My First 105 – and To All You Vets – HOF Thanks

Ok, first an apology — I have not been on the site much and pretty much went silent for the past 60 days or so. BUT, I remained quit and with it — I admit that i did not help my bothers much during this time, but nonetheless I am very grateful and appreciative to this site and all of you out there who helped give me the courage to quit, the knowledge to know how and what to expect and the inspiration to remain quit during the toughest days. So, the site says I should post my 100 HOF speech … here goes.

Its been a battle – that is for sure. I have relied upon a mixture of Hooch and Jakes mint dip. It gets me thru the NHL playoff games, MLB games, long drives and times when I just need to feel that lump in my lip. I still get the urge and I have been fighting with the problem of shoving food into my mouth and gaining weight — now trying to combat that with increased work outs etc.

My one real regret so far is that I have not been a help for any other guys like me who for some stupid reason feel that my dip (or make that when I used to dip) was my connection to my military veteran brothers still in the fight in A-Stan and elsewhere. I feel as though I have lost that part of my connection in life now forever and I am sure that others struggle with that as well. So, for any of you out there who feel the same way, please feel free to ping me and I am happy to remain connected and will do better about staying up with this site in the hopes that together we can stay quit forever. I can appreciate that you may not be able nor want to quit when you are still deployed, but if you are now home and are still dippin, please fight for your life now like you fought when you were under fire. Yes, it is pretty much the same thing even if your addiction is telling you otherwise.

Until then, all I can really say is — really, I don’t think I can add much intelligence to what has been said and written on this excellent web site. Its hard, there is no shortcut but it is absolutely worth it. Seriously, I am not going to lie and say I don’t miss the dip — I do very much. But I am so glad that I quit and have my life back. I am free. I no longer fight with my wife for excuses to get home so I can get into private mode and shove a dip in my mouth. I cannot even begin to express it how it has helped in my relationship with my kids. But when my 13 year old daughter leaned over to kiss me goodnight the other night and said “Dad, I am so glad you stopped dipping – thank you.” it really said it all. I realized that she never would kiss me goodnight because I would have that stinkin dip in my mouth (night time was my dip time). So, look what I have gained. And, when my 16 year old son said to me during the tough part of wrestling season when it was cutting weight – “Heck, if you can go without dip, I can go without that junk food.” I realized that finally I can live such that my actions are consistent with my view of life and I can lead by example for my kids. We are all strong enough to beat our addictions as long as we commit to it.

Finally, to the people who run this site — Thank you!!!! My daughter’s kiss and my son’s respect are more valuable than any commodity. And, to everybody else — stay quit and enjoy life!!

MattW

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member MattW