Day 6 After 36 years using

[AppleJack]

500!
Awesome job bro!

[jake frawley]

'worship' 'worship' 'worship'

YOU ARE THE MAN! CONGRATS ON 500 BRO! WAY TO BE AN EXAMPLE!

[T-Cell]

Today I posted 456 days. For someone who dipped pretty much 24/7 for 36 years that is a long time to go without nicotine. You would think that after that many days you would be almost like you had never dipped. After a little over a years time you would think that you could go about your daily life and never give dip a second thought. I have found that that is not the case for me.

I generally post roll and then go about my day without thinking about dip. But here recently I have been continually reminded that, after 456 days of quit, I am still an addict and must always be on the lookout for the nicotine bitch who is trying to sneak back into my life. I have experienced craves from hell and for the last few nights I've had the most vivid dip dreams. It is amazing how real those dreams seem. I have awakened the last three nights thinking I had caved. My hands were shaking and I was so on edge because for a brief moment I thought I had started using again.

My cross to carry I guess. I know that I will never be a non addict again. All of us here must fight this battle every day and always have each other's back. Thanks to all of you who have played a part in my quit. I would never have made it this far without the support of my KTC family. I know that when I have those days when I'm craving or after I've had one of those vivid dip dreams, I can come to KTC, post roll, do some reading and get my quit jump started again.

Let me encourage those of you who are relatively new to get more involved than just posting roll. Get involved in chat. Get all the numbers you can. Give a quitter a call just to check on how he is doing. You don't have to be in the middle of a crisis to reach out to some one. Go to a get together. I've been to the Pa and the Ga meets. Those are some of the best times I've had in my life. I can't wait till the pa meet in august.

Thanks for listening and reading my ramblings. Sometimes you just have to put it all down on paper.

Mike

Great post Mike. At 744 days I can tell you it still remains for me and I doubt it every completely disappears. We remain addicts and life keeps bring up good times, bad times and new triggers we didn't see in the first few hundred days.
Newbies, you are not cured at 100 days or 1000 days. At 200 or 300 days you haven't even faced all the seasonal triggers the nic bitch will toss out. Staying active on this site gives me the daily reminder of why I protect my quit. That is all I need to kick nics ass every time. As soon as we forget we are addicts, we lose.

[Mike_Land]

Today I posted 456 days. For someone who dipped pretty much 24/7 for 36 years that is a long time to go without nicotine. You would think that after that many days you would be almost like you had never dipped. After a little over a years time you would think that you could go about your daily life and never give dip a second thought. I have found that that is not the case for me.

I generally post roll and then go about my day without thinking about dip. But here recently I have been continually reminded that, after 456 days of quit, I am still an addict and must always be on the lookout for the nicotine bitch who is trying to sneak back into my life. I have experienced craves from hell and for the last few nights I've had the most vivid dip dreams. It is amazing how real those dreams seem. I have awakened the last three nights thinking I had caved. My hands were shaking and I was so on edge because for a brief moment I thought I had started using again.

My cross to carry I guess. I know that I will never be a non addict again. All of us here must fight this battle every day and always have each other's back. Thanks to all of you who have played a part in my quit. I would never have made it this far without the support of my KTC family. I know that when I have those days when I'm craving or after I've had one of those vivid dip dreams, I can come to KTC, post roll, do some reading and get my quit jump started again.

Let me encourage those of you who are relatively new to get more involved than just posting roll. Get involved in chat. Get all the numbers you can. Give a quitter a call just to check on how he is doing. You don't have to be in the middle of a crisis to reach out to some one. Go to a get together. I've been to the Pa and the Ga meets. Those are some of the best times I've had in my life. I can't wait till the pa meet in august.

Thanks for listening and reading my ramblings. Sometimes you just have to put it all down on paper.

Mike

[EFNKodiak]

I agree with Trauma's approach. It's best to at least plant the seed with your friend. You could also start out a casual conversation on why he decided to quit dip. Is it for his health, a requirement for employment, or wife/girlfriend?

If he is quitting for himself or for better health, then he needs to know what nicotine is doing to his system. It's definitely a much harder sell if he is just interested in changing the delivery method of the nicotine. We all know that.

[traumagnet]

well, for what could be a touchy subject.

I would maybe start by asking you friend what was the purpose of what he wanted to do. And what I mean by that is, did he just want to quit the habit of having something in his lip for the most part, which in replacing the dip with the e-cig seems like he may have done.

Or was it to quit nicotine all together and break the grasp of being addicted to a substance.

Cause what he is doing is the first. He will still have the monetary pull for buying a product. He will still get the cravings to go and get more when he runs out.

I think a lot of it will be educating him and trying to show him that really not much has changed as one has just replaced the other. Hell even ask him to stop the e-cig for a day or so and see what happens. He might then realize that yes this is still an addiction.

brother I am wishing you the best in whatever and however you approach him.

