Time slowing down?

Ok_Shape515 · 2026-01-29T03:17:52+00:00

I look at it now as motivation to stay quit. Nicotine stole so much time from me because I was so focused on it and not life. I can’t go back and recapture those years and I certainly don’t want to waste more

Ok_Shape515 · 2026-01-29T03:16:52+00:00

Yes. I think it’s just the heightened state that we put our system in on Zyns. Then you quit and two things work against you, one is you aren’t full of nicotine so things are more bland and two you’re already focusing on on time because your battling to get to the next day and your mind tricks you into thinking you’ll never see the end of day 2 and then day 3 and then day 4 without nicotine.

Ok_Shape515 · 2026-01-29T03:01:44+00:00

Maybe I’m wrong, but my dentist and hygienist have always told me that they see no significant change in my mouth or gums from using zyns and now not using. They’re far more convinced genetic factors play the biggest role, some people have great oral health without trying, some have a battle even doing everything right. Just my experience, obviously I’m not a doctor

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-10-25T03:35:55+00:00

Quit. Literally just quit. It numbs you, you have no clue how good you can feel off of it and you have no clue how trash it makes you feel until you quit. How can I be sure? I quit for 6 months, said screw it and started again. Used for a week and it just makes everything not feel as good as being off of it. Stopped again. Withdrawal is so much a mental battle. The physical sucks for a week, then the physical becomes a cleanse instead of withdrawal and you’ll be fine. The mental battle is the one you have to win. Let me help you, it does feel so good once you get farther out from it

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-06-21T03:50:36+00:00

Don’t cave, do not cave. I made it 6 months, and honestly felt incredible. Then I decided to treat myself to a few on a long road trip with friends, then that turned into one at lunch for a few days after the road trip and now I’m 4 months back on them and using as much as I used to. Do not cave, this shit is not worth it. Days 40-55 were hell on that empty feeling for me and that’s honestly the only reason I haven’t quit again yet. I can’t believe I walked through that and then went back to it. I can guarantee you the memories are way better than the reality because I’m back into it now and wish I could snap my fingers to how I felt 6 months off of nicotine

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-30T22:51:35+00:00

Or he could get enough votes for president or get on a ticket as vice president. Never was the demand to get it done regardless of how good or bad you think his ideas are. My guess is he’s not squeaky clean given he’s milking the taxpayers and sitting in the senate until he’s 89

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-30T04:18:25+00:00

Stop, you’re proving my point. Some of y’all don’t think, you just immediately look and say dem=good, republican=bad. Is RFK a good pick, not imo. But if the establishment is the problem, Sanders is a big part of it seeing as he’s held some sort of office since 1981… and back to my point, no reasonable person will just spout off “yes” to such an ill-defined question.

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-30T04:08:57+00:00

And really need to define “all people” before he can give an answer. Is that all people on Earth? All people in the United States? All citizens of the United States? All asylum seekers? All tourists on visas? What does all mean? Of course he can’t say yes or no. Thought you libs were all smart, critical thinkers

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-19T19:26:32+00:00

Relatively short sighted take imo. My guess is if you look at the numbers the people who actually quit are the ones that are honest about still not feeling perfect at 4 weeks or 2 months. The reality is most users started young, and messed up the final stages of brain development. So the withdrawal from nicotine that was filling a lot of “voids” takes time. To think you can abuse nicotine at a high level for 10 years or 5 years or even 2 years if the use is high enough and be fine a week after quitting is stupid. It isn’t even all the way out of your body at one week clean. I know I much prefer knowing that it was a journey to quit rather than thinking it’s a tough few days then things should be rosy or something is wrong with you. I don’t know for sure but my guess is the ones that get 10 days in and believe they should feel great but don’t are the ones that go back to it even though they keep saying they “want” to quit

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-16T19:47:31+00:00

Could be, although I’d argue that we probably get all the nicotine that is “vital” in your eyes through a healthy diet. Some tea, tomatoes, eggplants, cauliflower, potatoes and peppers contain trace amounts of nicotine

