Hey everyone, I'm 40 years old and quit using pouches July 21. Was a pack a day smoker from 17 and switched to skoal pouches and eventually snus about 7 years ago. I was one of those idiots that hid this nasty addiction from everybody which made snus so awesome as it was damn near invisible. I've always been to scared to quit because I wouldn't/couldn't get support from anybody since they didn't know I had a problem to begin with. I never really had health to force me to quit but the damn expense of it was making it harder and harder to hide. Also I hated that I had to have a damn pouch in my lip every waking second of the day and hating family trips because I'd have to figure out how to hide a weeks worth of pouches in plastic bags and hide them in my toiletry case. Fucking loser I've been!
I did not think I could quit cold turkey as it's failed for me in the past so this time around I figured I'd outsmart the nic bitch and equipped myself with nic gum. Despite the contrary arguments, it got me through the first two weeks of hell. Don't get me wrong, it was still a hard two weeks with the cold sweats and anxiety (paced so much I think I drove a path into the hard wood floors) but all in all it was manageable. At about two weeks I was only using 1 to 2 gum a day so I decided to throw it out and was smooth sailing for the next two days. Then day 4 came of being completely nic free and it hit me like a freight train. All the shit I read about cravings lasting only 3 mintues and only having a handful a day missed the marked completely. Not sure if it was because of snus, which I had in all the time so everything in my life was a trigger since there wasn't a time I couldn't use it. I chewed nic free gum for the next week like it was the only thing keeping me alive. But still a week later I was into a 3 day crave, anxiety was killing me and I was either going to cave or kill myself. I decided to give one last shot at some other oral supplement and that's when I tried seeds. I've been chewing and spitting seeds constantly for the last week and it has saved my quit.
I've been reading posts on this site for awhile now and never had the courage to signup and introduce myself. It's probably because I didn't want the fact that if there was somebody depending on me, I wouldn't have a way out if I wanted to cave. But I know now that I am really quit and will sign my name on this site to tell the world I'm done with this shit.