Do Anything!
By: Bluesman


Welcome to the Cafe and congratulation on your decision. You probably do not realize it or fully appreciate the import, but you have just made one of the most important decisions and commitments of your life. I have one piece of advice for you ...

Do Anything!!

Tobacco addiction is a formidable opponent ... it is an "opponent" with an outpost in your head, and a complete working knowledge of your weaknesses, and excuses, and rationalizations, and breaking points, and everything else, because the addiction is part of you. You must be willing to DO ANYTHING it takes to stop using tobacco, anything that gets you to the next moment in time (day, hour, minute, breath) without using tobacco. In my case, the "Do Anything" approach meant ...

(1) Using fake/herbal chews like Smokey Mountain Chew and Backoff ... they are close enough to the real thing that it will satiate the oral fixation habit while you tackle the mental components. And buy like ten containers of it in every flavor ... you will feel ridiculous purchasing a tin of anything if you are surrounded by piles of fake chew.

(2) Drinking more/stronger coffee (to break through the "fog") ... I realize that this could be regarded as "trading addictions," but the last time I checked, coffee does not cause cancer, and the caffeine will sharpen your senses a bit during the withdrawal stage.

(3) Prioritize your Quit ... commit to the fact that NOTHING is more important that freeing yourself from addiction, and that over the next 30-60 days, you are not going to be the best __________ ... This blank may mean husband, father, plumber, writer, lawyer, doctor, ballplayer, person, whatever ... recognize that the short term loss (whatever it is) is so completely outweighed by the long-term benefits of quitting, that the comparison is laughable.

(4) Telling your friends and co-workers ... find the most annoying, self-righteous person in your everyday life, and tell them that your are quitting ... this adds a whole new level of accountability, because it puts your pride and ego on the line. The only reason to "keep the quit quiet" is that you are setting yourself up for failure.

(5) Joining a gym (or if you belong to a gym, use it) ... this serves multiple functions, as it gives you a place to constructively take out your frustrations, anxieties, and "dip rage," and it starts you on a path where you are working on the other side of the equation (i.e., creating the new tobacco-free healthy you). Especially if you have not lifted weights in years, you will find it to be very rewarding to feel the healthy ache of muscles ... as a bare minimum, you will crave Advil rather than tobacco.

(6) Drinking LOTS of water ... it gives you something to do (walk to a water fountain and use it), and it creates a physical sensation that somehow combats cravings (i.e., you feel bloated and piss a lot, which to the addict, is actually a preferable condition to craving tobacco ... which is a sad but true commentary on how moronic this addiction truly is).

(7) Telling your family (wife, children, parents) ... yes, they have heard it before (and may roll their eyes when you tell them this time), but it will explain your mood swings over the next weeks and months. It may also get you some sympathy "nooners" with your significant other. Allow them to support you (and find a good flower shop for when you have a "post traumatic dip disorder" meltdown).

(8) Accepting that you are quitting for yourself ... you make your own weather, you run on your own gas, and nobody can say or do anything that will create a "reason to cave." Take personal responsibility for who you are.

(9) Accepting that you are not going to "be yourself" after you quit ... of course you are not yourself, because you are trying to break free from the tobacco junkie in you, that has controlled your life for years. The "tobacco junkie" you was a self-centered loner with bad breath and a jones for cancer-causing chemically-treated tobacco leaves, who cared more about himself and feeding his addiction than he did about the health and well-being of his family and friends ... I mean, really, don't we all hope the door hits that guy on the ass on the way out?

(10) Creating a Plan of Last Resorts, something that you will absolutely, positively do before you will put cancer-causing tobacco leaves in your mouth again ... my plan required me to drive 20 minutes north, purchase a tin of fake chew (SMC) and take one 30-minute chew of the fake stuff before purchasing a tin of Skoal ... the plan saved me at least twice (i.e., sitting in the parking lot at night, chewing SMC and thinking about it, made me feel like a complete idiot, and I ended up driving home)

(11) Jogging. The time alone pounding your feet against the asphalt will clear your head.

(12) Spending time with children (your own if you have them). It brings you joy and reminds you why you are freeing your mind from addiction. As as you watch them and play with them, imagine their heartbreak if you ever had to explain the concept of "inoperable cancer" to them.

(13) Buy $100.00 worth of gum, mints, and hard candy, and leave the gum, mints, and candy everywhere. They are like little reminders as to how much time, effort, and money you are putting into this final QUIT, and that is the idea ... You must make it more painful, more difficult, and too great of a cost to your pride and ego to relent.

