Free From Nicotine
When I first got clean and sober my sponsor told me not to make any major changes for the first year of my sobriety. The logic being not to overwhelm myself by trying to take too much on at once. This included not giving up chewing tobacco which I was more than happy to do since I had no desire at all to quit. It took me more than a year but I finally managed to stop completely and just recently I celebrated one year of no nicotine. I’ve had a few people ask me how I quit so I’m going to dedicate this blog to what worked for me when I made the decision to stop chewing. The good news is that whether it’s chewing, vaping, or smoking, it’s all the same thing because they’re all just a delivery method for nicotine and that’s what we’re really dealing with… nicotine addiction.
Before I get into how I quit, let me give you a brief description of how bad my nicotine addiction was.
I started chewing back when I was 20 and one can could last me a couple of days. As the years progressed I got up to a can to a can and a half a day. It wasn’t until I got clean from drugs and alcohol that my nicotine addiction REALLY got out of control. In the first year of my sobriety I went from about one and a half cans a day to 4 cans a day. I could never bring myself to do that math but at $4 a pop, it’s not surprising that I didn’t have much money. The money wasn’t even the worst part though. The worst part was KNOWING what it was doing to my health. It became shame and guilt fuel when I started thinking about the fact that I had a daughter on the way.
If I didn’t have it within 5-10 minutes of laying down in bed I couldn’t sleep. It was the first thing I reached for when I woke up and if I couldn’t chew at work or after a meal I would get almost overcome with anxiety. I tried to stop so many times on my own willpower only to give in within the hour usually and feel disgusted with the fact that I couldn’t even go a day without my crutch. I say all of that because the bottom line is that if I could quit, anyone can quit.
So with all of that being said, here are some general steps that worked for me:
- Going cold turkey – I know that patches, gum and other nicotine substitutes exist but in my opinion they just make things worse. They literally draw out the amount of time that you have to withdrawal from the nicotine as opposed to just getting it done within a few days. I’m sure that nicotine substitutes have worked for some people but they were torture for me in the times I tried them. Besides, drawing it out only tricks your brain into thinking nicotine is precious when in reality it’s just a crutch.
- Changing my mindset – This one is kind of long but it’s by far the most important next to going cold turkey. I use to have the idea in my head that quitting nicotine was giving something up. It wasn’t until I had the realization that nicotine literally does nothing beneficial for me that I was able to quit. Cigarettes/chew did absolutely nothing for me other than keeping me a slave to nicotine. I realized that I was losing NOTHING and gaining EVERYTHING. Health, money, self-confidence, freedom and my quality of life were what I gained and I lost NOTHING by quitting. I enjoyed it from the moment I through my last can away.
- Realizing that nicotine withdrawal is hardly even noticeable – The first time someone told me that it made me angry but it was hard to refute because it was coming from an ex-smoker that had been there. Having been there myself, I can attest to the fact that it is barely noticeable. I had the idea in my head that quitting smoking or chew guaranteed weeks of absolute misery and irritability but the truth is that it’s all about your mentality going into it. If you believe that you’ll be miserable and that nicotine withdrawal is the worst hell on earth then you’ll probably experience misery and hell on earth. BUT, if you go into it with a mindset of excitement and joy with a focus of everything you’re gaining then nicotine withdrawals become nothing but a positive reminder that your slave master is dying and that you’re already well on your way to freedom.
- Keeping the same habits and routines – This one is also very important. Many nicotine users have routines where they always use nicotine in certain situations. Maybe it’s with your morning coffee, maybe it’s after every meal, or maybe before you go to sleep at night. Whatever it is, keep your same habits and routines but do so with a mindset of, “wow, I can enjoy this without the crutch of nicotine!” The sooner you can get into that mindset, the better off you’ll be. Remember, keep it positive.
- Don’t try to NOT think about smoking/chewing – You’re going to think about it, especially for the first few days, that’s a given. To deny that would be falling into a trap, you can’t trick yourself or distract yourself enough not to think about it. The important thing is instead to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Instead of thinking, “I wish I had a cigarette right now” think, “Man, I’m glad I’m finally free from this crutch”. Replace your negative thoughts with positive ones every single time you think about nicotine and you’ll do just fine.
- Throw it ALL away – You have to commit to it 100%. By having an emergency pack somewhere in the house you’re just reinforcing the idea that you can’t live your life on life’s terms without your crutch. You’re keeping the thought in the back of your mind that if things got bad enough you couldn’t get by without nicotine. Nothing could be further from the truth though. The second you put out your last cigarette you become a non-smoker and you can immediately start feeling the joy that comes from being free from slavery to nicotine.
I would say those are the biggest keys to my success in quitting nicotine. Don’t get wrapped up in the fact that I chewed either, like I said all of these rules apply to ALL nicotine. That counts not just for smoking but vaping too.
There’s more to each of the steps that I outlined above but that’s the gist of it. If you’d like to know more feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to get back to you.