The Psychology Of Kicking The Chewing Tobacco Habit

July 21, 2010 | By In Fitness, Health |

For a large percentage of the world’s population, smokeless tobacco is something they have tried, if not something used regularly. Most people associate smokeless tobacco with sports stars, and falsely believe that it is a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes. Unfortunately for them, this proves to be wrong, as smokeless tobacco causes a range of health problems for its users.

Many different types of people use this highly addictive substance and no one is safe, dependent on race, social status, or gender. The reasons for going smokeless vary widely from appetite control to generalized stress reduction. And this epidemic is hurting the world. Targeting the world’s future with the predominant users being just teenagers and sometimes preteens, it is an extremely harmful addiction.

The truth of the matter is that teens and smokeless tobacco are getting to be excessively close to each other and creating lifelong habits and health risks that are just too great to be overlooked and too dangerous to be ignored. Child use of smokeless tobacco is constantly on the rise, with some users starting when they are just nine or ten years old.

Rural Caucasian teenagers have the highest risk of using smokeless tobacco, and if the teenagers live in a household with an adult user, their risk of following the trend rises dramatically. In the U.S. among high school students grades 9-12, an average of 9.3% use smokeless tobacco. Among the white male student body, the average is about 1 user out of every 5 students. But what are the effects of smokeless tobacco and what are the advantages and disadvantages of using it? On the plus side of course is “looking cool,” and possibly fitting in with one’s peers. It also causes an unusual sensation in users by first calming them, through the release of dopamine in the brain, and then exciting them with a release of adrenaline. It can also cause appetite suppression, which some users may abuse to try to lose weight.

On the down side are serious consequences that make the reasons to chew look completely insubstantial. Use of smokeless tobacco causes a wide variety of diseases, along with tooth and gum problems, bad breath, and of course the financial spending of the user to supply smokeless tobacco. Most tobacco users using one can per day, over 30 years at current prices will spend up to $50,000 on chewing tobacco in their lifetime, assuming they survive long enough.

There are no known cures for either the gastrointestinal or the oral cancers smokeless tobacco causes, and this may potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment and ultimately funeral expenses.

Quitting smokeless tobacco is widely believed to be much more challenging than quitting smoking. Part of the addiction includes a very large amount of nicotine absorbed by the body while dipping or chewing. This amount is double that received from smoking a cigarette.

But how can one beat their smokeless tobacco addiction? Various products are available to help wean users off of snuff and chew, such as a product that uses the spearmint plant to mimic the tobacco without supplying the nicotine. And some success has come from receiving same shot that inhibits receptors for smoking. But the best way to quit and permanently remain tobacco-free without withdrawal symptoms, stress, and weight gain is through using a hypnotherapy program.

Hypnosis offers a two-fold attack to the ritualistic dipping or chewing reflex built up by your previous habits and lifestyle choices. It first works to eliminate the psychological motivation for why you desire a dipp, and then it works to eliminate the mental habit itself.

First consider the emotional reasons for using tobacco products. Dopamine is a “feel good” chemical produced in your body and released by your brain to create a feeling of pleasure. In times of stress, dopamine can produce a general feeling of well being. Some common occurrences of natural release include eating a large meal, or sexual relief. In other words, putting some chew into the mouth gives relaxation and pleasure. The very essence of hypnosis is relaxation, and hypnosis is superb for stress relief and relaxation.

Hypnotherapy also works to break the cycle of expectation that your mind creates. When you chew tobacco after dinner, your mind begins to tell your body that you need a chew every time you finish eating dinner. By inhibiting or eliminating this thought process, you won’t feel the urge to pack your cheek after you pack your stomach.

By eliminating these two root causes of chewing tobacco use, hypnotherapy can eliminate the urge to dipp or chew, stopping your physical need for the extra release of dopamine. Thus hypnosis works in freeing you from this lethal addiction and provides a stress free method for stopping.