3 years ago today was my last dip. Used gum for a bit so not the official quit date but still a big step. The date was planned through a quit program at work. Then that morning we had a big snow storm and our furnace died, to which my reaction was pure joy because they were the perfect excuses to not quit that day. Then I got a reminder email from the quit program, decided to give it a shot, spit my chew and the tin in the trash, and off we went. Found you fuckers about 10 days later while looking up fake chew. Eerily enough, the 12/27 quit date chosen by the program is also the date my dad died of cancer in 1987 so that might have played a part in motivation. The April '11 guys are part of the daily motivation now, could to have done it without them
If any new quitters read this, the beginning fuckin sucked hard, but it gets so much better that it's way worth it. Lots of help here for you. Stick with it and the hard work will pay off.
Congratulations!
So would you recommend using the alternatives to blend with the real stuff and then blend yourself straight out of the can altogether?
You know like 80% real/20% alternative, then 60% real/40% alt, then 50/50, then 40/60... you get the idea.
Preparing for the 'flush'
No, I wouldn't really recommend that. It's gonna suck either way so might as well get it started and over with. So don't really "prepare" just do it. No matter how you prepare it will eventually seem like its "too soon" so just go for it.
One thing the quit program told me that helped was to start by breaking associations. So stop chewing/smoking in the car, or after dinner, or after coffee etc or even quit coffee for a while. They did this to "prepare" while still using tobacco. Hey did help so I would suggest same techniques, but while using fake instead of tobacco. They also chose a quit date for me to help prepare, which seemed "too soon" but whatever date they said would have. More like time to prepare excuses.
Lost of controversy over the gum here. I used it for a week or so. It only helped in that it gave me a few days of not dipping, so breaking the physical connection of a chew in the lip. But it only takes a few days before you start wondering how great of a buzz you'll get if you eat 5 at a time! I feel kind of lucky that I used gum at the start of a (so far) successful quit. If I hadn't found KTC then it prob would have been a failure.
Lots of pros and cons on the fake stuff too. Personally I love it and still use it. It's different without a chemical addiction though, can forget to bring it somewhere or run out and it will be a few days to order more and not freak out over it. Other people are against it for very valid reasons too. I would suggest going through at least a few weeks of nothing before moving to fake just to help break that physical connection, and to make it suck more so you remember it!
Those are just my personal beliefs and experiences. There are lots of techniques here, you need to find which work for you. We will all agree that you need to stay very close to the site and embrace the suck. Being able to talk to people who have or are going through what you are during a quit is the most helpful thing ever. And remember how bad it sucks so you never go through it again. And know that it will get better if you put in the hard work.
Hope that helps. Shout if you need anything.
