Hey everyone, my name is Andy Granger and I haven’t posted in a while, certainly not since we changed formats.
I wanted to share a little story that may help to highlight quitting. I was lucky enough to go to a playoff baseball game this year, and I invited an old high school friend of mine. We grew up outside of Milwaukee and although I live on the east coast now I have remained a fan of all the Wisconsin teams. As anyone who follows Wisconsin sports knows, the Brewers have been a franchise without much success, so being in the playoffs is a really big deal.
My buddy and I both found tobacco early in life. Me dipping, and he smoking and dipping. Anyway now that you can only smoke in designated areas of the ballpark he had to excuse himself 4 times, from a game of giant importance to feed his habit. In between he explained to me that his wife is really pissed at him because she has caught him smoking or dipping a lot and that she equates his lack of truthfulness about his habit as a sign that he isn’t truthful about other things. He then tells me that he once quit for 5 years (which I know is a lie) and that what his wife doesn’t understand is really likes to smoke.
This was me 5-1/2 years ago. Sneaking around, lying to my wife’s face, missing life because I was so obsessed with feeding my habit, and convincing myself that the reason I am dipping isn’t because it’s hard to quit (I think in my first intro years ago I said I had quit for 3 years...total lie, I’m sure it was more like 2 months) but more because I “liked” dipping. Needless to say I told my buddy to cut the shit, and be truthful with himself. In all honesty I doubt the message got through.
So I am sending the same message to anyone here ready to listen. The key to quitting, is first and foremost an absolute belief that you no longer want to live the way you are now. Once you have come to that realization, you have to know and accept that quitting is hard fucking work. It involves struggling every day for years and years. And to accomplish that lifestyle you need to figure out that all things your mind comes up with to try to talk you into caving is all bullshit...all of it. There is absolutely no reason to dip. None.
When you have the drive to be a different person, and realize it will take a lot of work, and that there is no excuse to feed your habit again, then you are getting somewhere. In the case of my buddy, it went in one ear and out the other. If your new to quitting and just reading this...don’t let it do the same.