(14) Print out pictures from the Cancer Gallery and study them ... memorize what the freakish, discolored abnormalities look like, so that you can bring them to mind without the pictures.

(15) Read all of the articles and all of the Hall of Fame Statements on this website. The best way for your to be successful, is to follow the advice and example of people who have been successful. The people in the "Hall of Fame" have made it at least 100 consecutive days without using chewing tobacco ... it is a highly-regarded badge of honor among us long-time tobacco junkies.

(16) Set your Quit Tracker ... it automatically records your consecutive days of victory. Tobacco addiction is a condition, but tobacco usage is a choice ... You quit tobacco on a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, moment-by-moment basis ... As the quit days add up, you will feel a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment, and you will relish your Quit Days ... by comparison, I do not know a single person who ever "relished" a cave, their day of failure in the battle with tobacco addiction.

(17) Visit a hospital or long-term care facility ... seeing people struggle with real adversity and permanent, substantial obstacles in their lives, will make you realize what a complete whiner you truly are.

(18) Read. Certainly read all of the postings here, but read literature and poetry and new novels and anything else that will move your mind forward beyond the addiction (and, again, working on the other side of the equation in creating a new tobacco-free person).

(19) Write your own Hall of Fame Statement. Draft the words that you will use to describe the feeling of victory and hope and true freedom, after years of addiction.

(20) Be willing to stop another activity or habit, if it is so hardwired to your system that it will undermine your commitment. I make this point with great relunctance, because I firmly believe that you cannot let ANY activity or circumstances or event in your life undermine your commitment ... there is simply no valid excuse for failure. But if you just cannot bring yourself to drink alcohol or go hunting or eat Mexican or play PS2 or ride your motorcycle without chewing, then guess what ... you need to "quit" that activity as well, just for a month or so, while you build your confidence in the battle with tobacco addiction.

(21) Prayer. I started going to church again when I quit chewing, in part because I felt a different hole in life and in part to find a place to think about who and why I am, as I battled this addiction. Having walked around for years calling myself an "agnostic" (whatever that means), I felt that I was able to reconnect to my community by actually joining my community in prayer ... it is more of the "other side of the equation" stuff that will help you redefine yourself in a world without tobacco.

(22) Buy weekly "rewards" for yourself, to celebrate your accomplishment. I purchased a new CD just about every week, as my "reward" for making it through, and about every few weeks, I would take my wife out to a high-end restaurant (to reward her for putting up with me). I am currently listening to the Shins, the Vines, Ryan Adams, rem's new album (not very good unfortunately), and U2 ... pick up something, turn it up, and celebrate your freedom!!

(23) Join your Quit Group ... which are the members who quit chewing tobacco right around the same time as you, who are going through the exact same thing as you at the same time. This place has a marine-like motto of leaving no one behind ... the people in your "quit group" will hold you accountable, listen to your whining, and pull you through the tough moments.

(24) Read and post, read and post, read and post. I have found that it is impossible to crave tobacco out of one side of your mouth, when you are offering advice and support to a member here out of another. Become a crusader for this cause and for positive personal change in your life. As they say, the life you save may be your own.

(25) Breath. No matter what you are experiencing (or think you are experiencing), it will come to pass. A tobacco craving will pass, whether you feed it or not ... tomorrow will come. Keep the big picture in mind when you find yourself focusing all of your energies on one moment.

And notwithstanding my long-winded, over-the-top nature, I have only summarized a small amount of the good advice you will find here.

Gentlemen, by being an active member in this community, I have freed myself from a 20-year addiction to chewing tobacco, and have now been free for more than three years. I am a happy, self-reliance, father of three, successful attorney, living my life on my own terms, with the power of self-determination. You can achieve the same success, starting today.

Finally, Kicker, you must do what is in your own best interest, but my advice to you is to quit today, right now. Throw out the chew, down the toilet (not in the trash, or you'll be back there in an hour), and start living your life on your own terms today. It is like we have unlocked your prison cell, but you are asking to hang out in your cell for a few extra days. Real life is always going to keep right on happening, it doesn't stop while you fight the addiction. If you quit now, you will have two weeks under your belt by 12/1 and you will be celebrating your freedom, rather than merely hoping for it.

Good luck, get involved, do ANYTHING, and free your mind from addiction ~ No Tobacco Today!!

The Bluesman