Hello all!
I'm a Soldier in the U.S. Army. I first tried to quit back in 2010 and failed due to the stress of an upcoming deployment. I continued to dip all the way through an 11-month tour in Iraq. When the PX ran out of dip, everyone was hurting. Then, I managed to get some dip sent to me from the States. I had people coming to me to buy dip. It was crazy. I decided that I needed to figure something out. I was dependent on the stuff. It controlled me. I have no moral qualms with using various things for recreational purposes. I would include alcohol and tobacco in that statement. However, when something controls you, it is time to stop it. So I got back from Iraq in September. In October, I made a spontaneous decision to stop. I had ran out of dip. My wife and I went to the grocery store. I was getting light headed and quite irritable. My wife insisted that I go buy a can of dip. So off I went, only I didn't go up front to the Customer Service counter. Instead, I went over to the pharmacy section. When I rejoined my wife, I had a box of the Nicorette lozenges. I had finally snapped. I decided that I did not wish to be controlled any longer. I believe that was 24 October, but I may be a week or so off. I started on Nicorette's program, but found that I didn't need to take the lozenges as often as it initially prescribed. I then quickly lost count of my days and weeks. Oh well, it didn't seem to matter. I found that I was slowly weening myself off of nicotine. Then, on Saturday, 17 December, 2011, I took my last lozenge. I haven't looked back. I can now say that I'm two months post-dipping and a full 13 days post-nicotine.
I still find that I want something in my mouth and I am looking at the fake dips just for the recreation of that oral satisfaction. I found a couple of cans of fake pouches from my first attempt at dipping. One was Smokey Mountain Chew's Winter Green pouches and the other is Oregon Mint Snuff's Mint. During my first attempt at quitting, I tried SMC, Hooch, and Oregon Mint. I plan to write reviews of the flavors/brands I tried on another thread. Right now, I'll say that the fake pouches I found have satisfied the need for something in my mouth. They actually do a better job than the lozenges or mints. I don't like having something hard against my gums/lips but I do like the softness of a pouched product. Sometimes I find myself craving a long cut. So, I think I'm going to order some sample products of some of the fake dips out there and write new reviews on them. There are a couple of new products out there that weren't there when I tried to quit last year.
Anyway, here's to proving that you can quit. If I can do it, anyone can do it. 'qt'