The only time I'm not chewing is when I'm sleeping and eating. The addiction is out of control intense and absolutely must end before I'm dead or broke. Wait....I'm already broke.
Have this nicotine gum, afraid it isn't strong enough.
Suggestions?
Oh and yes, I always lie to my doctors and deny the "smoking" question. Liittle do they know chewing tobacco is far more venomous to the blood stream.
Yeah, it's up there with the big boy drugs in terms of withdrawls. I've quit before cold turkey but the intensity was just way too much. It's not even possible to function at all, especially chewing tobacco that delivers a far more potent dose of that wicked venom. It's essentially a neuro toxin.
Going with the nic patch/and or the nicotine gum to lower the baseline and then quit all together. This shit completely owns your life, and wallet.
Nicotine is one the toughest addictions to beat but it can be done, I been "clean " now for a little over 11 years and still get the cravings at times, it does get a little easier over time but it's still there.
Originally the reason why I quit was because my wife was suffering from COPD due to smoking and she was trying to quit, I didn't think it was fair to her that she was trying and I continued so we tried together. I tried Chantix for a while but I'm notorious for forgetting to take my scripts when needed so I stopped taking them and just followed their suggestions on gradual reduction of smoking. I was over a pack a day smoker and would light up the moment I woke up in the morning and even in the middle of the night if I woke up for a pee. My first strategy was to hold off my first smoke in the morning by 5 minutes, after a week or so I increased it to 10 minutes, eventually over a few months I increased my wait times from 5 minute intervals to half hour intervals to 1 hour intervals. I also increased my times between cigarettes starting at 1/2 hour intervals to 1 hour to 2 and so forth, YES i would be jonesing for a smoke between those intervals but I held firm and stuck to my strategy. Eventually I got down to just one smoke before going to bed and I'll tell you now that was the toughest one to give up, I had few sleepless nights after giving that one up and knowing all I needed was a smoke and I'd sleep well but I stuck to my guns knowing it will get easier down the road. I also used a strategy used by recovering addicts to avoid situations that would "Bring on The Use", when I was a smoker I would constantly smoke while driving so I made an effort to not smoke in the car and I actually quit drinking alcohol for the duration of quitting, I knew I had my addiction licked when I tested myself and went to my local pub to have a couple beer and not smoke (still jonesed a little but pulled it off).
You will have people tell you cold turkey is the way to go, others will tell you do the cessation drugs and/or nicotine replacements or the gradual method like I did but everybody is different and just find a way you're comfortable with and stick to it
BTW, my wife was not as successful as I quitting and I lost her this past February due to her COPD, It was a very stressful time for me back then and I was very tempted to start again but held off knowing she would be disappointed if I started again
Good luck Search, all us Covers brethren are here for you and we wish you well in your attempts to quit.
PS, I admire Goose for being able to quit cold turkey but I am of the belief that that method can be to much of a shock to some peoples bodies and would do more harm than help, just my opinion
I'm to the point where I have to have a cigarette for everything thing I do. It's ridiculous. 40 years of menthol ...2 packs a day....$140,000 later...what is it gonna take to quit. Guess it all comes down to strong WILL POWER ! I need to start running...or at least walking a few miles a day. Doctor says my lungs are clear...but I often have shortness of breath and everything smells like nicotine. Such a hard habit to break....but I have to do it soon or I'll be deader than a doornail very soon.
Okay, this is going long...
Welp, Search, tough times. Tough questions. Tough answers.
A few years ago, I started a thread called Stop Smoking on an April 15th a few years ago. Never smoked myself. Tried it once when I was 12, threw up, and that was that. I've never even had a joint. I felt it would be like stealing someone's pot. I'll puff on a cigar with some Talisker, but those days are few and far between…Among the people joining in were BenHogan, bigksolo74, DennisHopson, Europa, banans, ZiggyDawg, I think, among others. As someone married to an alcoholic, I felt I understood addiction. Putting something into your body that you know will harm you. Good news, she's 4000+ days sober. Bad news, we'll never be together again. So, I've lost…
You mentioned cancer. The big C.
Ever hear of Bill Tuttle? He had appeared on baseball cards with a wad of tobacco in his cheek in his day. Tuttle lost part of his jaw and a cheek as well as teeth and taste buds in a series of operations for oral cancer that eventually killed him. MLB started trotting him out in 1996 during Spring Training so that Major Leaguers could see what constant chewing could lead to.
He was accompanied by his wife. She recalls ''The players felt, 'Who's this?' Then they would see my husband's face and they would just look. Bill would give his story and you could hear a pin drop. Then they would hug us. Million-dollar players would come up with tears in their eyes and cans of tobacco in their hands and they would say, 'I want you to throw this away for me.' ''
Okay, so you never heard of Bill Tuttle. I KNOW you've heard of Tony Gwynn. Mr. Padre. 3000 hits. Batting titles. Always had that can in his back pocket. Constant chewer. Dead at 54. Tony Gwynn was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2010, after a lump sprouted from a tiny space inside his right cheek called the parotid gland. Most of that lump, a malignant tumor, was excised along with Gwynn’s lymph nodes in a surgery from which the face of San Diego emerged unable to smile or close his right eye. (To sleep, he taped the eye shut.) Chemotherapy left him dry-mouthed. Radiation treatments littered his face with open sores. But by the end of the treatment, the cancer appeared to be gone.
Then in the winter of 2012, the cancer returned, to the exact same spot. It took surgeons almost 14 hours to remove Gwynn’s latest lump, which sat on a nerve that controls facial expression. To replace the bits of the nerve that had to be cut away—and to prevent half his face from turning to stone—doctors grafted a nerve from Gwynn’s neck. After another round of chemo and radiation, the cancer was gone again.
A year later, it was back.
By this point, Gwynn was exhausted. He declined further radiation, which meant wearing a claustrophobia-inducing mask, and waved off a second opinion from the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, because it was too far away from home. “I’m dying,” he told his doctors. “I’m gonna go out my way. Let me enjoy what I can enjoy.” He didn't enjoy it long…
There was a movie with Sinatra called The Man With The Golden Arm. You should watch it. He was hooked, but not on chew. Locked himself in a room for days. Miles Davis kicked Heroin by going back to his parents farm, and locking himself in the barn….
Do you know what chemotherapy is? It is literally f*cking poison being put into your body. Like that F'in chew… You will have to fight fire with fire. But, I don't want you to do that. You're already good at NOT lighting up, so here's what I want you to do…
You will PM me, and we will talk. If you want to actually talk, we can exchange numbers. You gotta try, man. You have got to TRY. The alternative is not good. Let me put you on my No tobacco list. You know what you have to lose…
Change your routine, Search. You get it at a local convenience store? That store is your dealer....avoid it at all cost. Each time you get a craving, do something positive for yourself like some push ups or go running. My uncle died from dipping (gum cancer) and my father died from smoking (lung cancer). Tobacco ain't worth it, brah!!
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