I've only been on it for 5 days. Side-effects thus far - extreme tiredness, unusual dreams (not disturbing or unpleasant though), change in taste buds resulting in reduced appetite (which in my case is a good thing - I need to lose a few pounds - LOL!) Reduced enjoyment of smoking, therefore have cut back considerably. These are all tolerable side-effects (have had worse side-effects from other medications in the past.) I don't know whether anybody else has experienced this but I've found using caffeine (coffee or other caffeinated drinks) to try to take the edge of the tiredness, completely ineffective. Most folks would be bouncing off the walls given my caffeine intake the past few days - LOL!

Good or bad? At this stage, neither. I have set my quit day for day 8. I guess I'll know more then.

Alternative quitting methods:

Try pregnancy and morning sickness for 3 months - that's enough to get you off the habit & there's the added incentive of doing what's best for the baby. Did this method twice but started smoking again shortly after having the kids.

NRT - Patches - Have used these twice now. The side-effects from them were pretty yuck - scary, terrifying dreams, anxiety, insomnia, leading to irritability, anger, moodyness. That alongisde the itchy rashes from the patches. They didn't really work well the first time. The 2nd time, I did the full 12-week course and stayed quit for 9 months.

Hypnotherapy - What a joke! Worked for about 3 days and I started smokin again.

The longest I have ever stayed quit each time is about 9 months.

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I've been smoking again for 7 months, after 9 months smoke free. I honestly think the quitting part isn't the hardest part (I'm not saying it's not hard, but it's only a part of the process of being and staying a non-smoker.) It's staying quit that is the biggest problem for me. Just one, leads to just one pack. You know how it goes? And each time I have started smoking again, my addiction has gotten worse - I smoke more and more. This time round, I've ended up developing asthma because I'm smoking really heavily and the Doc has said "take it as a warning sign" and gave me a script for Champix. I'm 37 years old and having chronic breathing problems - Yikes!

So, I guess I could benefit from discussions centred around maintenance - after the initial NRT/Champix/withdrawal part, how to maintain being a non-smoker? What is it that triggers that urge to smoke after months of being a non-smoker? I think in my case, it's stress/anger related - an inability to deal with it, so let's shove it down with a ciggy :) I have to wonder if this is the reason many smokers smoke - to suck up their uncomfortable feelings, and so when they quit and stop sucking in their feelings, they feel angry and sad (and then blame it on the Champix - LOL?)

Just my thoughts: All medication has side-effects, some worse than others. I've had some seriously bad experiences on a couple of meds, and yet others work just fine for me. I see a lot of "black and white", all or nothing thinking going on when it comes to Champix. They know someone who had a bad experience and so they holler to the world to ban the drug! I could just as easily say the same about the "mind-altering" med - Aropax (which almost killed me BTW) The way I see it; Some meds work for some, and not for others. They're neither good nor bad. They just are. If they work, great. If they don't, stop taking them and try something else. I see no point in trying to convince the world that X, Y or Z drug is bad and needs to be banned, because if this worked then we'd have NO medication at all, for anything - most of them have side-effects. Weigh it up - Do the benefits out-weight the side-effects? Is it something worth tolerating for 12 weeks if the end result is what you wanted?

Ok, I'm going to shut-up now and post.