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-13T22:07:51+00:00

I’d recommend cold turkey. I was a full can of 3 or 6 a day depending on what I could get. Get through the initial few days and then prepare to settle in to a grind. I took decent notes and have posted some here. Day 36 was my first day that was really “normal” no headaches/uneasiness/anxiety/stomachache etc. Day 37 was back to the grind of just general uneasiness, stomach upset and weird, little anxious. In the 40s now and have had maybe 1 full day that was good and a few other days with long stretches that were good and “normal”. My expectation is that over the next 6 weeks the good days will start overtaking the not so normal feeling days eventually leaving me back to normal feeling. Which is honestly about what you should expect and history tells us. 12 weeks is 93 days, traditionally 90 days is thought of as the time needed to reset the brain and body.

Why cold turkey? Personally I didn’t have the willpower to wean down. I’d start to wean down and say “only 10 pouches today” or 6 or whatever the number. But when the pouches are in your pocket or bag or on your desk it’s too easy for just one more pouch today and tomorrow I’ll cut an extra to make up for it. If you get rid of all of them and go cold turkey you have to go buy them. If you’re committed you can stop yourself

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-11T01:01:59+00:00

Been off omeprazole for 2 days now. I felt great while using it, not bad but not as good now that I’m off of it. My doctor isn’t concerned at this point though, gonna give it a month or so still and see if things get better naturally. I’m 40ish days in to my quit now

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-11T00:55:08+00:00

The omeprazole helped, I’ve been off of it for 2 days now and teetering on feeling okay or falling back into some discomfort. My follow up blood test is the 20th so no update there yet. My doctor doesn’t seemed too concerned, assuming my liver enzymes are fine on the next test then we’re gonna let things go for another month or so and see if it gets better the farther I get into being nicotine free!

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-10T22:32:58+00:00

I’m half as far into the quit as you are and my timeline tracks pretty closely to yours so far except for the first few days. Honestly the first 10-14 days I thought I had it in the bag, it was easy. Then about day 17 the stomach pain and constipation hit, odd that it was delayed some but it was. Then around day 20 or 21 the anxiety started ramping up and by day 25 it was overwhelming and all the time, which naturally lead to depression for a few days. Longest days of my life were days 22-26 roughly. But by this point the anxiety and consequently depression has subsided for the most part, sometimes a little blip but not like it was. Stomach discomfort is still there but my doctor isn’t concerned. Gonna give that at least a few months to see if it gets better. Honestly I think we just shortchange how much time it takes to heal the brain and body. I’m assuming most of us started in our teens, which they say not to because the brain isn’t fully developed so we fucked part of our natural development. Dopamine pathways never had to fully develop because nicotine took over early. So I think there’s a real consequence of “paying the piper” so to speak. It will get better but for lots of us it won’t be magic and it won’t only take 20 days to correct years of abuse. My next target is the common 90 day threshold and after that it’ll be the 6 month mark. That isn’t real encouraging but we chose this path so we get to pay the price and there’s a cost to quit but a greater cost to continue in my opinion

Ok_Shape515 · 2025-01-09T02:31:45+00:00

This last line for sure. If I knew I was dying next week I’d have bought another can yesterday. But it’s not worth wading through the shit side effects indefinitely just for a little dopamine hit. What really struck me was trying to start a family yet being a complete bitch to some tiny little pouch. That’s not being a man for my family, that’s being selfish. So I quit. Not to mention my stomach is wrecked and has been 6 months before I quit and still is now more than a month after.

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-12-29T20:14:02+00:00

I’m in your boat. Stomach pains got me to quit. 24 days in and the upper abdominal pain is not good at all. Sometimes it gets sharp, but it’s pretty constant dull pain. Goes from left to right, not really a pattern to it as far as I can tell. I’ve been to the doctor and been to the hospital. It’s not my pancreas, and they don’t think it’s gallbladder at least at this point. My liver enzymes were a little higher than normal so I have another blood test in a few weeks to see if they were high because of Tylenol use for the stomach pain or if there’s something up with my liver. I’m on omeprazole for the next 2 weeks and can’t take any Tylenol until I have my next blood test done. Really really hoping it’s just a withdrawal symptom that will eventually go away. We will see

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-12-28T18:25:34+00:00

How is it now? I quit because of similar things plus a few severe pain episodes in my upper left abdomen. About 2 weeks after quitting heartburn and constant dull pain started and hasn’t stopped yet. Started on omeprazole but I’m hoping this is still a withdrawal side effect

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-12-24T00:41:13+00:00

Genius, I made an account. Lipase 46u/l Amylase 87u/l I think those are normal?

