An intro from KCMO

[paul-san]

My final quit date was 5/9/2016. I need some advice from the vet's out there.

I have been chewing for about a decade now on and off, but mostly on. I am 30 and started around 20 in college. I started off with Grizzly Wintergreen LongCut. I lied to myself that I would quit when I graduated. Nope. When I got married. Nope. Then lied again when I had my first kid. Nope. Finally came to the realization that I need to quit now as each dip only makes it that much harder to stop and if I don't quit now, I likely never will. I am surrounded in every direction by tobacco users of all sorts both friends and family, which makes this that much harder. I have quit before, for a period of 4 months here and 2 months there or a month over here and another month over there. My wife provided wonderful support when I most recently quit about 18 months ago. However, after this quit, which lasted 4 months, I came back to Grizzly WG pouches. I somehow justified in my mind that this was healthier and never let myself chew more than 1 pouch at a time and chewed about 4-5 pouches per day for 18 months. I never told me wife I was using again and could easily conceal a pouch and thought how awesome and smart I was for using pouches for the convenience and conceal-ability they had and what I perceived as the healthier option. I feel terrible for hiding this from my spouse. Now, I am about 21 days into this quit and it has been a real SOB as I quit cold turkey without the wife knowing since she didn't know I resumed 18 months ago. It's been a real bear being nice when all I want to do is be an asshole. I am over the physical withdrawal for the most part, but episodes do come and go. The physical withdrawal I can deal with. My main battle is the associations I have with chew, this is where I have always failed. Is there a better way to re-wire the brain to forget the chew associations? My associations or triggers when I normally would throw in a chew or pouch are mowing the lawn, hunting, fishing, watching baseball on TV, playing softball, driving, camp fires, smell of firing up the Weber and cleaning the kitchen. I now use tobacco free fake chew such as Jake's or Smokey Mountain. Recently, as I am mowing the yard with each back and forth pass I am constantly thinking of dipping and how awesome it would be to have one in as the pinch of tobacco free snuff isn't quite cutting it. I haven't caved and won't, but the associations are killing me and I know it is a mind game. This mind game makes me feel that I will never enjoy these activities as much as I once did when I did them all with a pinch or pouch. I find myself feeling depressed and slipping back into the fog when I do the activities I have heavily associated chew with. Will this ever go away to appropriate levels or will it always be right there in the forefront of my thoughts when doing these activities?

That may be the toughest part of this battle... associations/triggers/re-wiring. There is no easy answer... the old addage "time heals all wounds" holds true. It's just gonna take time, man. There are some things you can do to cement the rewiring but the biggest one I see is... you need to stop romanticizing that shit. What did it ever do for you? It stole your time, your money, your integrity, your health, your focus... you name it. How does that feel? Nothing you did while dipping was better... the nicotine brainwashed you and now you need to fight like a bastard to undo the damage. Develop and nurture a healthy level of hate for UST and what their drug did to you.

And...

Get involved here. Post roll with the August group and learn what this site can REALLY do for you when you give being Quit your all. Jump in, bro. All in.

^^^ that is KTC gold!
Post roll everyday and replace your addiction with something positive; exercise, family, etc.

They have it spot on. rewiring and refocusing. This site helps that tremendously. Lots of different things to do to help your brain start thinking again and start thinking the correct way.

Nothing to add except you never quit before, you only stopped. Quitting means you'll never use nicotine again. Post roll, make some friends here, it helps with the quit.

The other gem about being a member here is that you can rage on us all you want, and leave it out of your family. Rage and anger mean you are healing.

Dude, your story sounds so much like mine. Go check out my intro and you'll see the parallels.

I found KTC early and it's really helped me through a lot of it. Quitting is 100% mental and being a part of the group here will help you with that.

EXGB, Welcome to the Aug Quit group. Along with all the goodness that the vets have passed along to you above. I wanted to add that if you spend those crave moments on here reading vet accounts of their quit experience, you're likely to come away with some tips/tricks of your own to beat back the crave. There is a wealth of quit knowledge here, I know it's helped me. Great decision you've made, welcome, and proud to be quitting with ya!

