I quit again

[MN_Engineer]

I’ll look into the thearapy thing. I’m now on day 58 and I feel like it’s never going to end. I wake up with fear/anxiety and go to bed with fear/anxiety. It feels like the first week. Withdrawal really took me by surprise. I quit a few times in the past with no symptoms even after dipping for years. Crazy shit.

The first couple hundred days have been pretty intense peaks and valleys.

My best non-medical advice is to focus on TODAY. Don't worry about it you will have fear/anxiety tomorrow or next week. Focus on your quit TODAY and focus on managing your anxiety 24 hours at a time. Exercise really helps even if it's just walking around the neighborhood. Drink lots of water and find things to keep your mind busy. All this being said, what you are describing is incredibly common for many quitters and will get better with time. Each person is different though so don't latch on to the experiences of one or two folks and then expect your timetable to be exactly the same.

[Dipchit]

I’ll look into the thearapy thing. I’m now on day 58 and I feel like it’s never going to end. I wake up with fear/anxiety and go to bed with fear/anxiety. It feels like the first week. Withdrawal really took me by surprise. I quit a few times in the past with no symptoms even after dipping for years. Crazy shit.

[MN_Engineer]

Ok thanks for the reply. I am still fighting with anxiety today at 50 days out and everything I read on the innerweb says that depression and anxiety should be gone by 4 weeks. I’ll check out the discord thing you talk about. I really don’t know what that is but I’ll look into it. I’m old and just learned how to use a smart phone a few years ago so bear with me.

Don't mean to scare you since everyone is truly different, but my quit related anxiety didn't hit me until a couple years into my quit. For some folks it's right away but it can hit at any time, for any duration throughout a person's quit. For some it's reoccurring but they learn to manage over time.

I would recommend you maybe consult your doctor. Some folks take medication to manage. For me, I went the therapist route which helped a lot and I never ended up having to take any medication to manage the anxiety.

[MN_Engineer]

Hello to all you quitters. I’m proud to be a quitter again. I started dipping back in 1984 and only dipped once a day just after supper and that was it. I quit cold turkey in April of 1991 with zero issues. Stupidly I started dipping again that fall when hunting season opened. That relapse went on until spring of 2000 because I had my wisdom teeth removed. Again no withdrawal at all other than a few days of craving. 2 months later I said phuck it and started dipping again until the fall of 2005. Quit cold turkey and all I had was a little apathy and brain fog for a couple weeks. I was off the can for 14 years and felt fantastic until one day a buddy took a dip and I asked for one. Figured it won’t hurt me after all these years. Well a few days later I picked up a tin after gassing up and that was about 4 years ago and it turned into a 2 tin per week habit. I’m now 47 days off the crap and I’m still miserable with anxiety/Depression, dizziness, apathy, muscle spasms etc. I never thought quitting would be this difficult due to my past quits. Anyway looking forward to meeting you all.

@Dipchit sounds like you aren’t a quitter at all, but more like a frequent stopper. You also haven’t been dealing with a habit but rather an addiction. We are all addicts and nicotine is our drug. Suggest you go over to Discord and signup. You then will get assigned to your group. Here is the link if you are finally ready to actually quit. https://discord.gg/9qXQcTHuhd

Keith included the link to Discord above. Download the Discord app on your phone first and then click that link.

[Dipchit]

Ok thanks for the reply. I am still fighting with anxiety today at 50 days out and everything I read on the innerweb says that depression and anxiety should be gone by 4 weeks. I’ll check out the discord thing you talk about. I really don’t know what that is but I’ll look into it. I’m old and just learned how to use a smart phone a few years ago so bear with me.

[MN_Engineer]

Hey @Dipchit, glad you found KTC.

First off, each quitter only gets one introduction. You can use it however you please (provide updates on your quit, journal tough times, share victories, ask for help, etc.) but please continue to use this one. I combined your question about anxiety here.