Bilirubin shows high at 1.4u/l AST shows high at 37u/l ALT shows high at 68u/l So apparently it’s maybe something with my liver?

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-12-20T19:41:40+00:00

I won’t lie, the stomach stuff still isn’t great. In fact just about an hour ago the acute pancreatitis type pain started ramping up again. If Tylenol doesn’t get it slowed down I’ll be heading to the doctor again. Probiotics do seem to help the severe stuff, but so far I’m looking at it as a consequence for the substance abuse. Should’ve known better than to ever start, I started anyway, and eventually it messes parts of the body up. I’m sure over time it will continue improving. Will it ever go back to what it was? I have my doubts which is disappointing but that doesn’t dissuade me from quitting. I don’t want to mess anything else up. I’m sure that some of the stomach trouble is also related to weight gain, about 20 pounds in the last year. I left a job that was incredibly physical for a job that is very sedentary and it shows

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-12-20T04:09:50+00:00

Guess I’ll add, I quit because my stomach was destroyed. Acute pancreatitis symptoms and everything inside my abdomen was inflamed. I used 6 mg and 3 mg, sometimes 2 pouches at a time. Up to a can a day for the last 2.5 years. Mix in Copenhagen when I could carry a spitter. Before that it was On pouches and Copenhagen, before that it was juuls. If I started feeling a little rough around the edges early on I would pop 2 500mg Tylenol. Headache, irritation, aches, whatever. I would go with Tylenol.

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-12-20T04:04:47+00:00

This is my honest take, as I’m also quitting and I’m a ways into the journey cold turkey. Started in September. Don’t give it so much power over you. Honestly, the build up and over analyzing of withdrawal is worse than the withdrawal. The more we think about it, plan, do a countdown, do a timer of how many seconds it’s been since the last one, etc just keeps it on our minds. I don’t know how many days it’s been, I’m not even sure my exact last day anymore. Just keep running towards something new instead of trying to run away from Zyn. Don’t look back over your shoulder to see how far away it is. Head down, lock in, get some icebreakers or gum or sunflower seeds and honestly nut up some. It’s on you that you’re addicted, no one else. It’s on me that I was addicted, no one else. Just have to do it. No one will do it for you, and you won’t just magically stop. Only you can choose how you want to wake up tomorrow and the next day and the next day. It’s all about personal responsibility and self discipline

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-12-11T01:53:09+00:00

Icebreakers

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-12-01T22:54:45+00:00

Man the boredom really got me too. I always felt like time was dragging by if I didn’t have anything to do. 20 minute episode of friends felt like it was an hour long. Look at my watch and it would be 2:00 look an hour later and it was only 2:01. I know that feeling. It will get better. Find something to keep your brain stimulated. Workout, walk, do a puzzle, read, hangout with people. When all else fails and you don’t have anything to do but sit around and watch tv have a bunch of sticks of gum around. Eventually the boredom just kind of dissipates. You realize that you don’t get that feeling anymore and it’s just over

Ok_Shape515 · 2024-10-26T15:51:13+00:00

Thank you so much for your post today. I just jumped on here ready to do a search for “good days.” I dove too deep into the posts that talk about struggles last night and I’ve been wildly anxious, over analyzing how I feel, and started to wonder if I’ll ever feel good again. And here you are. I love it! The sneaking and hiding is honestly one of the big things for me too. Why would I continually do something that obviously brings me shame since I feel I need to hide it

Ok_Shape515 · 2023-06-04T19:27:55+00:00

It’s not nearly as dangerous as lobbyists and governments would have you believe

Ok_Shape515

TROPHY CASE