I started using tobacco consistently in some form or another around age 14 I donÂ’t remember the exact day or age or what. I know I can remember the feeling I got from it though. IsnÂ’t it amazing how an addiction can make you forget all about, when or where you started but you always remember that feeling that it gave you. I know I tried a pouch when I was just a little kid,made me want to puke but I know I sure wanted another. I know I hung out on smokers corner at high school as a freshman thinking I was the badest kid ever. I know that all through basic training that I wanted a chew and sure as anything I found a way to get one around week 5 or so. My point that I want to get to is that 100 days is the longest in my life that I have ever been without nicotine in some form or another coursing through my veins. I have spent over half my life on this earth using tobacco. Through failures and success, extreme joy, such as meeting Mrs. willy and the birth of my two children willy joe and willy jane, to extreme sorrow, it has been there. It has gotten me in trouble more times than its saved my rear end. However its been 100 days and I am still here, I am still kicking, in a combat zone where I thought I would never be able to quit, and I am surviving.
I am now 100 days free of nicotine. I still crave every now and then, and I know now I will always have a crave occasionally for a chew. I know what a crave is and what some of my triggers are and I know how to overcome them. This site shows that no matter how bad you think your quit is, someoneÂ’s is worse. There are brave people in this world that I have met here with names that I only know of as cdforcheck, gman, jkd, bbj, jsimonds, mule21,Russjus, SmokeyG, rosebud, flashman and the list goes on and on people who battle with this addiction and other addictions some more than one at a time, and are still quitting, still posting roll everyday.
Why did it take me so long to quit? I used the same reasons as everyone else. Not this jump, not this deployment, not right now not a good time.
My best advice to anyone reading this thinking they want to quit? Make a plan,
right now, and quit, RIGHT NOW, "There is no try, there is quit and there is not quit". Plans can change sure, maybe you need BBQ seeds instead of regular, maybe seeds are too salty, maybe you need bubble tape instead of big red who cares, dump your can, toss your spitters, but quit right now, you donÂ’t have to plan on quitting for the rest of the week or month or year, its simple just quit for today, start with the next few minutes then work up to an hour then the rest of the day, its a fight it will be a fight no doubt about that, there is nothing on this site that makes the fight easy just easier. This site just lets you know that there are folks who have done it before, while going through a whole lot more than you ever will, just remember its a fight for your life. So find your quit group, post day one and never look back at youÂ’re quit with regret. For those that have succumbed to their crave, go post day one, take the snuff out of your mouth and go post, take the good with the bad and go post day one.
One of the biggest things I am looking forward to in the near future is to find my wife and kids in the crowd at the gym when I return from this deployment and be able to lay a big fat wet kiss on her and not have to worry about dip breath, and hopefully after being gone a year my daughter doesnÂ’t think its still cool to spit like dad.
I could never thank everyone on this site but a big thanks goes out to Casey, Curtx2, Penny, Allen and Jack, rocksteady, STAY QUIT.
