Why is it that every time you try, you find it so hard to quit chewing tobacco? The answer is simple, you are addicted to nicotine.
Nicotine is the Culprit
It all comes down to you being addicted to nicotine, plain and simple. A lot of dippers seem to think that they aren’t addicts, and it is a common misconception that it is so hard to quit dipping because you are addicted to the actual dip or chew. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The real truth is that you are addicted to the nicotine found in all tobacco, bottom line. If you are a dipper or a smoker and can’t go longer than a day or two without a dip or puff, you’re an addict.
Nicotine is a stimulant found in the nightshade family of plants, which tobacco is a member of. Nicotine is generated in the root system of these plants, and is then distributed to the leafy areas. Humans have been cultivating and harvesting tobacco for its nicotine for thousands of years, the Native Americans were the first to use tobacco for nicotine. It doesn’t matter if you are smoking, using smokeless tobacco or NRT’s (Nicotine Replacement Therapies). The same nicotine is found in all of its forms. It is highly addictive, creating addicts out of its users with a vengeance. It is well known and has been documented that nicotine is just as addictive as cocaine and heroin. And with it being so readily available and on every corner, it can be argued that it is harder to kick than those hard core drugs because of its availability. This is why it is so hard to quit dipping.
How It Gets Into Your Body
Nicotine is taken into the body through the lungs, mouth or skin. It can also be taken in through any mucus membrane found on your body, but lets stick to the standards for conversations sake. It can be dried and smoked, placed in between the cheek and gum, or directly on the skin for the human body to take the nicotine into its blood stream. No matter the form of ingestion, they all involve getting the nicotine from the tobacco leaf into your body. So that is can then be dispersed to your brain and start the reaction.
There are many ways to ingest nicotine, here are a few of the most common:
The chemical makeup of nicotine, why it is so hard to quit chewing tobacco.
- Smokeless & Chewing Tobacco
- Spit & Snuff Tobacco
- E-Cigarettes
- Snus Pouches
- Smoking Cigarettes
- Smoking Cigars
- Smoking Pip Tobacco
- Smoking Hookah & Shisha
- Nicotine Gums
- Nicotine Patches
- Nicotine Lozenges
- Nicotine Pastes
What It Does Once in Your Blood Stream
Once someone has consumed anything that contains nicotine, it immediately makes its way into your blood stream. Then to your brain and all throughout your body. Nicotine is both a stimulant and a relaxant that causes a chemical release in your brain. Some of the major chemicals released are adrenaline and dopamine. The release of these chemicals causes a buzz and euphoric feeling in the user. When you first start using chewing tobacco, these chemicals and this feeling are what keep you coming back. Over time, your body begins to build up a tolerance and dependency. This is how you get hooked and why quitting smokeless tobacco is so hard. Your body becomes accustomed to this reaction, and you form an addiction.
How and Why We Get Hooked
We get hooked to nicotine because it is highly addictive. We already knew that, right? Our brains and bodies start to build up a tolerance to the chemicals, which is one of the first signs of addiction. Once you start building up a tolerance, you then need more and more to recreate the same feeling. This cycle can continue for years, as your addiction grows stronger. After a long enough period of time, you can’t recreate this feeling anymore.
This is when you will start using dipping tobacco just to feel normal. Because if you don’t use it often enough, you will start going into withdrawal.
Nicotine Withdrawal
The main reason that quitting dip is so hard is the withdrawal. Most people who attempt to quit are either too scared to face nicotine withdrawal, or don’t have the strength to push through it.
Withdrawal sucks, plain and simple. If you have ever experienced it you know what I am talking about. Most smokers and dippers have been forced to go a few hours longer than they would like to without their fix. When this happens, you find out quick what withdrawal feels like. When you actually quit like I have, you know what it feels like to have extended period of time in withdrawal. It can be grueling. It is no wonder why it is so hard to quit chewing tobacco. It sucks!
Here are some of the symptoms of withdrawal from dipping and smoking:
Nicotine withdrawal is one of the major reasons it is so hard to quit dipping.
- Intense nicotine cravings
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Fatigue
- Insomnia
- Constipation
- Anger and Irritability
- Headaches
- Frustration
- Restlessness
- Apatite increases
- Weight gain
- Loss in concentration
If you have ever experienced these symptoms, you know just how horrible they are, and why it is so difficult to quit.
Triggers & Dealing With Them
Triggers are things that make you want to dip or smoke. They can be anything really, from eating to changing the oil in your vehicle. When you use smokeless tobacco or smoke, whatever you do while dipping or smoking can become a trigger.