[pky1520]

My final quit date was 5/9/2016. I need some advice from the vet's out there.

I have been chewing for about a decade now on and off, but mostly on. I am 30 and started around 20 in college. I started off with Grizzly Wintergreen LongCut. I lied to myself that I would quit when I graduated. Nope. When I got married. Nope. Then lied again when I had my first kid. Nope. Finally came to the realization that I need to quit now as each dip only makes it that much harder to stop and if I don't quit now, I likely never will. I am surrounded in every direction by tobacco users of all sorts both friends and family, which makes this that much harder. I have quit before, for a period of 4 months here and 2 months there or a month over here and another month over there. My wife provided wonderful support when I most recently quit about 18 months ago. However, after this quit, which lasted 4 months, I came back to Grizzly WG pouches. I somehow justified in my mind that this was healthier and never let myself chew more than 1 pouch at a time and chewed about 4-5 pouches per day for 18 months. I never told me wife I was using again and could easily conceal a pouch and thought how awesome and smart I was for using pouches for the convenience and conceal-ability they had and what I perceived as the healthier option. I feel terrible for hiding this from my spouse. Now, I am about 21 days into this quit and it has been a real SOB as I quit cold turkey without the wife knowing since she didn't know I resumed 18 months ago. It's been a real bear being nice when all I want to do is be an asshole. I am over the physical withdrawal for the most part, but episodes do come and go. The physical withdrawal I can deal with. My main battle is the associations I have with chew, this is where I have always failed. Is there a better way to re-wire the brain to forget the chew associations? My associations or triggers when I normally would throw in a chew or pouch are mowing the lawn, hunting, fishing, watching baseball on TV, playing softball, driving, camp fires, smell of firing up the Weber and cleaning the kitchen. I now use tobacco free fake chew such as Jake's or Smokey Mountain. Recently, as I am mowing the yard with each back and forth pass I am constantly thinking of dipping and how awesome it would be to have one in as the pinch of tobacco free snuff isn't quite cutting it. I haven't caved and won't, but the associations are killing me and I know it is a mind game. This mind game makes me feel that I will never enjoy these activities as much as I once did when I did them all with a pinch or pouch. I find myself feeling depressed and slipping back into the fog when I do the activities I have heavily associated chew with. Will this ever go away to appropriate levels or will it always be right there in the forefront of my thoughts when doing these activities?

That may be the toughest part of this battle... associations/triggers/re-wiring. There is no easy answer... the old addage "time heals all wounds" holds true. It's just gonna take time, man. There are some things you can do to cement the rewiring but the biggest one I see is... you need to stop romanticizing that shit. What did it ever do for you? It stole your time, your money, your integrity, your health, your focus... you name it. How does that feel? Nothing you did while dipping was better... the nicotine brainwashed you and now you need to fight like a bastard to undo the damage. Develop and nurture a healthy level of hate for UST and what their drug did to you.

And...

Get involved here. Post roll with the August group and learn what this site can REALLY do for you when you give being Quit your all. Jump in, bro. All in.

^^^ that is KTC gold!
Post roll everyday and replace your addiction with something positive; exercise, family, etc.

They have it spot on. rewiring and refocusing. This site helps that tremendously. Lots of different things to do to help your brain start thinking again and start thinking the correct way.

Nothing to add except you never quit before, you only stopped. Quitting means you'll never use nicotine again. Post roll, make some friends here, it helps with the quit.

The other gem about being a member here is that you can rage on us all you want, and leave it out of your family. Rage and anger mean you are healing.

Dude, your story sounds so much like mine. Go check out my intro and you'll see the parallels.

I found KTC early and it's really helped me through a lot of it. Quitting is 100% mental and being a part of the group here will help you with that.

[jswiss11]

XGB - welcome to the site. I live in KC. I'm 80 days quit today. longest quit ever before was like 10 days. I will tell you that it does get easier. BUT... I don't know that it will ever completely go away. I still fucking think about that dirty nic bitch. pretty much everyday since I quit. the fear of a relapse is strong, as it should be.

but it will get better. I just got back from 10 day vacation in Europe with my wife and her parents. that trip was a good motivator for me to quit 80 days ago, because I knew i didn't want to have to worry about running out of skoal and not being able to find chew. getting pissy in front of my in-laws because i needed to leave to go dip, etc. I can't tell you how nice it was to reflect on the end of the trip that my cravings have mostly surpassed.

