Yoda said (and I am paraphrasing now) “Try not, do, or do not”.
While talking with a friend that I use to work with, he noted that he was going to quit smoking. I said, “Outstanding, I am happy for you”. He commented, “You use to use chewing tobacco, how did you stop?”
I said, “I will be happy to tell you”.
I had used chewing tobacco for years, I was as addicted as anyone could be to the nicotine. My employer had a no smoking or chewing inside the building policy.
I realized it would be easy for me to have a chew in my mouth while driving to work and forget to get rid of it before entering the building. Even though I was the first person to arrive at work each morning, and no one would know if I entered the building with a chew in my mouth, I would know, and I did not want to break the rules.
During this time I was also serving as interim manager at another location, which caused me to travel almost every other week.
To complicate things even more, my youngest son was getting married.
Tobacco / nicotine for us addicts, is a real stress remover. I use the term addict because at some point I realized, that what I considered as enjoying a chew, was in truth a craving for the chew, caused by my addiction.
I explained to my friend, that at one point I had stopped using tobacco for about 3 years, and due to a very stressful situation over a period of time I began to use it again.
I also told my friend, I believed that I would need to stop using tobacco if I wanted to keep my job, and I did want to keep my job. Acknowledging I was addicted should have been enough of a reason to cause me to quit, but it wasn’t. Now that I think back on this, not wanting to be addicted was part of the reason for quitting.
I now had a reason to quit.
When will I quit? I was traveling to the other location every other week, and with my son’s wedding coming up things were going to be hectic if not stressful. Coincidently my last trip to the other location was the week before the wedding. I decided to quit at midnight the day after the wedding.
I now had a date and time to quit.
How would I quit, was the next question. I considered the patch and nicotine gum but decided against them. Those products are great for some people, but it seemed like a crutch to me. For me, reducing the nicotine intake was not quitting. I decided to quit cold turkey.
I now knew how I would quit.
I knew from past experiences that this was not going to be easy. I began telling family and friends that I was going to quit in an effort to, more or less warn them, that I would be in a bad mood, even worse than my usual bad mood.
I would later learn, that telling others that I was quitting was one of the best things I could do. I actually had their support.
The day came to quit and I took half a case of tobacco out to the trash can. I had been purchasing the tobacco wholesale by the case. I was somewhat surprised that I felt good about putting the tobacco in the trash.
I now had a desire to quit.
As I noted earlier, telling others I was quitting was a good thing. During the first couple weeks I received long distance calls from friends asking how I was doing. Those around me would ask daily how I was doing and said they were proud of me. I wanted to quit, and I did not want to let my friends down.
To my friend I said;
Don’t try to quit, do quit or do not quit. In my opinion if you are using the word “TRY”, when talking about quitting tobacco, you are setting yourself up to failed.
Set a date and time to quit. Set a date of no more than two weeks away, (two weeks allows you time to improve your mind set and to tell others). Dates that are too far out can easily be forgotten.
Have a reason for quitting. This reason must be, “your” reason. If you don’t have the desire to quit then don’t try.
Tell everyone that you are going to quit and the date. Tell family, friends, co-workers, neighbors.
Decide how you will quit. Use the method best for you.
To my friend who quit, I am happy for you.
Don Ford
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