49 days ago, I went nicotine free.
I have been a nicotine addict for 25 years. First it was smoking through high school and college, then chewing a can per day for the last 18 years. I have never tried to quit, I was resigned to live my life as an addict. It caused problems in my marriage, I hid it, I lied about it, but I kept doing it. It gave me high blood pressure, bad breath, and mouth sores, but I kept doing it. I was a hard-core addict. I could not function without my nicotine. I never tried to quit, I just kept doing it.
Then, in May 2018, I decided to change. I made up my mind to quit. I was scared, but resolved to do it. On May 7, 2018 I bought a box of nicotine gum and made a plan. I would chew progressively less nicotine gum until I could quit that too, and finally shake the beast. Between May 7th and July 13th, I did just that- chewing 1 piece of 4mg gum per hour at first, gradually down to 1 piece of 2mg every two or three hours. I woke up on July 13th, chewed my morning piece of gum and decided it was a good day to be done with nicotine.
I have not had any nicotine since. 49 days today. A few days ago I had to take a nicotine test for my health insurance, I was extremely proud to see "nicotine= negative" in the results!
Cravings are sill there, and they hit hard. I chew a lot of sugar-free gum...thank God for Orbit. I'm still fighting and I am resolved to win this battle. The cravings are particularly hard today, probably the worst they have been. I just felt like I needed to come here and talk about it with people who understand.
Thanks for listening.