The nic bitch is always lurking - be prepared to fight, but it is a battle worth waging. one day at a time no doubt. Go Royals

[77Midget]

ExGrizzlyBear,

Reading your post made me just realize that i spent my Sunday morning, afternoon and evening river fishing in my kayak and didnt think about putting a chew in at all. This was the first time i have been fishing (should have been a MAJOR trigger) since quitting. You know what got me to this point....not worrying about tomorrow. ODAAT (One Day At A Time) is the way to make it through this. Worry about today, the next hour or even the next minute if you have to. All the little victories add up to moments like i just described. I have been quit for less than a year so i have alot of "First's" to get through this summer. The work i put in yesterday makes today that much easier.

[Thumblewort]

My final quit date was 5/9/2016. I need some advice from the vet's out there.

I have been chewing for about a decade now on and off, but mostly on. I am 30 and started around 20 in college. I started off with Grizzly Wintergreen LongCut. I lied to myself that I would quit when I graduated. Nope. When I got married. Nope. Then lied again when I had my first kid. Nope. Finally came to the realization that I need to quit now as each dip only makes it that much harder to stop and if I don't quit now, I likely never will. I am surrounded in every direction by tobacco users of all sorts both friends and family, which makes this that much harder. I have quit before, for a period of 4 months here and 2 months there or a month over here and another month over there. My wife provided wonderful support when I most recently quit about 18 months ago. However, after this quit, which lasted 4 months, I came back to Grizzly WG pouches. I somehow justified in my mind that this was healthier and never let myself chew more than 1 pouch at a time and chewed about 4-5 pouches per day for 18 months. I never told me wife I was using again and could easily conceal a pouch and thought how awesome and smart I was for using pouches for the convenience and conceal-ability they had and what I perceived as the healthier option. I feel terrible for hiding this from my spouse. Now, I am about 21 days into this quit and it has been a real SOB as I quit cold turkey without the wife knowing since she didn't know I resumed 18 months ago. It's been a real bear being nice when all I want to do is be an asshole. I am over the physical withdrawal for the most part, but episodes do come and go. The physical withdrawal I can deal with. My main battle is the associations I have with chew, this is where I have always failed. Is there a better way to re-wire the brain to forget the chew associations? My associations or triggers when I normally would throw in a chew or pouch are mowing the lawn, hunting, fishing, watching baseball on TV, playing softball, driving, camp fires, smell of firing up the Weber and cleaning the kitchen. I now use tobacco free fake chew such as Jake's or Smokey Mountain. Recently, as I am mowing the yard with each back and forth pass I am constantly thinking of dipping and how awesome it would be to have one in as the pinch of tobacco free snuff isn't quite cutting it. I haven't caved and won't, but the associations are killing me and I know it is a mind game. This mind game makes me feel that I will never enjoy these activities as much as I once did when I did them all with a pinch or pouch. I find myself feeling depressed and slipping back into the fog when I do the activities I have heavily associated chew with. Will this ever go away to appropriate levels or will it always be right there in the forefront of my thoughts when doing these activities?

That may be the toughest part of this battle... associations/triggers/re-wiring. There is no easy answer... the old addage "time heals all wounds" holds true. It's just gonna take time, man. There are some things you can do to cement the rewiring but the biggest one I see is... you need to stop romanticizing that shit. What did it ever do for you? It stole your time, your money, your integrity, your health, your focus... you name it. How does that feel? Nothing you did while dipping was better... the nicotine brainwashed you and now you need to fight like a bastard to undo the damage. Develop and nurture a healthy level of hate for UST and what their drug did to you.

And...

Get involved here. Post roll with the August group and learn what this site can REALLY do for you when you give being Quit your all. Jump in, bro. All in.

^^^ that is KTC gold!
Post roll everyday and replace your addiction with something positive; exercise, family, etc.

They have it spot on. rewiring and refocusing. This site helps that tremendously. Lots of different things to do to help your brain start thinking again and start thinking the correct way.

