I've been dipping for the good part of 35 years. I have quit for periods of up to a year twice before, but always end up caving and dipping again. I work in an office environment and it's hard to hide the dipping from my co-workers, but have gotten good at swallowing and not using a dip cup.
I am now at a point in my life where I am concerned about my health and especially my mouth. I don't want to get mouth cancer and put my family through the pain of a cancer battle just because I am so selfish as to continue to dip.
This time around, rather than quitting nicotine cold turkey, I am using nicotine gum to ween me off the nicotine. I'm chewing the heck out of the gum and have a piece in my mouth from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep. I hope that I'm not trading one bad habit for another, but plan to ween myself off the gum over the coming weeks and months. I am currently chewing 1/2 piece of 4mg piece throughout the day. I'm guessing I'm going through about 10-15 pieces a day.
While the gum seems to alleviate some of my dip/nicotine withdraws, I am noticing that I am being a real jerk to my family and friends during these early days of being dipless. There must be some chemicals in the dip, besides nicotine, that my body is withdrawing from?
I'm glad that I found this forum. I haven't yet read through the forum posts, but plan to do so in the coming days. I'm hoping that this is my last and final quit and that I can be dip and nicotine-free within a few months.