I want to quit dipping.
I have only dipped for about 3 years now, moderately [like a can every 3-4 days, maybe less during a rough week but never a can a day person] and I desperately want to quit.
However, my circumstances are a little more complicated than the average potential quitter [maybe?]
I'm 22, female, and currently enlisted in the US Navy. I'm from Texas and ironically I had never even heard of dip until I joined. I've pretty much been smoking since I was 17, and picked up the dip habit right out of boot, when I had to run one and a half to three miles every other day in my occupational school. It was a quick way to get my nicotine without coughing up a lung and being short of breath after every PT session. Better [worse] yet, other girls dipped too, so it's not even like there was the social stigma that civilian females face. If anything, most guys who find out I dip are more impressed than grossed out.
Well, needless to say it's been 3 years in, and although the physical intensity of my life lessened after those couple months in occupational school, I kept the habit, while continuing to smoke. Most of the time I prefer cigarettes, but very recently, since January of this year actually, the ratio flipped and it seems I dip a lot more than I smoke [a can lasts me about 3-4 days, a pack of cigarettes a week, gradually my smoking lessened and dipping remained constant, thankfully never getting to a can a day status]... in essence I swapped one addiction for another.
I don't know what possessed me to attempt to quit, perhaps just fear of oral cancer, but I am coming up on the last stretch of my enlistment, a 9 month deployment aboard an aircraft carrier to the Western Pacific/Persian Gulf, and I don't want to carry the habit with me back into the civilian world. However, I'm in a bit of a predicament because for me, logging onto the internet everyday to rollcall while at sea in God-knows-where for 9 months is kind of not an option. That and, half the guys in my shop dip, I see/smell it everyday. It's more convenient to dip than smoke aboard a ship, dipping is never secured, and you can pretty much do anything and go anywhere with a dip in.
BUT I want so badly to quit, I have stopped smoking altogether [thanks to an E-cigarette], I know 3 years might seem like nothing to some people here but I want to stop before it gets serious, I just don't know how given my situation and circumstances, and I'm scared to take the risk and say, well I'll just quit when I get back from deployment. I get routine oral exams every year and although I never tell the dentist I dip, they have yet to find anything and I always get a clean bill of health. My lower gums are SLIGHTLY lower than they used to be before I dipped, but I wised up and learned to move it around in my mouth... I have thankfully never had a tongue sore but honestly I feel like I'm pushing my luck.
I want to quit, I bought a shit ton of dip alternatives [SMC, Hooch, Oregon Mint] online and had them all rush ordered, hoping to find one I liked in time for deployment and then buy it in bulk to quit while at sea.
Needless to say I made it about 11 days before I caved and bought a can of Grizz, I went through the can slower than usual [about 2 dips a day] but I just bought another today, and yeah this is pretty much a relapse.
I don't know if I'll be able to quit before I go, dip is sold aboard the ship [although my Grizz is rarely available, usually settle for stank ass Skoal wintergreen or Skoal cherry] ... and I might just be an idiot and buy a few logs before I go. As of now, I have not had a dip in 24 hours, but I've been home. At home I don't crave it, work it's another story, and I'm pretty much going to be at work 24/7 for the next 8 months.
Any suggestions???? I hope this isn't a waste of time, dlfkgsdlfgj I really want to quit, I just don't know how.