Nothing to add except you never quit before, you only stopped. Quitting means you'll never use nicotine again. Post roll, make some friends here, it helps with the quit.

The other gem about being a member here is that you can rage on us all you want, and leave it out of your family. Rage and anger mean you are healing.

[RDB]

Yes, those feelings will go away.

Freedom from nicotine is absolute gold.

Every time you face a "first" you will feel a trepidation. Then you will conquer it. Then you will know you can do it again.

It's time for nicotine to take some commands from you.

Your best option for staying in charge is daily involvement here. The only cost is posting roll daily, as soon as you wake up.

Stay quit.

[kubiackalpha]

My final quit date was 5/9/2016. I need some advice from the vet's out there.

I have been chewing for about a decade now on and off, but mostly on. I am 30 and started around 20 in college. I started off with Grizzly Wintergreen LongCut. I lied to myself that I would quit when I graduated. Nope. When I got married. Nope. Then lied again when I had my first kid. Nope. Finally came to the realization that I need to quit now as each dip only makes it that much harder to stop and if I don't quit now, I likely never will. I am surrounded in every direction by tobacco users of all sorts both friends and family, which makes this that much harder. I have quit before, for a period of 4 months here and 2 months there or a month over here and another month over there. My wife provided wonderful support when I most recently quit about 18 months ago. However, after this quit, which lasted 4 months, I came back to Grizzly WG pouches. I somehow justified in my mind that this was healthier and never let myself chew more than 1 pouch at a time and chewed about 4-5 pouches per day for 18 months. I never told me wife I was using again and could easily conceal a pouch and thought how awesome and smart I was for using pouches for the convenience and conceal-ability they had and what I perceived as the healthier option. I feel terrible for hiding this from my spouse. Now, I am about 21 days into this quit and it has been a real SOB as I quit cold turkey without the wife knowing since she didn't know I resumed 18 months ago. It's been a real bear being nice when all I want to do is be an asshole. I am over the physical withdrawal for the most part, but episodes do come and go. The physical withdrawal I can deal with. My main battle is the associations I have with chew, this is where I have always failed. Is there a better way to re-wire the brain to forget the chew associations? My associations or triggers when I normally would throw in a chew or pouch are mowing the lawn, hunting, fishing, watching baseball on TV, playing softball, driving, camp fires, smell of firing up the Weber and cleaning the kitchen. I now use tobacco free fake chew such as Jake's or Smokey Mountain. Recently, as I am mowing the yard with each back and forth pass I am constantly thinking of dipping and how awesome it would be to have one in as the pinch of tobacco free snuff isn't quite cutting it. I haven't caved and won't, but the associations are killing me and I know it is a mind game. This mind game makes me feel that I will never enjoy these activities as much as I once did when I did them all with a pinch or pouch. I find myself feeling depressed and slipping back into the fog when I do the activities I have heavily associated chew with. Will this ever go away to appropriate levels or will it always be right there in the forefront of my thoughts when doing these activities?

That may be the toughest part of this battle... associations/triggers/re-wiring. There is no easy answer... the old addage "time heals all wounds" holds true. It's just gonna take time, man. There are some things you can do to cement the rewiring but the biggest one I see is... you need to stop romanticizing that shit. What did it ever do for you? It stole your time, your money, your integrity, your health, your focus... you name it. How does that feel? Nothing you did while dipping was better... the nicotine brainwashed you and now you need to fight like a bastard to undo the damage. Develop and nurture a healthy level of hate for UST and what their drug did to you.

And...

Get involved here. Post roll with the August group and learn what this site can REALLY do for you when you give being Quit your all. Jump in, bro. All in.

^^^ that is KTC gold!
Post roll everyday and replace your addiction with something positive; exercise, family, etc.

They have it spot on. rewiring and refocusing. This site helps that tremendously. Lots of different things to do to help your brain start thinking again and start thinking the correct way.

[Idaho Spuds]

My final quit date was 5/9/2016. I need some advice from the vet's out there.

