snahsorg

[snahsorg]

2018.11.22 - 94 Days

Mental Health:

The fog stuck with me for a solid two months. I finally feel as though my focus and overall cognition are improving by the day. In all honesty, I still find myself thinking about chew entirely too much. I envy those who post about how the feel so much better both physically and mentally, and that they have no desire to use tobacco again. I hope to get there someday.

Support:

I quit for 40 days by myself. Much of those 40 days were spent on KTC reading and reading and reading. At day 40, I felt as though I needed to sign up and post roll in order to stay quit. And thank God I did. To anyone reading this, I recommend that you sign up for the forum on your day 1 and post roll. Me doing so 40 days in, my group had already clicked with one another to an extent. Four folks reached out to me within my first couple days here, two of which have been my morning text routine. Thank you, MikeW and bg124wpd. I owe you guys more than you know.

Post roll and make friends early. Don't be an introvert. Learn from me.

[snahsorg]

2018.11.21 - 93 Days

Physical Health:

Long story short: since quitting, I have had the week(s) long sore throat, tonsil stones, a cold, silent reflux, more tonsil stones, and a persistent feeling of something stuck in my throat. (side note: I have had tonsil stones and silent reflux prior to quitting). The ENT doctor acknowledged my tonsil stones and silent reflux, but said that my throat looked as though the main culprit for discomfort was post nasal drip. Tobacco may or may not have been a direct cause fore many of these ailments, but it surely was the cause for an 80 day psychological freak out.

[snahsorg]

2018.11.21 - 93 Days

Intro:

My story is basically an amalgamation of many of yours (e.g. see Kickin-Wing and Walter White, those are a good start).

I had been chewing for somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 years. The first few times were peer pressure in college when I was a drunk freshman. Here's the hook. Unfortunately I am a very sleepy person. If I am not physically or mentally stimulated, then my brain goes to sleep. This means in class, at work, whilst driving, and even a few extreme instances of standing in place for too long - I have fallen asleep in all of these cases. Well in college, I figured out that chew could keep me awake when driving and when studying into the late hours of the night.

I know chewing is gross. I know it is terrible for your health. So to avoid judgement from family and friends, I had been a closet chewer of sorts this entire time. Along the way, I switched to pouches to be able to hide it better.

When I first met my wife, I told her about my dirty secret. I told her that I knew it was bad and that I didn't want to do it forever. I met my wife 7 years ago. We have been married for 3 years. I had quit for short durations along the way, but I had essentially never quit and also hid it from her the entire time. We had our first child just over a year ago. I also just changed careers within the last year. My previous employer covered a relatively small life insurance policy. With the new job and a child, we decided to get a more robust life insurance policy. My financial advisor warned me about their testing for cocaine, but not nicotine. So I failed. This professional testing person came to my home and tested both me and my wife together. I urinated into two vials and sealed them. Then this person asked me out loud in front of my wife, with a smoking gun of a piss vial in hand, if I used tobacco. That was the first time that I ever had to admit out loud that I chewed almost every day. That was day 1 of my quit.