Anxiety Through The Roof!

[Keith0617]

... I'll be joining the quit group that chris2alaska directed me to and will meaningfully contribute the best I can...

Part of that happened... he joined a group. Meaningful contribution?

Nope.

3 roll posts and then radio silence for 5 days now.

NOT how we do it here.

He tried though.
He wanted to quit.
Doesn't that count for something?
Don't we have a "thanx for trying trophy?"
No
No
No
And No.
Don't try to quit, just quit.
You've wanted thousands of things in your lifetime.  The only ones you were able to obtain were the ones you worked for.
Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.
There are no trophies here for second place.
There are no "atta boys" for failure.
Sack up, realize you can do this if you want to, you dictate your own outcomes..
Make it happen!

Guess he would rather stuff shit in his mouth and risk cancer than live a life of freedom.   

[69franx]

... I'll be joining the quit group that chris2alaska directed me to and will meaningfully contribute the best I can...

Part of that happened... he joined a group. Meaningful contribution?

Nope.

3 roll posts and then radio silence for 5 days now.

NOT how we do it here.

He tried though.
He wanted to quit.
Doesn't that count for something?
Don't we have a "thanx for trying trophy?"
No
No
No
And No.
Don't try to quit, just quit.
You've wanted thousands of things in your lifetime.  The only ones you were able to obtain were the ones you worked for.
Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.
There are no trophies here for second place.
There are no "atta boys" for failure.
Sack up, realize you can do this if you want to, you dictate your own outcomes..
Make it happen!

[AppleJack]

... I'll be joining the quit group that chris2alaska directed me to and will meaningfully contribute the best I can...

Part of that happened... he joined a group. Meaningful contribution?

Nope.

3 roll posts and then radio silence for 5 days now.

NOT how we do it here.

[Thefranks5]

AppleJack, I hear you brother. I'll be joining the quit group that chris2alaska directed me to and will meaningfully contribute the best I can. As for nitpicking my use of habit vs. addiction, no worries. You are correct. I was/am absolutely addicted to nicotine. Thanks for all you do to help this community stay strong!

See?
That’s how you take good advice without getting all butthurt! Lol

Good in ya, man! You won’t regret it.

What happened to ya @Basecamp We didn't scare ya away did we. Come on and suck it and get back in here. If your worried about anxiety you could see a doc to get ya thru but you could have just sucked it up and powered thru. Come on back and quit as there are plenty here that want to help.

[AppleJack]

AppleJack, I hear you brother. I'll be joining the quit group that chris2alaska directed me to and will meaningfully contribute the best I can. As for nitpicking my use of habit vs. addiction, no worries. You are correct. I was/am absolutely addicted to nicotine. Thanks for all you do to help this community stay strong!

See?
That’s how you take good advice without getting all butthurt! Lol

Good in ya, man! You won’t regret it.

[Basecamp]

AppleJack, I hear you brother. I'll be joining the quit group that chris2alaska directed me to and will meaningfully contribute the best I can. As for nitpicking my use of habit vs. addiction, no worries. You are correct. I was/am absolutely addicted to nicotine. Thanks for all you do to help this community stay strong!

[AppleJack]

Hello Forum Members. I want to start off by thanking each and every one of you for taking the time to discuss your personal quit journey. I quick cold turkey 21 days ago and have been wrestling with serious bouts of what I though was unexplained anxiety. After spending the past few hours browsing posts here on the forum, I was immensely relieved to know this is a predictable and common result of quitting chew. THANK YOU!

A little about my previous habit: I started chewing Kodiak about 16 years ago. It was initially a fairly minor habit. A couple of dips a day--after lunch and dinner and would sometimes go a week or more without one. I even stopped chewing for a couple of years in that span of 16 years, but came back to it because I liked it and didn't think I was susceptible to nicotine addiction considering how easy it was to maintain a part time chewing habit. Fast forward a few years and I started chewing every day.
I did manage to kick the Kodiak about 7 years ago and went to the General Snus pouches, but was still chewing around 2 cans per week. Three years ago, I switched to ZYN 3-mg because I thought I was able to maintain an enjoyable habit without the existential fear of serious health consequences. Fast forward to last year and boom, I was chewing at least 3 ZYN 3-mg cans per week and feeling terrible about myself, though had not considered quitting because I had convinced myself ZYN was benign.
Around 1 month ago, I was not enjoying my ZYN chews as much as I had previously, but continued using them at the same pace out of habit. One evening, a noticeable bump and textured skin popped up on my inner cheek and I said to myself, oh hell no. I didn't even bother checking into whether or not the bump/skin irritation was anything to be concerned about, I just used it as the needed catalyst to quit, so I did.
It's been 21 days since I've had a chew/ZYN and I've been experiencing hot flashes, huge amounts of anxiety, mental fog, emotional distance, mouth sensitivity and small lesions that come and go and a pit of despair in my stomach. I had no factual idea these were common withdraw symptoms until I came across this website earlier today.

