anyone else quit chewing 25 times and start up again?

Once again I quit chewing tobacco, and this time i made it 4 months, until my friend bought me a tin.... What a friend right

Just Say No












:D

What a friend is right!!!!

I'm a smoker so I don't have much room to talk here.

But... Chewing is gross (so are ciggarettes, I know).  My dad chews and half the time he's got black s**t in his teeth and it looks nasty.  I think chewing makes your teeth more yellow because his are pretty yellow, and he doesn't smoke ciggarettes. 

I hate when people get on me for smoking.. And normally I wouldn't preach to you, but, you quit for four months so you can da*n well quit again!!   

I think chewing tobacco may actually be harder to quit than smoking. My brother has been totally addicted since high school. But the health consequences are just so awful... google around and you'll find images of people who chewed and lost their face to mouth cancer. Yuck. Put one of those pics on your computer as a screen saver, and maybe it'll motivate you to stop.

meanwhile, I have developed a problem with chewing nicotine gum. I quit smoking nearly a year ago, using the patch. After I went off the patch, I started chewing the nic gum. Told myself I could chew the gum for the first year. Well, I started out only chewing a piece or two a day - just in emergencies, like going out with friends who are smokers. And it's expanded over time, with the dieting. Now I find myself reaching for the gum all day long. Only 2 mg - probably can't harm me, but it's getting so expensive.  

On the 24th of this month it'll be a year so I need to start psyching myself up about quitting the gum. I've heard it's pretty easy - nothing like giving up cigs. But still not looking forward to it.

jenmcc--

I had a professor who quit smoking but became addicted to the nicotine gum.. All throughout class he would be pulling out new sticks of gum.. Literally, every few minutes he would get another piece.  He had a lot of money, so I'm sure the cost didn't bother him.  So, yeah, that stuff can be addicting.

I dipped for the first time the summer before my senior year in high school. I never considered myself a habitual user and never really believed I was "addicted" until right after my soccer season. I suffered a concussion in our final game of the season (I stayed in the entire rest of the match and didnt get my head checked out until about week later, naturally) and starting to dip at alarmingly increasing increments with my enabler friends because it seemed to be a great way to help calm my intense headaches.

Dipping is an incredibly deceptive habit in that it is both cheap while the occasional lip never has any noticeable effects like cigarettes when they destroy your lungs. As an athlete my better judgment told me "Well since I can't afford the dilapidated lung power that accompanies smoking, dipping is the perfect solution right? Its ABSOLUTELY fine, because I won't get hooked on it like my friends." I now see how that belief proved to be utterly FALSE. You never realize how dependent you are on dip until its far too late.

Now, I probably would've never quit if it wasn't for a new relationship where my girlfriend laid down the law about the "disgusting habit." Even with knowing I was disappointing someone I cared for with my habit it was ridiculously harder to kick the habit than I had previously expected. Lets be honest, going "cold turkey" is borderline impossible, but if you can make that method work for you then by all means DO IT. You are a better man than I.

Through my cravings and unfortunate relapses of sneaking a tin here and there I found the perfect technique to finally quit once and for all. I would usually go through a tin in about 2-3 days time when I began my new battle tactic against what I was beginning to think was a lost cause. *Before all else*, I resolved to only dip out of my own tin, as to *eliminate those enablers* that had been the foundation of my tobacco fixation. Now the fun starts. I bought a tin, finished it. Of course I immediately wanted to buy another. So I did. But I made sure there was 2 days between when I bought the first tin and the second tin. I finished the new tin, but this time did not grant myself the pleasure of a new one until 3 days after I bought the second one. Now, no tin purchasing for 4 days. Each time I'd buy a tin, I'd add a day until I permitted myself to acquire a new one. This formula proved to be perfect, because even if I still killed the tin in 2 days, not having the ever so tempting tobacco on or around me for the increasing periods of time decimated my urges. Even when I'd ration the dip out to last me the entire time period, it forced me to pack either a smaller lip or toss in less frequently. Each new tin became a reward for my resilience and newfound discipline, making both the tobacco and the sense of accomplishment that much sweeter. Either way, my cravings began to subside to the point where I was passing through the gas station that I'd usually buy from without even thinking about going in to buy that grizzly tin I had once itched for. No more tobacco procuring impulses...I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!

Although I don't remember exactly how long it took me to ultimately quit, I QUIT. I still get a considerable twinge of desire when I see others around me with a fat lip packed but THAT INSTANT OF ITCHING FOR A LIPPER NEVER LASTS.

I hope my story of overcoming this affliction helps you quit as well. If my approach works for you, then I couldn't be happier in helping someone vanquish their desires. Design a program that works for you and stick with it. Don't let anyone else negatively influence your new prerogative. Its all about self-control, but don't worry, it gets EXPONENTIALLY EASIER! If a college student with terrible willpower can beat this, so can you. If anything, chicks think it's gross and most will not tolerate it. But above all, DO IT FOR YOURSELF!

 

Good luck!

**** TOBACCO!

I'm actually half-way expecting my husband to come home from the field today and tell me he's started smoking/dipping again. He started up with dipping sometime last year a few months before he deployed to Iraq, and then started smoking while he was in the sandbox (and dropped the dipping). He quit both just a few weeks after coming home from Iraq.

Now that he's been away from home for a good five days and is probably surrounded by other Marines that smoke/dip/what have you, I wouldn't be surprised if he gave in and started doing either again. He gets tempted a lot and has had plenty of will power to overcome urges when friends are over (one in particular practically chain-smokes), so I can imagine he had plenty of temptation while on the field, this week.

I will be so proud of him if he didn't smoke at all while he was on the field. <3

Edit:

He came home from the field not doing either, but apparently picked it up again on Monday, as he came home with a can of Grizzly yesterday during lunch. =( I think the stresses of the holiday season have been getting to him, but he's definitely not dipping as much as he used  to (I have yet to see him dip and he was home for quite some time yesterday).

Hopefully he'll convince himself to quit again in January. Around my birthday would be nice.

i can't stand to even be in the room with someone when they are dipping. a few of my friends from home do it. the whole spitting bottle, cup or whatever makes me literally gag. wow just thinking about it makes me want to gag.

the health risks are just wwwaayy too great, i hope you can manage to quit again! don't let your friends influence you! plus you are way too cute to be risking your face to that crap! :p

I've been chewing for 42 years. I have seen many people quit. I have never been able to myself but have noticed a few things over the years. In order for anyone to quit anything they have to want to. I have just never wanted to. My problem is that I haven't had to spit in years therefore I can chew anytime and anywhere and no one can tell. I never have to be without it and so it perpetuates. If I had top go without it for a while it would be a lot easier. I have several friends that have taken time to convince themselves to quit and it seemed to help once they had made up their minds. Many have found it easier if they added up the cost. I did this once and nearly had myself convinced to quit. Good luck and stay strong!