Anxiety is incredibly common and affects most quitters to some degree at some point during their quits. There is a specific sub-thread on Discord for quitters dealing with anxiety. I would encourage you to get over to KTC on Discord and start to get plugged in to those conversations. Since moving over to the Discord platform, the forum here acts primarily as a historical repository for all things quit related from times begone.

A couple other things quick. This isn't your final quit; it's your first quit. Any previous 'quits' were merely stoppages. What makes KTC so successful is that we don't quit 'forever'. We quit one day at a time (ODAAT). The present is all we can control. Make that promise right when you wake up and focus all your energy on keeping that promise 24 hours at a time. In a certain sense, history doesn't exist. Sure, everything in history did happen but nothing we do today will change yesterday or last month or last year. So keep your eyes forward and make sure that cancer dirt stays out of your face TODAY!

[Dipchit]

At what point of your journey did the anxiety subside? I’m at 49 days and am still dealing with anxiety most of the time. Late afternoon is the worst.

[Dipchit]

I’ll check it out. Thank you.
I’m currently on day 49 of my final quit and am still dealing with anxiety and depression. The depression does seem to be tapering away but my anxiety is worse in the late afternoon than it is during the morning. Once the anxiety passes I know I’ll be past this and looking at dipping in the rear view mirror forever. I’m so disappointed in myself for blowing my 14 year quit in a moment of weakness. It does help though to think back to those days just living life and not being tied down to dipping. Hell I’d go for long periods of time like many months and not even think about dip and when I did I’d think to myself (how could I be a slave to that shit?) but in a moment of weakness trust me that it can all come back and there you are buying a can and starting all over again. BTW when I started dipping back in 1984 it was 85 cents a can, when I quit in 2005 it was $5.00 a can, when I quit 49 days ago it was $12.00 a can. I’m done forever. I quit for me, I quit for my family. Yes I am a quitter!!!!!

[Keith0617]

Hello to all you quitters. I’m proud to be a quitter again. I started dipping back in 1984 and only dipped once a day just after supper and that was it. I quit cold turkey in April of 1991 with zero issues. Stupidly I started dipping again that fall when hunting season opened. That relapse went on until spring of 2000 because I had my wisdom teeth removed. Again no withdrawal at all other than a few days of craving. 2 months later I said phuck it and started dipping again until the fall of 2005. Quit cold turkey and all I had was a little apathy and brain fog for a couple weeks. I was off the can for 14 years and felt fantastic until one day a buddy took a dip and I asked for one. Figured it won’t hurt me after all these years. Well a few days later I picked up a tin after gassing up and that was about 4 years ago and it turned into a 2 tin per week habit. I’m now 47 days off the crap and I’m still miserable with anxiety/Depression, dizziness, apathy, muscle spasms etc. I never thought quitting would be this difficult due to my past quits. Anyway looking forward to meeting you all.

@Dipchit sounds like you aren’t a quitter at all, but more like a frequent stopper. You also haven’t been dealing with a habit but rather an addiction. We are all addicts and nicotine is our drug. Suggest you go over to Discord and signup. You then will get assigned to your group. Here is the link if you are finally ready to actually quit. https://discord.gg/9qXQcTHuhd

[Dipchit]

Hello to all you quitters. I’m proud to be a quitter again. I started dipping back in 1984 and only dipped once a day just after supper and that was it. I quit cold turkey in April of 1991 with zero issues. Stupidly I started dipping again that fall when hunting season opened. That relapse went on until spring of 2000 because I had my wisdom teeth removed. Again no withdrawal at all other than a few days of craving. 2 months later I said phuck it and started dipping again until the fall of 2005. Quit cold turkey and all I had was a little apathy and brain fog for a couple weeks. I was off the can for 14 years and felt fantastic until one day a buddy took a dip and I asked for one. Figured it won’t hurt me after all these years. Well a few days later I picked up a tin after gassing up and that was about 4 years ago and it turned into a 2 tin per week habit. I’m now 47 days off the crap and I’m still miserable with anxiety/Depression, dizziness, apathy, muscle spasms etc. I never thought quitting would be this difficult due to my past quits. Anyway looking forward to meeting you all.