New York Magazine has a fascinating first-person account of one man's experience with Chantix, the new anti-smoking medication which is currently generating reports of bizarre side effects like creepy dreams and suicidal or homicidal thoughts.
The author describes a series of experiences that are eerily reminiscent of accounts of schizophrenia. There is paranoia and difficulty determining what is real: "I tried to shake a weird, paranoid sense that I’d just been psychically raped by a household appliance," the author writes.
There are delusions of reference, the idea that particular experiences are being aimed specifically at you: "Mundane details began to strike me as having deep, hidden significance. The neon arch above McDonald’s: The lights blinked on and off in some sort of pattern, and I needed to crack the code. One of my co-workers was messing with some papers: What is he trying to imply with all that damned crinkling?"
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