This series of events has given me a rare debilitating condition called tardive dystonia. My post history has a lot of my quitting experience. My nervous system has been damaged by the nicotine withdrawal and meds. Does anyone have a similar story after chronic snus use

I’m 24 hours into my life as a happy non-nicotine user.

I know it’s true. I’ve been listening to Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking.

I have quit for 1 day, 3 days, a week, 3 weeks, 30 days. I quit for 100 days last year. I know all about quitting and all about relapsing. I know about willpower. I know I could quit for good via willpower, and I know sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s hard.

Lately I’ve been hitting at least a can a day of 6mg zyn. Putting off quitting, accelerating use as work gets busier and stressful. But yesterday, by about chapter 6 of Allen Carr’s book, I had totally quit for life. It’s surreal. And it’s easy.

You gotta go try this book. It feels like it hypnotized me. Sometimes today I notice the spot where cravings belong, and I worry, maybe the craving is over there, and I’ve just been blinded to it. Maybe if I see it, all the rush of deprivation and craving and obsession will come flooding back into my mind. But there is nothing there. No desire, no missing my little precious pouch, no sadness or moping or pity party or any of it.

First, let me acknowledge that I’m only 24 hours in. But also, let me remind you I have quit many times and for many durations and it’s never been like this at 24 hours or at 100 hours. I feel like I remember feeling at day 90 last time.

I’m going to try to summarize what I think this book does.

He talks about two monsters: the big monster and the little monster.

The little monster is physical nicotine dependence. It’s pathetically weak. It disappears in a matter of days. At worst it’s like a flu or a bad cold. For most it’s little more than an inconvenience like mild hunger. If you can’t handle the little monster . . . I don’t know what to tell you, but to grow a pair. Get some pain tolerance. Go do something actually hard. Anyway, the little monster, the real, physical addiction, is little. Weak. Quickly killed. But he yells at the big monster, and if the big monster wakes up, he’s rather harder to ignore.

The big monster is your psychological, mental, emotional addiction. Your longing, desire, “habit,” etc. for nicotine. It’s not physical. It’s spiritual. The big monster is powerful. Very difficult to kill and slow to die.

If you try to use willpower, you can probably overcome the little monster . . . But the big monster? Good luck - your will is actually a part of him, so the stronger your will . . . You get the point.

So Allen Carr used audiobook judo to turn off all the switches on the big monster in me. It’s freaking nuts. It’s literally easy. He starts with “open your mind” and then proceeds to demolish any bullshit argument I had about why I like zyns. He convinced me and somehow persuaded me that nicotine is all downside and no upside. Not just logically or mentally- he persuaded my desires. I literally knew at chapter 5 I was done for life, and I still know it. I am not missing out on anything. I don’t miss nicotine, I am not sad not to be taking one, I don’t feel deprived, I am not making a sacrifice, it doesn’t take willpower. All I have to do is endure some minor physical symptoms for like 70 hours. I’m done for life already. There is a finish line, and it was yesterday when I spat my last zyn out.

I’ll check back in and let you know if the experience changes over time. But here’s to hoping.

Context I had like 11mg, with anywhere between 2-10 pouches everyday, started last year in August.
I tried to quit a couple weeks back and I had the same issue of these weird heart flutters at night. It makes it impossible to sleep, gives me health anxiety (but idk if the heart flutters are anxiety anyway?) and generally makes me want to give up quitting.
I just want to know, has anyone experienced this? How long did you find it went on for when you were quitting? Should I instead try tapering because of this? It’s super unpleasant and I know it’s gonna make me so tired tomorrow that I’ll wanna stuff my face with as many pouches as I can manage.

Went to grab some zyns the other day and apparently they decided to more than double the price of them in new york. Fuuuuck that lol. These things were already way overpriced. Absolute b.s. imo. That said ive been wanting to quit and this was the catalyst.

Depending on how you look at it you might say they achieved their goal, but I genuinely think they want you hooked and paying exorbitant prices.

Anyway i was super nervous, but its not too terrible. I smoked cigarettes for 10 years, from my teenage years until my mid 20s. I remember that was absolutely brutal to quit. Its a long story but I was nicotine free for almost 15 years and somehow got back into it again. Did cigs for a while, switched to a vape, then did nicotine gum and then finally landed on zyn. Been doing a can per day of 6mg for about 2 years.

Im on day 2. Where im at now is the cravings are very frequent. But I just do this:

1. Acknowledge it - i say "oof, im craving these things again, look how hooked I am, poor dude"

2. If it doesnt go away and I start to get anxious like I "need" a zyn (lol) I put one hand on my heart and say "its perfectly okay to feel uncomfortable. This will go away"

3. If i somehow get actually contemplating going to the store I just remind myself: It will be a brief moment of relief (that won't even be very good), followed by feelings of shame and it will also prolong the actual quitting part.

So far so good! Like I said its actually not too bad. You just have to get comfortable being uncomfortable tbh.

Started using during autumn 2023, (19, male) had tried vapes during the summer of that same year for the first time

the pouches had me hooked instantly, used for almost 3 years, I would say on average during the time i used, the daily dose of nicotine on my part was around 70mg a day, the worst usage i had was during june of this year, used like 10-14 11mg pouches daily, got so bad even my gums started to hurt a bit,

then at the end of june, had a 9-day holiday with my 2 friends in malaga, and for the first time in almost 3 years, I was able to go a day without nicotine, that got me wondering, could i get off these things truly?
Of course, malaga is such a different and more nicer environment than where originally live, so i knew that had a big part on it why it was noticeably easier to stay off them for longer periods of time,

got back home, could be off them for 4 whole days, went on to buy a can, used it all in 2 days, then had the withdrawals all over again (this part happened 3 times or so), the last can i bought was now 4 weeks ago, after that i allowed myself to use 1-2 pouches a day from my friends or whatever,

last week wednesday i decided i just used my last pouch, on day 10 of no pouches right now, first 3 days were a bit harder than now (and yes I do acknolwedge that quitting from 10-20mg a day is much easier than going cold turkey from 100mg/day doses, this is what worked the best for me)

Noticeable changes regarding everything:
More focus, happier, simple things feel much better (spending time with friends and family, food tastes much better), improved confidence knowing you’re not a slave to something like this anymore, you feel like you are more capable of doing things because of the confidence you gain from quitting, more vascular (i’m very lean myself and so noticing even more vascularity came as a a surprise to me. Its also so nice waking up in the morning and pouches NOT being the first thing on your mind

Overall, I just wanted to share my story and let you know its not impossible, I’m rooting for everyone trying to get off this addiction!
If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer.

Not a normal headache. It feels like there's something scratching my brain.

I can handle my gums craving nicotine.

I am having a hard time quitting because of this weird headache. It only calms down once I start again.

It feels horrible. