It Is Time

[BrianG]

You most likely won't like what you hear when it is not so quietly explained to you that your full of shit. Addicts lie, to others, but mostly to themselves. What makes KTC work is the wisdom of large groups. When you participate here you open yourself up so the collection of misfits saints and fellow addicts can gain access to your mind. If your off target someone WILL point it out. Others will agree or disagree. If the whole collection of tards decides your a dumb ass, well then you better just buy the T-shirt because you are in fact a dumb ass. Question is what will you do with that info?

I got mad and wanted to leave. I realized I didn't have a choice but to stay. When I stayed long enough I realized that I was wrong about the issue, I was in fact a dumb ass. I realized why I had never been successful before, and I realized how to quit. I'm still learning, but I walk down the center of the hallway and don't check locks anymore to see if doors might be open. I'm going to keep whistling dixie and walking down the middle one day at a time. Follow the foot steps and listen to the group, if you can't hear anything, sing out,We'll answer. its like an echo that only comes back with honesty.

skoal Monster

[BrianG]

This was one of those post I read early on that made me think I can do this.  All I have to do is take tobacco off the table.  No matter how bad it gets, tobacco will never be the answer.  It really is that easy.
---

I keep seeing posts where quitters are frustrated that they still have urges to dip or smoke. Some after a month, some after many hundreds of days. Maybe time ultimately erases that, I don't really know. The thing is when you have truly embraced your decision to quit, craves or urges become irrelevant. It's said over and over here that "dip is no longer an option". When you live that philosophy your quit becomes simple, easy even. If I know in my heart that I will never chew or smoke again, then I never consider it as a remedy,a pass time, crutch, etc. It is no longer on the table as a possibility in my mind. I have urges to dip all the time, they are no worse or better than my day one. The difference is I own them now. They have no power over me and I can brush them off with ease.

The destination and the journey are the same thing here. Quit is your destination, staying quit is the journey, you have already arrived my friend. Stop complaining about the potholes in your path, walk around them. Stop looking over your shoulder , there is nothing back there that you want. If there was you never would have left. Embrace your quit and there will not be any force of nature or mind that can move you from it.

SM

[BrianG]

Hey Guest,

I see you there, reading, surfing the site. Sitting at the computer.... you have a dip in right now I bet. Ironic that you choose to chew while researching how to quit. Except, for you its not a choice anymore is it? You have to have it. If its late enough and you dipped alot today I bet you packed it in your upper lip. Lower lip hurts too much. Maybe your just keeping it away from that one sore spot that has been bothering you. Scared? ashamed? sick of being a slave to a habit thats killing you? Aren't you tired of being sick and tired? This time will be different, if you take the steps to commit to this program and follow in the path of those that walked this way before you, you will be quit. Choose to save your own life. Isn't that why your here.
Is it cancer? It will be, dip will kill you if you just give it enough time. How much more time do you think you have anyhow? A year? a lifetime? one can? Maybe one dip. Thats right, the very next dip could be the one that kills you. Seriously, how many chances to dodge cancer do you think your going get?
I can say very confidently, that you are not the biggest addict ever to walk this way. I had almost given up on ever quitting, Thankfully I stumbled in here 205 days ago and now I am quit. Trust me as a fellow dipper who stuffed skoal in my face for 23 yrs and two cans a day. If I can quit so can you.
So stop lurking and start posting, Fnd your quit group and post up a day one. Stop being a guest and start being a quitter.

Skoal Monster

[BrianG]

Dear Chairman of UST,
Dear douchetard dillhole

Just a quick note to thank you for making such a fine product.I have enjoyed skoal since I was 14.I think it's the best.
Just a quick note to say fuck you, you death dealing fuckbag. Thanks for hooking me on a substance thats more addicting than heroin when I was a fucking child.I have been a slave to nicotine for 23 years. I think a product that kills you when you use it properly is insane.

I can fondly remember all your advertising with many great athletes " a pinch is all it takes" and now I am excited to be part of the Skoal Brotherhood
a pinch is all it took to get me to lie to my parents, wife, kids, destroy relationships, ruin my health, begin killing myself. Thank God I found this site and these guys at Kill the Can to support me in kicking this horrid addiction.

Skoal has been with me through thick and thin and always helped me out when I needed it.
Skoal had raised my blood pressure to unsafe levels and I had to chew two damn cans a day just to attempt to feel ok. Now that I quit I feel better than I ever did when I chewed. Skoal was good for nothing but keeping me addicted to Skoal

I especially appreciate the recent discounts on dip and all the great new flavors
Smoking is getting pushed out and your making a marketing play that dip is a safer alternative than cigarettes. Nevermind the fact that the nicotine level in a can of chew is the equivilent of 60 smokes. You even drop the price and run multiple can specials to create addicts quicker than ever. Peach and berry dip, who are you kidding? those flavors are to hook children and women. Your a absolute shit bag. You sell fruit and mint flavored cancer.

I am sure that you will have continued success with your fine brand of smokeless and wish you the best of luck
You can take your little copperheaded fuck buckets of cancer and shove em up your ass so far that you can pack em with your tonsils. I hope you can sleep at night knowing your product kills more people than almost anything in the world. I wish the worst thing in the world upon you and your cohorts... I hope you become as addicted to this shit as I was. I am free now, I no longer pay daily dues to UST, I no longer kill myself each day, I no longer hide cheat and lie to satisfy my addiction, I am a man of my word now..... I am quit

Best Regards
I hope you go bankrupt and die you miserable cocksuckers, if I ever meet you I will punch you in the junk and feed you to a shark, but only one slice at a time,8000 plus slices for each day that I dipped. I hope it hurts.


Skoal Monster

[BrianG]

man i'll splain this simple like. it aint your nic level you got to worry bout. its your commitment level. the nic bitch is gonna be in your head for ever now. you need to 1 disside your gonna whip her ass and 2-have a plan when the craves come else your gonna have more lame ass ascuses. until you disside to do that your gonna be big tabaccos little bitch and shes gonna fuck you up the ass for the rest a your life.   Syndrome-talking to a 2000 day plus caver

[BrianG]

Nicotine Warning for Cold Turkey Quitters


Roughly 80-90% of all new quitters attempt to quit cold turkey (abrupt nicotine cessation).  If you are one of them then you need to know that many highly respected websites contain advertisements, quitting instructions and articles created by the pharmaceutical industry for the purpose of getting you to purchase nicotine (which they have renamed medicine) and use it (which they have renamed therapy).  Their super slick marketing is designed to make you quickly believe that you have very little chance of succeeding unless you rush-out and purchase nicotine weaning products such as the nicotine patch, nicotine gum or nicotine lozenge and immediately put nicotine back into your bloodstream.   They do not want you to believe in "you."  They do not want you to reach for education, understanding, new skills and support, as honest tools that make dreams come true at rates that make those achieved by their weaning products laughable.

Sadly, very few sites are sharing useful, recent and honest NRT data with quitters.  Those with a financial stake must keep secret the fact that a March 2003 NRT study review by paid pharmaceutical industry consultants combined and averaged all seven over-the-counter nicotine patch and gum studies and found that 93% of those who "believed" and "trusted" in the nicotine weaning message failed and relapsed to smoking nicotine within six months ( link to full text of March, 2003 study ).  Nor will those receiving donations or profits for allowing nicotine to be marketed at their websites warn you that too many among the 7% who do quit smoking for six months have instead become permanent chemical captives to the very product they purchased to help them break nicotine's grip upon their mind.  Nor will they tell you that if you have previously tried and failed while using nicotine weaning products that, according to two nicotine patch recycling studies, your odds of relapse during a second attempt may be as high as 100%.

But most importantly, these sites continue to refuse to caution the 80-90% of new quitters who arrive having quit cold turkey, that if they have remained 100% nicotine free for 72 hours that their blood is now 100% nicotine-clean, 90% of nicotine's metabolites have passed through their urine, and that for them chemical withdrawal has peaked in intensity and is now beginning to gradually subside.  Any nicotine use at this point constitutes chemical relapse that will require them to repeat nicotine detox all over again.  This is the "Law of Addiction."

But take heart if you are quitting cold turkey.  According to the American Cancer Society's Cancer Facts & Figures 2003 report, 91.2% of all successful long-term quitters are today quitting entirely on their own without using Zyban, Wellbutrin, hypnosis, acupuncture, magic herbs, and without toying with any gradual nicotine weaning products like the patch, gum, lozenge, spray, or inhaler. 

You'd think that government researchers would be heavily engaged in studying "their" method of quitting and "their" secrets.  You'd think that they'd be developing websites to service the cessation needs of the 80-90% of all new quitters who they know are today engaged in a cold turkey quitting experience.  You'd think that their sites would have warnings to protect cold turkey quitters from pharmaceutical grade nicotine relapse. You'd think that government and major health non-profits would have lots of articles on how to take the mystery and cold out of quitting cold.

Sadly, it simply isn't happening.  The pharmaceutical industry is making billions selling nicotine to nicotine addicts, their sphere of influence extends beyond your wildest imagination and they know that the only way to continue to increase market share and profits is by continuing their campaign to destroy the credibility of earth's most productive means of quitting - abrupt nicotine cessation.

John R. Polito, Nicotine Cessation Educator

[BrianG]

Your right, we do understand. This habit will make you lie to everyone including yourself. I never thought I could quit, this site helped me tremendously. The thing is you have to use it correctly. After 219 days quit this is what I know.

1. READ everything on this site- Start with words of wisdom and the Hof speeches, and I MEAN ALL OF THEM!!! then the CANCER and QUITTER Stories. Yes every single one. This will take you a week but start reading each day until you find something you can latch onto for that day. Just like the Tom and Jenny Kern story tore you up, find something each day like it. In the beginning this is hugely helpful.

2. GET PHONE NUMBERS AND USE THEM- if I or someone else offers you their phone number I fully expect you to call me if you are struggling. Even if you just need to BS to keep your mind of dipping. It's ok!! thats why I offered it to you. I can help you stay quit if you call.

3. GIVE YOU NUMBER TO YOUR FELLOW QUITTERS- they will keep you accountible when you slack. They can text, call or E-mail your craving ass when you think your going to disappear and start dipping again. This is the first step in becoming accountable to your group and your quit. If I have your number and you haven't posted I WILL CALL OR TEXT YOU for an explanation.

4. POST POST POST!!!!! Chaces are whatever crazy fucked up thing your going thru, somebody here has already been thru it. Getting fat? losing your mind? can't sleep? sleep too much? weird things going on with your yap? sunflower seeds make you feel super sexy? POST THAT SHIT UP. I can't help you or tell you its normal if you don't share. This includes when your kicking ass, beating down cravings, or totally freaking out. When you post and open yourself up to the group, you will be suprised at the strength of their support.

5. Help who you can, when you can, how you can. Helping another is a sure way to strengthen your own quit. If you know that I am counting on you to help me stay quit, can you cave?

6. CHAT- use the chat room, I was in there every day for the first 100 days. When your having a hard time ASK FOR HELP!!!!!!!! There is alot of pointless conversation and chit chat going on in there, but if you break in and tell people that you need help, YOU WILL GET IT. It might be a kick in the ass or a helpful push but you will get help. If you don't reach out you will get nothing in return. YOu are not weak for reaching out so don't be embarrassed. This is a support site use the support stupid.

7. HAVE A VOICE- the most active quitters are generally the most successul. Talk about what is working or not working for you, ask questions.

8. REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO ACCEPTABLE REASON TO CAVE. Not a single one, not ever. I don't care what happens to you in the next 100 days. There is not a single scenario that will improve because you started chewing again. Chew doesn't help anything except keeping you addicted to nicotine.

9. You will feel like shit for the first few days and maybe even weeks. So what? That is your body expelling all the poison out of it. The pain of the initial withdrawl is referred to here as the suck. Embrace the suck, dont ever forget how shitty it is. You will only have to do it once if you can remember forever how hard it was. The SUCK is the price you pay to win your freedom from nicotine.

10. IT DOES GET BETTER EVERYDAY. You will not wake up on day 22 and be all better, you won't be all better on day 4 or 44 or 104. Each day your body heals a little bit. Your circulation comes back a little bit, your anxiety starts to ease up. Your more even tempered (that one took some time for me) Etc Etc. But here is the catch, it's like watching a plant grow. You can't see it and its slow, at some point you will realize there has been a change in how you feel, physically or emotionally but you will not be able to recognize when it happened. The best part is after a awhile controlling your addiction gets easier and the changes become larger. Quitting this poison will not only save your life, it will change your life.

This is hard so you better get tough. The tools above will make it easier to win your freedom, but only if you use them. Good luck

Skoal Monster

[BrianG]

Skoal Monster--

For all you fuckers, This funk thing is a nightmare,mine hit around the nid 60's and didn't leave until 75. Like Mrogers I also had issues with my wife, whom I love. I realized that I had been treating her horribly for years due to my addiction, I literally would rather sit alone and dip than spend time with her!! how fucking selfish. When I quit I soon realized that I had to re learn how to relate to my bride. Instead of just popping in some skoal when she was pissing me off I actually had to learn how to talk to her. Maybe somebody else can explain it better. All I know is alot of my personal relationships suffered because of dip, and when I quit it took some work to start repairing them, maybe its like in AA where you have to make ammends?
The other thing that has been pissing me off about dip is this... ITS A BIG FUCKING LIE.I quit because dip didn't work for me anymore, I could not chew enough dip to satisfy my craving. I could smoke marlborough reds one after another with a fucking chew in and I still couldn't kill the crave. So then I read this damn book by some fag named Alan Carr and he describes how a nicotine addict eventually reaches a point where they cannot ever achieve a level of satisfaction. I was spending all day trying to feel normal, and to get to normal I had to chew like a beaver on crack. And get this, "normal" is what we felt like before we became nic addicts. So Im living my life feeding a fucking monkey buckets of cancer so I can feel ALMOST as good as I did before I started dipping. What a fucking scam. This is why you see smokers that light one off another all day long, they can't kill the crave. So we spend our lives in a perpetual state of withdrawl, always pissed, always craving, always scheming for another dip.
FUCK THAT, I dont care how bad the funk gets, I will not go back to that life, I don't care if I have one bad crave a day forever, I dont care if I crave all day forever, That would still be better than dipping all day everyday, I am calmer now, I engage with my kids, I can eat dinner and not be jonesing for a dip in the middle of the meal, I can have a real relationship with my wife. I have to deal with my feelings, which is something I haven't done without a wedge in my pie hole in 20 plus years. I am free of the biggest bunch of bullshit ever thunk up by man, I will not go back to that no matter what the fucking nic bitch whispers to me.
Lastly, for those of you thinking about caving, here is what I know. The chew that your craving right now, the one you think is gonna be so good isn't the one your gonna get. Your nic soaked brain is thinking about your best dip, maybe your first dip or that one in the bleachers from highschool, but thats not the dip your gonna get when you cave. The cave dip is going to be just like the LAST DIP you ever had, you know the one, it was shitty and you didn't want it but you took it anyway. That dip didn't do shit for you but make you feel worse about chewing and hiding it, and killing yourself with it. THAT is the dip to remember, and that is the dip you get when you cave, except now you have 100 times the guilt because you were free and you threw it away. What a fucking moron I would be to want to have that particular dip.......Again. If you chew then you have tried to quit and you know that what Im saying is true, at least it was for me. Im not having that dip ever again. So as bad as all the fucking craves are and the faggitty funk is I for one will suffer thru it, because the hours or days or minutes that Im not battling that shit are truly mine and I am free. Its worth it... Oh and Special ED can FUCK OFF OR POST BELOW THE LINE, Scooter gets a pass because he is hung like a stallion and therefore meets May quitter criteria. Sorry for the long rant

[BrianG]

(Skoal Monster @ Aug 14, 2009, 10:53 am)
Ah the coot, yes yes you are feeling some pain, a sense of loss perhaps? You quit for 100 days it was almost fun, a challenge, the community and the brotherhood were exciting and new. But now the first kiss is over and your quit is not so novel eh? Slowly reality sets in that you are really quit and your not going back THIS MY FRIEND IS A GOOD THING. However, Sally Rotten Crotch nic bitch isnt done with you yet, she's starting to whisper in your ear..... "Dean baby enough of these games, you know you can't leave me forever so why don't you just give up?" "Don't you love me anymore?" 

I too hit a post Hof funk that was harder than the first two weeks of my quit. Its a gut check boy o .

   There is nothing wrong with you a dip could fix, Chew does not fill a void in your life but creates one. You have lost nothing by giving it up. You say you still love it? What did you love you don't have now? Did it enhance your enjoyment of life? I doubt it. Perhaps your spouse found you more attractive, she always liked the pics in National Geographic of the dudes with a plate in their lower lip. Were you a better dad ? constantly hiding from your family or holding your baby in one hand and a spitter in the other? It helps you relax?, yes yes, but medically you know that's bullshit, it raised your bp and heart rate. the relaxation you felt was just getting back to normal because you fed the addiction and removed the withdrawl. Maybe you are secretly in love with Ahmed the gas station attendant, you miss going in and saying. " no not that can the other one,no to your left, no not the fucking peach god dammit the Copenhagen you fucker" All the while wanting to jump behind the counter and kill him cause your fiending.
  There is nothing to miss Dean, its a scam.

The nic bitch is the mental version of the Sham Wow fag, you need to turn the fucking channel or put in some ear plugs. Honestly what helped me is finding some other poor deluded addict on his day one and watching him struggle like hell. It was almost sadistic at first. I felt satiatied when they hit the fog and the funk and the headaches and first no sleep then can't sleep enough, and the mouth sores and the fear of cancer. Watching them helped me stay quit because I hated that and won't do it again. I remember being desperate to stop and each night laying in bed thinking tomorrow tomorrow I wont dip. Watching guys cave forces me to remember that and not become complacent with my quit. Then it turned from love of dip and a sense of loss to a militant hatred. You have to cultivate that hate. Watching people struggle today pisses me off, not at them, but at the addiction. It is crazy the toll nic takes on us both mentally and physically. Find some strugglers in the new group and try to shepard them thru to the Hof. Don't get discouraged with yourself if they cave, many will. It will only remind you how far you have come and what you left behind. This will strengthen your quit. If they do make it, sharing the struggle with them will strengthen your quit as well.

Good luck Dean The Quitter

[BrianG]

Of course you would quit, right???


(cubs204 @ May 25, 2009, 11:20 am)
Dont know where else to post this so Ill put it here.  My mom just called me.  My uncle has had major circulatory problems related to smoking for the last few years.  The doctors told him 5 weeks ago that he had to quit smoking to be able to remove an artery from under his arm and put it in his legs, otherwise they will have ot amputate at some point.  My uncle went into the doctors yesterday, he hasnt quit smoking, and told the doctors he wont.  The doctors said he has less than 3 months for his left leg, 6 months for his right.  My uncle is effectively choosing nicotine over his legs. Nicotine over legs.  Nicotine over legs.  Nicotine over the ability to ever walk again.  I will never put that shit in my body again.