Thank you to all who have posted here. Sharing your stories and words of support has been huge for me and clearly for others. Seriously, I am grateful and in an effort to try to pay it forward, let me share with you the reason I will never again chew any smokeless tobacco/nicotine pouch again: for fear of feeling this anxiety again. Seriously, I had actually planned on chewing a couple of weeks per year on fishing trips as a reward for quitting (just like old times, right?), but now knowing that this psychological trauma I'm experiencing is caused by my nicotine withdraw, I can assure you I will never, ever put nicotine in my body again. Seriously, seriously, no really seriously, I'm a very level-headed, considerate, thoughtful, focused person and to have lost grip with these core personality traits due to nicotine withdraw has terrified me. Avoiding the quit-trauma and chewing sporadically again is even more terrifying because where will it stop--losing my jaw? losing my voice? losing my teeth? ah hell no!

Just quit! Everyone can do it, especially when they know there are others like us who are going through the same horrible withdraws. Stick to it! I'm grateful to all of you for the extra strength to make this commitment!

22 days on your own is quite badass. No lie.

I hope you consider moving to the next step and become an involved member here instead of just using it for a bit of motivation when you’re feeling low OR popping in every few months or so to give us a status update on your quit.

Personally... I hate that.

This isn’t social media and it isn’t a self help site... it’s a community. It’s every nicotine addict, from the long term quitter vet to the brand new anxiety ridden noob, coming together to bolster, support, and lend weight to the decision and work of taking lives back from nicotine addiction.

Addiction.
That’s what it is.
You... are an addict.
Be real with that thought and give it the weight it deserves.

You used the word “habit” far too many times for my taste. Yes... I know that’s nitpicky. A LOT but it’s actually a far more important mind set than you think.
Habits come and go... addictions will kill you and once taken root... are here to stay. Do yourself the favor of involvement in a community that helps to ease that burden and that fight.

Real freedom is here.
Come get it.
 

[Indrek]

Thanks Brother/Sister. Congrats on 402! The time I spent on this forum yesterday helped eased my anxiety immensely. I was actually able to sleep through the night without jerking awake with my heart racing. It also helps that my mouth sores have all vanished and my cheeks, gums and lips are noticeably healthier. 

I wanted to add an observation about ZYN that may help shed some light on this somewhat new and highly dangerous product. As many of you know, it is marketed to be less hazardous than smoking/chewing and that is what savaged me. While I only chewed 3-4 cans per week, I would have a pouch in nearly every waking moment of the day. In fact, over the past 2 years, I'd say it was rare I went more than 1 hr during the day without a pouch tucked in somewhere. What's worse is that because the pouch was so easy to move around, every part of my mouth became a tuck location--even under the tongue. Of course, with ZYN, there is no need to spit, so I had 100% absorption rate of the nicotine. Thinking about the 1000's of pouches being tucked into every area of my mouth and all of that nicotine saliva hitting my gut is nightmarish. I just needed to get on the other side to recognize.

This is meant to be a cautionary tale. Any and all oral nicotine delivery device is just as dangerous as the next. These corporations take no prisoners. To hell with all of them! Stay strong.

I live pretty much next to Sweden where the snus is very popular and I also got most of my nicotine from snus(i also smoked a little when i drank or when i didnt have snus). At first I used the tobacco version of the snus and then the non tobacco pouches like ZYN. Same as you there was hardly an hour when i didnt have a pouch in mouth and sometimes I even fell asleep with it. I used mostly the strongest kind of pouches because it cost the same as the weaker ones and about 4 cans a week sound about right but sometimes I held them in for hours. I have never actually tried the loose dip.
As for the anxiety thing... its going to suck for a while but you have many many people in here to lean on now. Unfortunately our brains are pretty stubborn and slow with the repairs but you will be amazed what a year or two of sobriety can do. Proud to be quit with you mate.

[chris2alaska]

@Basecamp ,

Congrats on making it 22 days on your own.  That is bad ass!.  In here we quit one day at a time.  We don't worry about forever because we can't control forever.  We can control today though.  That is why we post our daily promise to be nicotine free.  Each quitter is assigned their quit group based on their quit date.  Yours would be the February 2021 Pre-HOF Quit group.  February is when when everyone in that group will hit their 100th day quit, or as we call it, your Hall of Fame Day.  100 days quit is huge milestone here but obviously, only the first of many.  The process is simple:

1. Wake Up
2. Piss
3. Post your promise to be nicotine free for the next 24 hours
4. Keep your word
5. Repeat Daily

This simple, yet very hard, process is what keeps most of us quit every day.  It is also the price of admission to this forum.  Once you get into your group and learn how to post roll, start exchanging phone numbers through private message with the other quitters in your group as well as some of the vets.  Those phone numbers give you instant support if you need it, they are also the start of your web of accountability and brotherhood which is what this site is built on.

