"Morning. I think, the thing about Champix is that it definitely gives you very vivid dreams.

Alfie... "Band Manager"

I really wish you kept up with this. so what if the dreams got too weird to post. that's the kind of thing that makes something good: too fucking weird.

Ah, your probably right, but just as much it simply became too much of a chore, and the desire abated.

So still smoking?

Jule and Fran Heely from Travis eh? They'd be a very modern couple, given that she's about a foot taller than him. Nowt wrong with that of course....

So are you still smoking?

Got this info in a newsletter from HSI today and remembered this blog so thought I'd post it here

This drug may help you to stop smoking but it could also have a few nasty surprises in store for you too! From May 2006 through to December 2007, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received 227 domestic reports of suicidal acts, thoughts or behaviours, 397 cases of possible psychosis and 525 reports of hostility or aggression — following the use of Champix. These totals included 28 cases of suicide and 41 mentions of homicidal ideation, 60 cases of paranoia and 55 cases of hallucination.

As always, Pfizer insists that a link between psychiatric problems and taking Champix has not been established in clinical trials...

The main ingredient in Champix is varenicline, which belongs to a family of medications known as nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist. It not only helps curtail all those cravings associated with nicotine withdrawal but also helps reduce the pleasure associated with smoking. Sounds great, for a smoker who is finding it hard to kick the habit

But hold your horses... if you visit the website, drugs.com, and look-up the side effects of varenicline, you will find the following shocking adverse events listed:

* severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue; unusual hoarseness);
* behaviour changes;
* chest pain;
* fainting;
* fast, slow, or irregular heartbeat;
* hallucinations;
* memory loss;
* new or worsening mental or mood problems (e.g., aggression, agitation, anger, anxiety, depression, nervousness, thoughts of hurting other people);
* red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin;
* seizures;
* severe or persistent nausea;
* suicidal thoughts or actions;
* trouble sleeping;
* vivid, strange, or unusual dreams.


In fact, you only need to scroll through the readers’ comments on our forum to realise how many people have been adversely affected by this insidious drug. Click here for more details:

It’s no wonder that in the 4th quarter of 2007 alone, varenicline accounted for 988 serious injuries in the US according to reports received by the FDA, more than any other individual drug in this period. For this reason, the FDA ordered Pfizer to add a strong "black box" warning to highlight the risk of serious mental health problems.

I had had dreams that are so wild and in color and are 3D I have got up to go the rest room came back and went right into the same dream crazier than that I had had one one night and jumped right back into it the next night or several nights later.. Most are stressful some a scary but the sex ones are great Want to quit smoking but I am so tired and restless when I wake up I have these type of dreams every night I am in my 2nd month of smoke free so that's a plus

my dreams are so bizare i could not have made them up !ive been 2 dubia with my friends ,went back home saw my mum whos been dead 4 years and went 2 the strangest wedding ever even tho i didnt go but went 2 the party afterwards you weould have 2 take champs 2 understand only half way thru wish me luck

I found this because of my dreams on champix (chantrix). I knew about some of the side effects, and am being monitored by family, but I had no idea about the dreams. OMFG the crazy fucking dreams! I have had intense dreams while sleeping with a nicotine patch, but this is even crazier, I think because they are more memorable and realistic.
Sitting naked in a bog /// In a maximum security prison /// Some adventure leading up to getting married and knocking up a spanish lady, then buying a hundred pounds of rice for a little girl /// Playing anonymous laser tag on rollerblades in a huge mall, while a beautiful woman tries to seduce me.
Madness. Pure madness.

Champix dream.

Last night, and apart from the usual scatological sequence of events which are my normal dreams, it all concluded with the most disturbing event I hope to ever witness. I know when people tell you about their dreams you can some times switch off coz they can be a bit strange at best and trivial at worst, but not these boyos. Read on if your dare!