If you have ever tried to quit, you know what your triggers are. If you haven’t paid attention to what they are, you better start so that you can avoid them.
When I quit a couple years ago, it seemed like everything that I did was a trigger. And it took a long time to get used to the fact that I wasn’t going to have a dip every time I got a crave. But after you do it for a while your body and mind start to come to terms with it, and it gets way easier as you move along.
If you understand your triggers and how to avoid them, you are on your way to not going back.
Why Many Quitters Go Back
Three words can answer this question. Your an addict. Plain and simple.
I have heard guys talk about how they miss the taste, or they miss the feel of something in their mouth. We know that this is all BS, and all they really miss is the nicotine.
This all that I am going to touch on this for now. Because whatever excuse you may be telling yourself, is just and excuse. Once you understand that your an addict there is no good reason to go back.
What is Different With Smokeless Tobacco?
There is a big difference between smoking and smokeless tobacco. Some people like to think that chewing tobacco is safer than smoking it, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Here are some differences and reasons dip is harder to quit than smoking:
- Chewing tobacco is easier to conceal and hide.
- You can’t smell a chewer as easily as you can smell a smoker.
- Chewing tobacco has more nicotine in it per dip than a cigarette does.
- There is a myth out there that it is safer.
Smokeless is just as dangerous as smoking, if not more. So if you’re ready, its time to quit.
been dipping over 30 yrs—-I told myself 8 yrs ago when my son was born that I would quit—but I didn’t.
12-31-13 10pm hopefully I took my last dip.
Jeff,
We don’t hope around here, we quit. If you’re wondering why its so hard to quit dipping, its because you don’t look at it the way you need to. Get over to the forum, post an introduction, post roll with your quit group, keep your promise and repeat every morning. No hope necessary, just the determination and support you need to quit dipping the right way.
If I only dip during certain activities, is that a mental, not physical addiction? If in a all male environment, (driving forlift, dirtbike, shooting guns etc ) outdoor and no females around. I feel a urge and indulge, but working indoors in the microchip industry, I seem to go weeks without till the next guy outing, this common? Or dangerous?
Which dip is going to trigger a mutation of the genes in a cell in your mouth, resulting in cancer. You know just as much as I do. We don’t. Nicotine is addictive. And addictions only accelerate.
I would get over to the forum @ and post roll with us. It isn’t worth taking the chance Chuck.
I played baseball in college, and I’ve been dipping since age 20 or 21 and I’m 26 now. I would like to quit. I haven’t been able to. I’m at too stressful a point in my life to give up nicotine, so I’m not willing to go all in and commit. That said,
You HAVE to provide peer-reviewed citations for all of the stuff you’re claiming on here. And for God’s sake, use “you’re” correctly. Smokeless tobacco is somewhere on the order of 1000 times less harmful than smoking. And that’s conservative, it may be closer to 10 thousand times less harmful. So saying this: “Smokeless is just as dangerous as smoking, if not more. So if you’re ready, its time to quit,” is demonstrably false and ignorant on your part. See http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/7/36. It’s the largest meta-analysis of smokeless tobacco to date. I’m studying epidemiology in grad school at the moment, so email me if you have questions. Other than that, some good advice and very interesting ideas.
Thanks for “your” opinion Andy.
When “you’re” ready to quit, you know where to find us.
Maybe “you” should come post roll with us on the forum and quit for a couple days, see if you have it in you.
I believe that smokeless is less harmful to the lungs that smoking. Smokeless is just as harmful -if not more- to the throat, esophagus, and stomached than cigarettes. Due to nicotine content alone, smokeless is more harmful to the heart.
We can supply peer reviewed comparative data all day long. At the end of the day, smokeless kills and the sooner you stop the better .
I agree it’s EXTREMELY hard to quit dipping, I was recently diagnosed with cancer of the mouth and saliva glands and had to have my jaw removed. So this “product” that I loved so much throughout the years has cost me dearly, mentally, emotionally and physically.
Luckily I still consider myself a real man, so I know pack dips in my upper, guess next time they’ll have to cut my head off. Lol, just kidding…but dont dip, its got horrible consequnces.
ahhh christ almight, what i meant to say in the 2nd paragraph was “I NOW pack dips in my upper LIP”. My apologies, I been popping all these damn pain killers due to my jaw getting hacked off. Lost a ring finger in the gulf war too. It was intense.