Quit? Me? – HOF Bit
I was introduced to smoking and dipping some time around age 14 or so. I started smoking daily around 17. I had to quit smoking for the coming school year and a friend suggested I try dipping. That was that. The next 19 years or so, I smoked, dipped or did both, with maybe 8 or 9 total days of being nicotine-free.
A few years ago, I quit smoking to pursue dipping full-time. I often fell asleep dipping, tried to hide dipping in front of co-workers and bosses, had constant heartburn, trouble eating, lots of gum pain, etc. While I was dipping, I thought about when I was going to have my next dip. My dentist sent me to a periodontist to get a biopsy on the ol’ gums and that gave me a little push to quit.
I set a quit date, wrote down positives of quitting, negatives of not, bought an assload of gum, sunflower seeds, toothpicks, anything I could think of. After 7 days dip-free, my longest quit ever, I was in the middle of nicotine withdrawal insanity and about to cave. I found KTC and started looking around. “What to Expect When You Quit Dipping” and “Symptoms of Quitting Dip and Chew” were a huge help. What I was going through was par for the course with going through nicotine withdrawals. Somehow, knowing the process was supposed to suck ass made it suck ass a little less. It was also clear that things would get much better — as long as I stayed stopped.
Chewie helped get me set up on the site and answered lots and lots of questions for me early on — thanks Chewie. Thanks, too, to Yammer, The Artist Formerly Known As…, MikeCo, and AfroMann for their help at various times of my quit. Big thanks to everyone in the June 09 BMF HOF Class who is still quit and posting. Posting with y’all and seeing all of you post and stay quit through your ‘life stuff’ has helped me to stay quit through mine. You really do feel like my sister and brothers.
Hitting the Hall is amazing — I actually couldn’t visualize making it when I started. But that’s a beginning, not an end. I’m no less an addict than I was the day before I quit. To stay quit, I need to keep doing what’s gotten me this far: Quit dipping for today, keep posting and stay close to my quit family.
JayZee72
NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member JayZee72