Imagine your walking through your home town/village. Its day time and there is no one about apart from the odd neighbour putting the bins out or... whatever. Its sunny, quiet and your making your way on foot through the bungalows and houses. It aint necessarily your place as the buildings really don't resemble your local area but the dream tells you it is your home town/village etc; I think you would get the gist of it anyway. Anyway, Its night time all of a sudden and I'm in the house of two strangers, a man and a woman who are sitting on a sofa next to a double door looking out into their garden. All of a sudden I look up into the sky and the moon is covered by an eclipse of sorts. Imagine a black circle with a fine red glowing line surrounding it, like a solar eclipse but with a faint red ring round it. I immediate say "A Jupiter eclipse! Wow!" The woman jumps up and and displays the same enthusiasm as me and I stare at the phenomenon in the sky. Remember, its night time and we've moved into the garden. I watch as the circle changes, appearing at once to be a faint red circle, disappearing all together, to having a fragmented and vague appearance. Either way I'm enthralled by this, although a little worried at the same time. There is some logical notion stirring that there really shouldn't be a Jupiter eclipse. Jupiter aint that big! This morning I have the images firmly implanted in my head as I remember watching this thing for what seems to be a while. Anyway, I dash off home which is a house I lived in as a kid and go to get my camera phone to catch it on film. The journey through the house in itself was weird too due to the people who were in it and where they were sleeping, but that is a mere side show compared with what's to come.
I grab my phone and rush out the other side of the house in to our back garden. My daughter has latched on to my excitment and has followed me out to see what all the fuss is about and stands next to me while I look back up into the sky. Its still night time and the object has changed slightly. No longer a complete circle, it has now become slightly fragmented, like a smashed glass ball, except the shapes are still black. Imagine taking a Stanley blade to a black paper circle and creating a series of jagged shapes and slightly expanding them. This is what it is beginning to look like. Something further stirs in my mind that this can no longer just be an eclipse, that this object could actually be an exploding planet or meteorite and, worse case scenario, could actually be heading for us. True to form, once this thought has entered my head it became just that and over only a few seconds it began to descend upon us.

Like a scene from 2012 or Armageddon, huge chunks of planet smash into us. I witness massive, city size chunks of rock, hurtling at what must be thousands of miles an hour, straight at us and as far as the eye can make out across the entire horizon. Somehow my daughter lies down on a nearby mattress (go figure) and I have time to say "Goodbye!" and then it goes black. The concious part of my mind says "I must be dead!" Then it crosses my mind again that, "I can't be dead as I am thinking!". So, all of a sudden I snap out of it and the next bit is sheer terror. It's day time and the world is being destroyed around me. It cuts from subjective, personal point of view scenes to objective camera angle style shots which describe a panorama of complete destruction. Not that these images aren't unbelievably dramatic, but that the emotions I'm experiencing are pretty devastating too. As I'm running away, fleeing to save my life, I am seeing more chunks of rock smash into big buildings and entire communities and watching as thousands of people run for their lives. It cuts to an almost Sim City effect (In HD) of big building projects being shaken and torn to pieces with people, small like ants, spewing out of the devastation. It cuts back again behind my eyes and I'm seeing more, but smaller, slabs of rock pound the landscape (although there are no craters left behind in the pleasant grassy areas between the buildings. Again go figure). I am filled with thoughts of the end of the world, an end of days and an end to all things. At its peak I am seeing entire towns and cities smashed in the distance. My eyes are telling me that this is a global killer and that there will be no recovery.

Post apocalypse!

The carnage has ended and the smouldering ruins of the local area (remember, it all still looks like a Sim City project, a devastated town with nice grassy areas between the smashed buildings) give over to the emergence of the survivors from their ruined dwellings. They all come crawling out and begin walking forward in dribs and drabs, contemplating what has just happened. People begin milling about, some are pouring over the buildings presumably trying to rescue loved ones or saving possessions. This seems to go on for a while. My thoughts are firstly for the loss of my family, which feels real and are sickening and which I can't truly describe, but gradually turn to the mess I'm seeing. Its strange as its just like a movie I watched the other night where a young lads family are murdered and he is then pursued by the CIA. He has to instantly put to one side his grief and concentrate of his own survival. This is what it begins to feel like for me as I look around at the destroyed lives of the thousands, neigh millions, of people and how they are going to rebuild the world. All of a sudden a little man with a battery powered mike starts to call a meeting. People begin to draw toward him and gather. This seems so natural as, in times of tragedy, everyone one would look to someone who was prepared to give a lead, to at least begin to re-establish some form of social contact, to start the process of reconstruction perhaps? to provide an explanation? to provide a focus? At that moment his mike splutters to silence, the mikes batteries are dead.

At this point the dream ends. My last visual image is of me standing next to this little guy and thinking "We have a crowd. Someone needs to speak!"

I immediately had to write this down. I feel ok funnily enough! Whats to come. It's only day eight!