Along with her morning coffee, a cigarette used to be part of Lauren Johnson's daily routine. Her road to kicking the habit has been a difficult one.
Wanting to quit, she turned to a stop smoking drug called Varenicline -- or Champix -- to help.
But soon after, she was having severe side effects, including anxiety and depression.
"I thought I was crazy, I seriously thought I had gone crazy," she says.
Lauren is not alone.
Health Canada has received more than 800 reports of side effects with the drug, including more than 500 reports of serious psychiatric problems in less than two years of it being on the market.
"I hadn't really put two and two together and it wasn't until I started finding all of these stories online that I started getting really scared," says Johnson.
The reports have prompted the agency to issue two public warnings in the last year.
And while the news may worry some, stop smoking advocates hope people won't give up in their bid to quit smoking.
"Most people take several times before they're successful in quitting," says the Canadian Cancer Society's Barbara Kaminsky. "If you are going to use drugs to assist you, you should know about any potential side effects."
Other smoking aids, like the nicotine patch and gum, have proven successful in helping some people break the habit. But to increase the chances of success it's recommended to have a plan.
"You need to set a date two or three weeks from whatever the date is you think you want to stop and actually research what has been your pattern of smoking," says Kaminsky.
As for Johnson, she stopped taking Champix after six weeks and her symptoms quickly disappeared.
"Within one to three days it was like I had never taken the drug," she says.
She's now decided to quit cold turkey and is it taking it day-by-day.
"This New Years has brought on a lot more opportunities for my future and with those opportunities comes quitting smoking definitely."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Dr. Rhonda Low
