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Quit Smokeless Chewing Tobacco
Stopping chewing tobacco is often harder than
trying to quit smoking. Some studies have shown that a
person can absorb 8 times more nicotine in a pinch of chewing
tobacco than the same amount in a cigarette. So what is the
difference between a .38 caliber bullet and a .45 caliber
bullet? Same effect? When you try and quit chewing
smokeless tobacco, you are breaking a physical and psychological
addiction. The different symptoms need to be recognized.
Physical withdrawal initially takes 3-7
days.
Psychological addiction can take a year to
break.
Physical withdrawals to smokeless chewing
tobacco include nervousness, sweating, mood swings, insomnia, and
tremors.
Psychological addiction occurs from the
development of patterns. Such as chewing tobacco when your
driving, working outdoors, after dinner, while drinking alcohol,
playing sports, fishing, on the phone. These patterns must
be broken. The initial pattern set up in your brain is one
that looks like this
To successfully stop chewing smokeless chewing
tobacco you must break this association.
This is not easy. A helpful way to do this
is to trick subconscious thinking. An easy method which is
like a self hypnosis is to wear a rubber band on your wrist.
When you have a overwhelming desire to chew tobacco, snap the
rubber band, and say to yourself "Stop !!" Over
the course of time you will find that that the time between urges
starts to lengthen. Eventually, after about 3 months, you will
find that you can ditch the rubber band, and just say to
yourself "stop", and the urge will
dissipate. What is happening here is that the rubber band is
interrupting the chewing tobacco --- pleasure circuit. It is
instead, putting pain in the equation. Now the pain doesn't have
to be intense, just present. The subconscious brain doesn't
recognize volume controls very well. It can't determine a level of
pain, just that it is present. What will happen is that you
will retrain your brain to respond differently.
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For those that have difficulty quitting chewing
tobacco cold turkey, you should consult you doctor about a
Nicotine patch, or Nicorrette ® Gum cessation program. You
might also try a non tobacco chewing substitute. They are
several brands out there, but the one I have had best experience
with is
Smoke
Mountain Snuff
It has a texture that is closest to real chewing
tobacco, holds a similar pack, and has a flavor that has zip to
it. It actually comes in 3 different flavors also.
For the physical withdraws when you stop chewing
smokeless tobacco, you will find some help with Vitamin B 100
complex. Nicotine addictions helps leach out B vitamins,
which are important in nerve function. Some of the tremors and jitteriness
can be helped with one Vitamin B 100 complex a day.
How do you know when it is time to quit ??
It is always a good time to quit. It is
especially good to quit smokeless snuff when you have a whitish
film on the inside of your lip. This is a precancerous
condition known as leukoplakia. If this condition proceeds
to develop into oral cancer, by the time this is recognized, it is
way too late for easy alternatives. When oral cancer
presents, no matter how small, you will have part of a lip cut
out, and probably have the lymph nodes stripped in you neck to
check for spread. Problem with oral cancer, that presents in
a place like the lower lip, is that this area has a great blood
supply. Blood and lymphatic vessels are present in this
area. This gives cancer a quick escape route in which to
spread very quickly.
Leukoplakia
Oral
cancer in the floor of mouth
Stages
of Leukoplakia
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