Hello everyone.
My name is Scott and I am 24 years old. I started chewing 4 years ago at college. I played football and nearly all the football players chewed, so I picked it up on my 3rd year (I don't know why I didn't my first or second year...guess 3 is unlucky for me).
I chewed on and off for that first year (I would get a can of bandits and they would dry out before I was done using them). Eventually, by the second year, I was chewing a can every week.
I quit for a 10 month period (during my 3rd year). I came back for more after that and ended up chewing on average a can every 4 days for my last year.
I understand that I may not have chewed as long or consistently as many of you folks, and maybe my story sounds a little underwhelming as far as a habit is concerned, but I'm pretty sure I was addicted.
So two months ago (57 days to be exact) I saw my cousin's mouth (his teeth looked stained and nasty) who had chewed for about 15 years. I decided right then and there I needed to quit before I do really bad damage to my mouth.
I am hoping that by quitting now, I can someday say "I chewed tobacco, it was just a phase" or something like that. "Something I did in school and decided to quit before it really hurt me".
So I quit cold turkey 57 days ago. I haven't chewed since. To be honest, I thought quitting would be much harder. I read all the stories and the symptoms I would feel (cranky, headaches, sleep patterns, etc), but I didn't really feel any of these.
I am deathly afraid to ever put a chew in my mouth again. I really really really don't want to ever touch it. I hope to die before chewing tobacco again. Because of this strong urge to never use it, I found these forums and hope that, through community support, I will never touch the stuff again in my life.
Scott
Great work Scott, quit early quit often.
But here is what you'll miss in the coming years if you quit now:
-Watching the receeding gumline and wondering how far south it can go before teeth start falling out.
-Hundreds/thousands of dollars a year you could spend on other things
-Fun with others because it was happening in a dip free environment so you chose to stay home with your thumb up your ass and a dip in your lip
-Sex because your significant other isn't turned on by that pack in your mouth or the dip breath
-The panic each and every time you hear mention of the word cancer
-Throwing your change in the make a wish foundation bucket at the gas station because you're hoping for good karma--support the lukemia patients while you buy your dip
-The struggle between wanting your children to respect you and your actions but not feel drawn to dipping like dad
-Showing up late for events because you need to get one last dip in
-Becoming a closet dipper when everybody that knows you is convinced you've quit but you're using again/still so now you have to hide it
-Realizing that at any given moment what really matters to you more than anything is your next dip
If you're quitting now your still gonna have to work for it; you're just a helluva lot smarter than me by not wasting the chance to live a happier healthier life in your 20s. And after quitting for a couple years I started using again at 25...if you don't embrace the quit each day you'll find yourself in your mid 30s or 40s wondering how you became such an addict when it all started/restarted so casually.
