I’m willing to bet that a lot of “dippers” who are actively using smokeless tobacco wish they could quit. Strangely, when I was still dipping, I did not want to quit, but then the day came when I really wanted to be done with smokeless tobacco for good.
It is unfortunate that my desire to actually be done with dip came after decades of having that poison crap in my mouth almost every waking moment of my life. For the last several years my addiction it was so bad that the only times during any given day that I did not have dip in my mouth were meals, exercise, and sex. And the sad part is that I rushed through all three of those things, just so I could put tobacco back in my mouth as soon as possible. Smokeless tobacco was controlling my life and ruining my heath at the same time, but I still I refused to consider quitting.
Why would a reasonably intelligent person like me continue to use this poison substance even though it was draining my wallet, eroding my gums, and affecting almost every decision I made in my life. My first thought when someone would as me to do something (see a show, go to a club, attend an event, etc.) with them was always, am I going to be able to dip? I was a slave to smokeless tobacco, but still would not quit. The truth was – I was scared to quit.
Like so many other smokeless tobacco users, dip was so much a part of my life that I could not imagine living without it, and I was really afraid to try. My “friend” dip had been there for me through thick and thin, and I even credited a lot of my success in life to my use of tobacco. In retrospect, I now see that a can of ground-up poison leaves is not a friend and is not the key to productivity or success. However, when I was still using my fear of living a life without tobacco was so overpowering that I never seriously thought about quitting.
Then came a day when instead of fearing a life without dipping, I was actually fearing for my life itself because of the harm that smokeless tobacco was doing to my body. I’ll discuss the details of that day another time.