E-cigs are an extremely touchy subject. I've had some screaming fights with people about them, and I don't think I changed a single mind. Vapers and e-cig people are often as passionate as we quitters are. So, my personal approach has evolved into a sort of polite, but smug, dismissiveness. For example, "nice that you're not smoking or chewing, but sad that you're not willing to address your addiction. What do you do when you run out of battery or juice and you have a craving?"

He may not know he is still getting the chemical he is after. Think of how many people show up here that they are quit when patched or gum or whatever. Sometimes that ole light bulb doesn't turn on as quick especially if you want to wear blinders.

Direct and firm approach you will either get a thank you or a fuck you mind your own damn bidness either way you planted the seed.

[OneImpressiveBall]

is there anyway to remove that bikini top???

Sorry to mess up your thread, Mike, but this is your second intro thread, and a young quit depends on this:

"kate upton" + Google.com = lots of stuff like this.

[Mogul]

is there anyway to remove that bikini top???

[OneImpressiveBall]

well, for what could be a touchy subject.

I would maybe start by asking you friend what was the purpose of what he wanted to do. And what I mean by that is, did he just want to quit the habit of having something in his lip for the most part, which in replacing the dip with the e-cig seems like he may have done.

Or was it to quit nicotine all together and break the grasp of being addicted to a substance.

Cause what he is doing is the first. He will still have the monetary pull for buying a product. He will still get the cravings to go and get more when he runs out.

I think a lot of it will be educating him and trying to show him that really not much has changed as one has just replaced the other. Hell even ask him to stop the e-cig for a day or so and see what happens. He might then realize that yes this is still an addiction.

brother I am wishing you the best in whatever and however you approach him.

E-cigs are an extremely touchy subject. I've had some screaming fights with people about them, and I don't think I changed a single mind. Vapers and e-cig people are often as passionate as we quitters are. So, my personal approach has evolved into a sort of polite, but smug, dismissiveness. For example, "nice that you're not smoking or chewing, but sad that you're not willing to address your addiction. What do you do when you run out of battery or juice and you have a craving?"

[SirDerek]

well, for what could be a touchy subject.

I would maybe start by asking you friend what was the purpose of what he wanted to do. And what I mean by that is, did he just want to quit the habit of having something in his lip for the most part, which in replacing the dip with the e-cig seems like he may have done.

Or was it to quit nicotine all together and break the grasp of being addicted to a substance.

Cause what he is doing is the first. He will still have the monetary pull for buying a product. He will still get the cravings to go and get more when he runs out.

I think a lot of it will be educating him and trying to show him that really not much has changed as one has just replaced the other. Hell even ask him to stop the e-cig for a day or so and see what happens. He might then realize that yes this is still an addiction.

brother I am wishing you the best in whatever and however you approach him.

[Pinched]

My approach would be to ask the question of is he quitting tobacco or just dip? Then I would ask if the e-cig is safe and causes no damage to your body. Then I would really try to press that a recovering drug addict goes to a methadone clinic or others to recover, but that doesn't make them drug free yet.

Sure we quit on the extreme here and not everyone has the testicular fortitude to do just that. I would also point out that he isn't quitting but rather substituting.

Kind of like the old saying "the safest sex is abstinence" the safest way to quit tobacco is the actually quit tobacco.

You could also break down the cost for him, a can a day at $/Ea versus a e-cig and whatever. I have a jar on my desk that each day I put $4 in to celebrate another day quit. My co-workers who are also addicts see that and I know it helps weigh on their minds.

This is just my $0.03,

Pinched

[Mike_Land]

I'm getting close to one year. I can't believe it's been that long. I'll have more on that later. Right now I really need to find a way to speak to a friend without pissing him off or pushing him away.

My friend and co-worker, Matt is a long time dipper like myself. We have known each other about 5 years and we work together on the same crew at the nuke plant. He's a good dude.

However, we have a problem. Matt has dipped for many years but recently decided to quit. He has done that. He hasn't had a dip in my sight in a couple of months. He's very proud of himself. I'm proud of him as well but he hasn't really addressed his real problem nicotine. You see, Matt replaced his dip with his electronic cigarette. He is still using nicotine. He thinks he is quit but he is very wrong. He doesn't really understand that he just replaced one delivery method with another one. The sad thing is that after working so hard to not have a psychological addiction to dipping, he is still a slave to the nic bitch because he is still putting it in his system.

I'm not sure how to approach this with him. Anybody got any ideas?

A word to the newbies and lurkers: Dipping, cigarettes and the many other methods of delivery are not the enemy here. The real enemy is nicotine. We are not addicted to dipping or smoking. We are addicted to nicotine People have to understand that before they can effectively address thier addiction. otherwise you windup like my friend Matt, Still a slave to the bitch, just using a different delivery method.

Keep on Quitting!

Mike

[OneImpressiveBall]

I know I'm late to the party, Mike, but that's a great 300 days post. 'Cheers'

Somehow, however, I previously missed this very old comment:

I am here to support newbies like Erussell and Papabear and vets like Evil and sportsfan and even OIB.

Sheesh. I may have to finally start an intro page just to register the complaints.

[Mike from AB]

Congrats on 300 awesome work!

[traumagnet]

'clap' very good read congrats on 300