were no groceries (by the way, I didn't buy any groceries).  This brief description doesn't even begin to cover what this experience was.  I remember very very little of all of it - only that I was sure there were people in my house, and more coming over, and mom tells me this caused me to becaume quite distraught and upset/sobbing.  I was in my daughter's closet for almost an hour, just a ton of details that my mom told me I did that I'm stunned about.  I went to my doctor yesterday, he says that this is commonly referred to as a "serotonin storm."  Evidently, the mixture of Lexapro and Chantix is not one to take lightly, and the fact that I abruptly stopped the Chantix caused me to have a severe withdrawal from the Chantix.  Does anyone know more about this, or has anyone had any experience like this?  I'm still blown away at all the stuff I said and did, very disconcerting to have absolutely no recollection of anything I said or did over 2 days time.  Please help!  Any input would be appreciated

[Londres70]

I will agree that Chantix is a dangerous drug.  I had a friend that took this drug, became my worst nightmare and ended up in a psych ward.  STEER CLEAR OF CHANTIX!!!!!!

[mistymomofthree]

Last year my husband was put on chantix to quit smoking.It was working really well for about 6 weeks and then out of nowhere he started getting really moody. One day i was in our bedroom laying down I had a really bad headache any ways my kids kept coming in and finally I just shut our door I didn't realize at the time that it locked And he started knocking on the door anyways I was asleep and when I finally heard I got up to open it and he kicked the door in slaming me against the wall he has never put his hands on me and that day he was so angry that he went to hit me and my best friend had to grab him off me. This medicine is not to take litely I would not let anyone I knew take it is very dangerous.