I hope to see your name on roll very soon.

Proud to quit with you today,

chris2alaska

[Basecamp]

Thanks Brother/Sister. Congrats on 402! The time I spent on this forum yesterday helped eased my anxiety immensely. I was actually able to sleep through the night without jerking awake with my heart racing. It also helps that my mouth sores have all vanished and my cheeks, gums and lips are noticeably healthier. 

I wanted to add an observation about ZYN that may help shed some light on this somewhat new and highly dangerous product. As many of you know, it is marketed to be less hazardous than smoking/chewing and that is what savaged me. While I only chewed 3-4 cans per week, I would have a pouch in nearly every waking moment of the day. In fact, over the past 2 years, I'd say it was rare I went more than 1 hr during the day without a pouch tucked in somewhere. What's worse is that because the pouch was so easy to move around, every part of my mouth became a tuck location--even under the tongue. Of course, with ZYN, there is no need to spit, so I had 100% absorption rate of the nicotine. Thinking about the 1000's of pouches being tucked into every area of my mouth and all of that nicotine saliva hitting my gut is nightmarish. I just needed to get on the other side to recognize.

This is meant to be a cautionary tale. Any and all oral nicotine delivery device is just as dangerous as the next. These corporations take no prisoners. To hell with all of them! Stay strong.

[Indrek]

You have figured it out pretty well already. I will never use nicotine for the same reason, had panic attacks, feelings of dread and all that... super fun times. I am 402 days clean and can already joke about my worst days and you will too. But those symptoms of paws can come and go for a long time but it will all pass eventually and you will be so much stronger person. Never again for any reason, ESPECIALLY NOT JUST ONCE.

[Basecamp]

Hello Forum Members. I want to start off by thanking each and every one of you for taking the time to discuss your personal quit journey. I quick cold turkey 21 days ago and have been wrestling with serious bouts of what I though was unexplained anxiety. After spending the past few hours browsing posts here on the forum, I was immensely relieved to know this is a predictable and common result of quitting chew. THANK YOU!

A little about my previous habit: I started chewing Kodiak about 16 years ago. It was initially a fairly minor habit. A couple of dips a day--after lunch and dinner and would sometimes go a week or more without one. I even stopped chewing for a couple of years in that span of 16 years, but came back to it because I liked it and didn't think I was susceptible to nicotine addiction considering how easy it was to maintain a part time chewing habit. Fast forward a few years and I started chewing every day.
I did manage to kick the Kodiak about 7 years ago and went to the General Snus pouches, but was still chewing around 2 cans per week. Three years ago, I switched to ZYN 3-mg because I thought I was able to maintain an enjoyable habit without the existential fear of serious health consequences. Fast forward to last year and boom, I was chewing at least 3 ZYN 3-mg cans per week and feeling terrible about myself, though had not considered quitting because I had convinced myself ZYN was benign.
Around 1 month ago, I was not enjoying my ZYN chews as much as I had previously, but continued using them at the same pace out of habit. One evening, a noticeable bump and textured skin popped up on my inner cheek and I said to myself, oh hell no. I didn't even bother checking into whether or not the bump/skin irritation was anything to be concerned about, I just used it as the needed catalyst to quit, so I did.
It's been 21 days since I've had a chew/ZYN and I've been experiencing hot flashes, huge amounts of anxiety, mental fog, emotional distance, mouth sensitivity and small lesions that come and go and a pit of despair in my stomach. I had no factual idea these were common withdraw symptoms until I came across this website earlier today.

Thank you to all who have posted here. Sharing your stories and words of support has been huge for me and clearly for others. Seriously, I am grateful and in an effort to try to pay it forward, let me share with you the reason I will never again chew any smokeless tobacco/nicotine pouch again: for fear of feeling this anxiety again. Seriously, I had actually planned on chewing a couple of weeks per year on fishing trips as a reward for quitting (just like old times, right?), but now knowing that this psychological trauma I'm experiencing is caused by my nicotine withdraw, I can assure you I will never, ever put nicotine in my body again. Seriously, seriously, no really seriously, I'm a very level-headed, considerate, thoughtful, focused person and to have lost grip with these core personality traits due to nicotine withdraw has terrified me. Avoiding the quit-trauma and chewing sporadically again is even more terrifying because where will it stop--losing my jaw? losing my voice? losing my teeth? ah hell no!

Just quit! Everyone can do it, especially when they know there are others like us who are going through the same horrible withdraws. Stick to it! I'm grateful to all of you for the extra strength to make this commitment!