I have been chewing for about a decade now on and off, but mostly on. I am 30 and started around 20 in college. I started off with Grizzly Wintergreen LongCut. I lied to myself that I would quit when I graduated. Nope. When I got married. Nope. Then lied again when I had my first kid. Nope. Finally came to the realization that I need to quit now as each dip only makes it that much harder to stop and if I don't quit now, I likely never will. I am surrounded in every direction by tobacco users of all sorts both friends and family, which makes this that much harder. I have quit before, for a period of 4 months here and 2 months there or a month over here and another month over there. My wife provided wonderful support when I most recently quit about 18 months ago. However, after this quit, which lasted 4 months, I came back to Grizzly WG pouches. I somehow justified in my mind that this was healthier and never let myself chew more than 1 pouch at a time and chewed about 4-5 pouches per day for 18 months. I never told me wife I was using again and could easily conceal a pouch and thought how awesome and smart I was for using pouches for the convenience and conceal-ability they had and what I perceived as the healthier option. I feel terrible for hiding this from my spouse. Now, I am about 21 days into this quit and it has been a real SOB as I quit cold turkey without the wife knowing since she didn't know I resumed 18 months ago. It's been a real bear being nice when all I want to do is be an asshole. I am over the physical withdrawal for the most part, but episodes do come and go. The physical withdrawal I can deal with. My main battle is the associations I have with chew, this is where I have always failed. Is there a better way to re-wire the brain to forget the chew associations? My associations or triggers when I normally would throw in a chew or pouch are mowing the lawn, hunting, fishing, watching baseball on TV, playing softball, driving, camp fires, smell of firing up the Weber and cleaning the kitchen. I now use tobacco free fake chew such as Jake's or Smokey Mountain. Recently, as I am mowing the yard with each back and forth pass I am constantly thinking of dipping and how awesome it would be to have one in as the pinch of tobacco free snuff isn't quite cutting it. I haven't caved and won't, but the associations are killing me and I know it is a mind game. This mind game makes me feel that I will never enjoy these activities as much as I once did when I did them all with a pinch or pouch. I find myself feeling depressed and slipping back into the fog when I do the activities I have heavily associated chew with. Will this ever go away to appropriate levels or will it always be right there in the forefront of my thoughts when doing these activities?

That may be the toughest part of this battle... associations/triggers/re-wiring. There is no easy answer... the old addage "time heals all wounds" holds true. It's just gonna take time, man. There are some things you can do to cement the rewiring but the biggest one I see is... you need to stop romanticizing that shit. What did it ever do for you? It stole your time, your money, your integrity, your health, your focus... you name it. How does that feel? Nothing you did while dipping was better... the nicotine brainwashed you and now you need to fight like a bastard to undo the damage. Develop and nurture a healthy level of hate for UST and what their drug did to you.

And...

Get involved here. Post roll with the August group and learn what this site can REALLY do for you when you give being Quit your all. Jump in, bro. All in.

^^^ that is KTC gold!
Post roll everyday and replace your addiction with something positive; exercise, family, etc.

[AppleJack]

My final quit date was 5/9/2016. I need some advice from the vet's out there.

I have been chewing for about a decade now on and off, but mostly on. I am 30 and started around 20 in college. I started off with Grizzly Wintergreen LongCut. I lied to myself that I would quit when I graduated. Nope. When I got married. Nope. Then lied again when I had my first kid. Nope. Finally came to the realization that I need to quit now as each dip only makes it that much harder to stop and if I don't quit now, I likely never will. I am surrounded in every direction by tobacco users of all sorts both friends and family, which makes this that much harder. I have quit before, for a period of 4 months here and 2 months there or a month over here and another month over there. My wife provided wonderful support when I most recently quit about 18 months ago. However, after this quit, which lasted 4 months, I came back to Grizzly WG pouches. I somehow justified in my mind that this was healthier and never let myself chew more than 1 pouch at a time and chewed about 4-5 pouches per day for 18 months. I never told me wife I was using again and could easily conceal a pouch and thought how awesome and smart I was for using pouches for the convenience and conceal-ability they had and what I perceived as the healthier option. I feel terrible for hiding this from my spouse. Now, I am about 21 days into this quit and it has been a real SOB as I quit cold turkey without the wife knowing since she didn't know I resumed 18 months ago. It's been a real bear being nice when all I want to do is be an asshole. I am over the physical withdrawal for the most part, but episodes do come and go. The physical withdrawal I can deal with. My main battle is the associations I have with chew, this is where I have always failed. Is there a better way to re-wire the brain to forget the chew associations? My associations or triggers when I normally would throw in a chew or pouch are mowing the lawn, hunting, fishing, watching baseball on TV, playing softball, driving, camp fires, smell of firing up the Weber and cleaning the kitchen. I now use tobacco free fake chew such as Jake's or Smokey Mountain. Recently, as I am mowing the yard with each back and forth pass I am constantly thinking of dipping and how awesome it would be to have one in as the pinch of tobacco free snuff isn't quite cutting it. I haven't caved and won't, but the associations are killing me and I know it is a mind game. This mind game makes me feel that I will never enjoy these activities as much as I once did when I did them all with a pinch or pouch. I find myself feeling depressed and slipping back into the fog when I do the activities I have heavily associated chew with. Will this ever go away to appropriate levels or will it always be right there in the forefront of my thoughts when doing these activities?

