Ok, so I quite on monday, I am a 31 year old (10 year dipper - with a couple tries in the years prior) started dipping serious when I got in the army... been hanging in there fairly well. It has been crappy at work but usually after I do the mental reach for my can of cop my craving is gone for the next five minutes. I have been drinking about 40 gallons of water a day and "deep-breathing" like crazy -- as per instructions on the website.
Did anyone else find themselves extremly paranoid after quitting about every bump, sore, weird feeling in your mouth? All of I sudden I am catching myself worrying about a jaw pain, or a bump that is in my mouth -- and I can't remember if it has always been there or not -- but now it hurts -- but that is because I haven't been able to stop playing with it for the last two days straight -- or is it because of that -- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... is this normal. I am going a bit nuts... do you all remember feeling like t his? I hate it, I wish I never started dipping. Hopefully I didn't quit too late.
Well, anyway -- I will be headed to the dentist on the 10th for a routine cleaning, so hopefully all my bumps heal up after I stop playing around, and my mouth will heal itself from this dry sandpaper lined mouth that has appeared over the last two days. Wish me luck, I will be on the website every day to help myself stay along.
ahh... welcome to my world my friend. i'm sorry to say that you're experiencing the same feelings of dread that i did (and still do now and again). i'm not a doctor so i'll just be talking from personal experience here - keep in mind that your mileage may vary.
since i've quit, i've diagnosed myself with lung, throat, brain, stomach, mouth and ovarian cancer. i've also had 2 heart attacks (which i took myself to the ER for both times), had extreme anxiety, had acid reflux, gerd insomnia.
i've even had rare forms of diseases that no one has ever fucking heard of but i developed because i quit dipping after 16 years. oh yeah, almost forgot an inner ear imbalnce cause i was so fucking dizzy during my 3 months of fog.
needless to say, i'm still here, alive and kicking. i don't have any of those things (with the exception of acid reflux which i had LONG before i quit dipping).
i still to this day worry when i get a sore throat or a sore in my mouth. i always tell people that a good rule of thumb is if something sticks around for more than 2 weeks then you should go get it checked out. jerry (from december 06) is a dentist and he told me the same thing (during one freak out episode a while back where i was sure that this was the end). i've found that going to the doc/dentist does wonders for peace of mind, but in the end of the day does nothing for you except get you another co-pay.
here's the way i look at things these days - i chewed for over 16 years... and during ALL of that time, i NEVER had anything wrong with me... no sores in my mouth, no cancer, no heart attacks, etc... would it be HIGHLY ironic and coincidental if ALL of this shit happened NOW... AFTER I QUIT?
like i said, there's nothing wrong with getting checked, but chances are you're out thinking yourself.
remember this - you've done the best thing that you can do for your future health... you've quit. we can't go back and undo all of that damage that we've done so i don't bother thinking about it at this point.
move forward day by day... it's worked so far for me
sorry for the rambling - let me know if there's anything else i can do for you.
chewie
