So I started dipping around the age of 14 in 1984. Never did I think it would be nearly 28 years later that I would finally quit and be at 100 days free. There was a few years where I smoked and didn't dip, but I returned to dip because I considered myself a "cyclist" and didn't want to hurt my lungs by smoking. Even though I can still ride 30 miles on a bike for a regular workout, I have to take meds for high cholesterol and have borderline high blood pressure, most likely due to using snuff for so long.
I considered myself a "light" user of Copenhagen as I would dip about 3 to 4 cans a week and not by a whole roll at a time like my neighbor. Regardless, that's still over 4000 cans of that shit I purchased at anywhere from $3-6 dollars a can over the years. I put a nice new car in my lip over my lifetime.
I hid it from the family. I dipped at work when people left, and dipped when working on the computer. About four years ago, I had a vizilight oral cancer screening at the Dentist and it came back borderline. They sent me over to an oral surgeon who numbed me with a needle, and cut out a chunk of my gum to biopsy. It came back negative. I stopped for awhile, but started again shortly after the wound healed. Sick, I know.
What really took it too far was when I had jaw surgery due to sleep apnea. I had incisions the whole way around my jaws in my mouth, both upper and lower, that took weeks to heal. I started smoking again until they healed, then went back to dipping, even with braces and risk of abscess, major gum disease, or infection.
About two years later, I finally set a strong quit date of May 15th and stopped. Two days in I was freaking out and Googled to find a support group, and ended up here. I posted my Introduction and I was welcomed by dippshit. I was advised to post roll, quit for myself, and take it a day at a time. This and the support I received from many PMs, texts, and posts in my quit group have worked.
My advice to the new quitter is to treat yourself like a Heroin addict and know this is a life long disease of addiction that will never be cured. You'll never have just one dip if you pick up a can again. It will be months, years, or you may never quit again. Nicotine has a lower one year quit success rate than Heroin addicts that go through treatment. We are at 29 left of 101 folks, so you have to want to be in that select pack that succeeds. Post roll as best as you can early in the morning, and cement the deal with your quit brothers. Missing a day or two of roll for me, I could feel myself getting weak. So try to be a bad ass roll poster like jrws :). Post what is in your head, PM others, get numbers to text, and chat when things get bad. Use herbal or mint snuff as long as you need to. I stopped using herbal snuff a little over a month ago. Finally, if the shit hits the fan and you feel you are going to cave, Google image search "oral cancer surgery" and that should help.
Finally, as much as I credit this board and people with saving my life, you have to understand that online people are human, have faults, and you have the right to disagree with certain parts, traditions, or people in this online society. Your brain will twist a resentment or anger of something your read on here and try to drive you away and back to dip. You have to take the good parts of it (posting roll) and put your disagreements to the side and never take anything personal.
Thanks again to jrws, cmark, bruce, bigwhitebeast, and others that PMed me.
Rob
