Hey everyone. Well, my journey to this point has been a long one. I was a social smoker in high school, but it never became an addiction and it was easy to quit and never look back. I had several friends that dipped and they always offered it to me, but I never had a problem staying away from it. Then, one night on my friends family farm several years ago, I gave in and thought I'd try it out. What's the worst that could happen? I had a close friend whose Dad has dipped for 50+ years and he's never had any problems. Dipping was a social thing that I would do when hanging out with friends or playing video games. Started driving a lot for work, and it quickly became a daily routine/habit...something to cure boredom or "give me energy" when I was tired on the road. I have no problem admitting that what was once a social thing became an addiction. I never once considered the effect that it was having on my body or health, in part because I didn't know but also didn't want to know.
One day last year, I saw a post that someone shared on Facebook. It was a photo of a guy who had part of his chin completely removed due to smokeless tobacco use. It scared the hell out of me, and I got rid of the partially full/empty cans that I had at the time. I'm ashamed to admit that I've since picked it up again, on and off over the past year. I'm even more ashamed to admit that my wife and I have since had our first child. I vowed to never dip again before the baby was born, but over time kept giving into my addiction.
Over the past few months, I have "quit" more times than I can remember. I'll go 2-3 weeks stretches without dipping (the most recent stretch was 2 weeks and 5 days dip free), but I somehow always fall back into the habit. In my journey to quit, I've read that support helps. That's why I'm here, because I need your help. I want to quit so badly and I want stop poisoning my body. I want to live a life free of addiction. I don't want anything to hinder me from being the best husband and father that I can possibly be.
I'm looking forward to going on this journey with you all.