That may be the toughest part of this battle... associations/triggers/re-wiring. There is no easy answer... the old addage "time heals all wounds" holds true. It's just gonna take time, man. There are some things you can do to cement the rewiring but the biggest one I see is... you need to stop romanticizing that shit. What did it ever do for you? It stole your time, your money, your integrity, your health, your focus... you name it. How does that feel? Nothing you did while dipping was better... the nicotine brainwashed you and now you need to fight like a bastard to undo the damage. Develop and nurture a healthy level of hate for UST and what their drug did to you.

And...

Get involved here. Post roll with the August group and learn what this site can REALLY do for you when you give being Quit your all. Jump in, bro. All in.

[EXGrizzlyBear]

My final quit date was 5/9/2016. I need some advice from the vet's out there.

I have been chewing for about a decade now on and off, but mostly on. I am 30 and started around 20 in college. I started off with Grizzly Wintergreen LongCut. I lied to myself that I would quit when I graduated. Nope. When I got married. Nope. Then lied again when I had my first kid. Nope. Finally came to the realization that I need to quit now as each dip only makes it that much harder to stop and if I don't quit now, I likely never will. I am surrounded in every direction by tobacco users of all sorts both friends and family, which makes this that much harder. I have quit before, for a period of 4 months here and 2 months there or a month over here and another month over there. My wife provided wonderful support when I most recently quit about 18 months ago. However, after this quit, which lasted 4 months, I came back to Grizzly WG pouches. I somehow justified in my mind that this was healthier and never let myself chew more than 1 pouch at a time and chewed about 4-5 pouches per day for 18 months. I never told me wife I was using again and could easily conceal a pouch and thought how awesome and smart I was for using pouches for the convenience and conceal-ability they had and what I perceived as the healthier option. I feel terrible for hiding this from my spouse. Now, I am about 21 days into this quit and it has been a real SOB as I quit cold turkey without the wife knowing since she didn't know I resumed 18 months ago. It's been a real bear being nice when all I want to do is be an asshole. I am over the physical withdrawal for the most part, but episodes do come and go. The physical withdrawal I can deal with. My main battle is the associations I have with chew, this is where I have always failed. Is there a better way to re-wire the brain to forget the chew associations? My associations or triggers when I normally would throw in a chew or pouch are mowing the lawn, hunting, fishing, watching baseball on TV, playing softball, driving, camp fires, smell of firing up the Weber and cleaning the kitchen. I now use tobacco free fake chew such as Jake's or Smokey Mountain. Recently, as I am mowing the yard with each back and forth pass I am constantly thinking of dipping and how awesome it would be to have one in as the pinch of tobacco free snuff isn't quite cutting it. I haven't caved and won't, but the associations are killing me and I know it is a mind game. This mind game makes me feel that I will never enjoy these activities as much as I once did when I did them all with a pinch or pouch. I find myself feeling depressed and slipping back into the fog when I do the activities I have heavily associated chew with. Will this ever go away to appropriate levels or will it always be right there in the forefront of my thoughts when doing these activities?