[BrianG]

tinman wrote:

If chewing is interfering with your family and work, you're probably a heavy chewer. If your family and work is interfering with your chewing, you're an addict.

Such is the case for me.

[BrianG]

I was never a retread, but I remember reading this very early in my quit.  I read the last paragraph here 100 times.
I knew Dale was right.  I had to be all in or I would find an excuse to start using again.  You have to be all in for this to
work.  Take tobacco off the table and do something else.

30yrAddict--

A Word to the Retreads

I wanted to wait until all of the drama died down to have a word with you....

So you are back...and posting roll...Doing the things I would expect to see from someone who is serious about their quit...In addition to posting roll, I sure hope you are living, breathing, drinking the kool aid here.

You can believe 2 things about this place: It's nothing more than a tool to help you quit and the people here are just strangers in cyberspace........ or this is a place full of dead serious quitters intent on saving their own life and helping others save theirs.

In the short time I have been here, I have actually met several quitters, talked to some more on the phone, texted still others, and keep in contact with others through facebook, pm, and email. I have moved the KTC experience far beyond some self help website in cyberspace. I have no place to hide...In order to get away from these folks I would have to change my home number, email address, cell number, move (yes some of them know where I live), abandon my facebook account, and ask my kids and wife to abandon theirs.

In other words- this is my last quit- and I am all in. I have built my accountability to the point that there is no going back...no hedged bets, no retreat clause, no surrender.

My question for you is: Have you decided this is your last quit? Then box yourself in...build your accountability to the point there is no escape. Take every opportunity to be held accountable to other quitters. Stay in constant contact with people that will not tolerate addict thinking. In short put all your chips in the center of the table...go all in.

[BrianG]

30yrAddict --

Complacency

Some of you might be at a stage where this quit is...dare I say it? Kinda EASY! You haven't been craving as much, hell sometimes you barely even think about dip. You might even be wondering why it took you so long to quit, as it really wasn't as hard as you thought...

I know I came to that stage about day 25 or so. Now the face of the enemy has changed. Your first days were sheer willpower, withdrawals, craves, reaching for a can that was no longer there...but now your enemy has a new name: COMPLACENCY....

The nic-bitch has been waiting for this point, waiting for the time you go out without your cell phone, waiting for the time you get drunk, or until you will listen to her little promptings that you can have "just one". Waiting until you know that you own this addiction, that no thought or planning is required to protect your quit. She's waiting to separate you from your support, get you distant from the herd so she can move in for the kill.

COMPLACENCY- This enemy you will battle for perhaps thousands of days, perhaps even for the rest of your life. I can tell you I would LOVE to forget about dip, love to forget about this stupid addiction, but I know I should not, that I cannot. You see, i have failed at quitting many times, I know what happens when I forget. To forget is to fail.

For that reason, you will see me posting roll tomorrow. It is how I have begun my day for the last 321 days in a row- a reminder that I am an addict, lest I forget.

[BrianG]

30yrAddict, Day 461--

An open letter to the nic bitch.

you try to make me think I can have a chew once in a while....it's a lie. You are just trying to enslave me.

you try to make me think it would be so good, that it would feel so good - Here's the truth- the majority of times you made me gag rushing to spit- so I wouldn't puke.

you try to convince me that it would be so much fun to spend time with you- the truth is you robbed me of so much time over my life that I do not want to waste another minute

you try to make me think there is no way I can remain quit forever. I don't have to- I only have to stay quit today.

although you have tried over the last two weeks to convince me of these things.....

I am still done with you.

The door is shut.

And it's staying that way.

[BrianG]

30yrAddict on day 330 --

I look at the nic bitch at this point as a lion looking at a herd- she is waiting for someone to lag behind, waiting to pick the next one off, looking for a sign of weakness, looking for someone who is not thinking about the fact that they are still vulnerable. She is patient, In some cases she waits thousands of days to pick one off.

I'm stayin with the herd.