Good morning everybody! I just wanted to give a brief introduction and my "story" on my first day of quitting. I'll be 27 years old on July 18th, and I've been dipping Skoal since I was 18. I'll never forget that first time dipping in college. I got the biggest buzz ever, but vowed to myself that I'd never let the "addiction" take over. That first year of college, I dipped maybe a can every two weeks... just when I had to stay up to study for a big test, or when my friends came over to play video games. Sooner or later it became 1 can every week, then 1 can every 3 days. I let the addiction take over before I even realized it.
After graduating college, I decided to join the Air Force. I went to Basic Training at the beginning of October of '05 and HAD to quit. I'll never forget the feeling I had when I left basic training... I was in shape, and dip-free. I kept it up until Christmas of '05 when I was able to go home to see my family. That is where shit hit the fan. I went out with my buddies and sure enough, one of them had a can ready for me. I didn't even think about it, I just put that shit right in my mouth and pissed 2.5 months of being dip-free down the drain.
About 3 weeks ago, I came to this site. At the time I was deployed to Bosnia, and saw an upcoming trip to London as the PERFECT time to dip. I spoke to a few people that night in chat, and I was ready to take the plunge! In fact, I quit the next day but never posted on this board because I was scared of failing. I had failed so many times before, so why wouldn't I fail again? I went on that trip to London, stayed dip-free the 4 days I was there, and as soon as I got back to Bosnia I bought a tin can.
Now, I'm back in the USA and BEFORE I quit I was throwin' down a can a day. I can't tell you how many times I've quit before. I've tried the "weening yourself off method" and I've tried the "put nicorette gum in your mouth instead" method, but it never worked for me. Tonight, I couldn't sleep and came to your chatroom once again. Within minutes there were about 6 people in chat encouraging me to quit. I told everybody about my fear of letting people down, when someone said to me, "you shouldn't be scared of quitting, you should be scared of dipping." I know that makes perfect sense, but I never thought about it that way. So I took my can, flushed the shit down the toilet, and decided this is day 1 of being dip-free.
I'm sorry for the book I just wrote, but I felt like I had to write all of that so you know just a little more about me. The few that I talked to in chat earlier, thanks... I needed the push, and I'm glad I've started this. I'm sure I'm going to need help along the way and from browsing this site it looks like there's more than enough people willing to help. Thanks again, I look forward to getting to know all of you, and here's to DAY 1!!
tnguy
