Stress Center Peer Support

Anyone experienced the following?

I started taking Chantix in April 2007 to quit smoking. Things were fine for a month or so, but I began to experience panic attacks about 5 weeks into taking it. I quit immediately and started smoking again (stress from the attacks). I had never had a problem with panic attacks before Chantix, I had a few but they went away. Since then, it has steadily gotten worse. I can no longer drive on the interstate alone, flying is very tough and requires benzos to get me through, etc...Anyone else experience this? Again it wasn't until about a month into taking it....Now don't get me wrong, I know part of it is my own doing, as those attacks have planted the seed that I have let grow into full blown panic disorder. That's why I ordered the Attacking Anxiety program. But I think Chantix may have been the catalyst in the beginning....

that's interesting.

I had taken Chantix a few months before a relapse of my panic disorder with agoraphobia. I took it only for a few weeks because it made me so moody but I'm wondering if there can be a connection. I know that it blocks the pleaseure centers in your brain that addictions give you. So its definately a medication that works on your brain.

Regardless of the cause, keep your chin up. I'm still in the thick of my replapse but everyday it gets better. I'm slowly getting adjusted to my SSRI and am still waiting for the green light to start tapering off my xanax. Some days it feels like it's never going to end and some days I feel so hopeful that I can handle it.

Exercise and Vitamin B complex has really helped. I also make it a point to keep myself busy. No matter how bad I feel, how terrified that I'm going to have to go to a hospital, how it feels like I can't do another second of this, I just keep going on.

You'll get there. Promise. Because I'm getting there. I haven't even gotten my program yet but I'm practicing all the skills I can rememeber. And I'm a total 24/7 anxiety type of girl with daily panic attacks thrown in for good measure. I haven't had a panic attack in a week and my anxiety is very managable. So for me to be reassuring someone else that it's all going to work out just fine is kinda a big deal. Just keep your chin up.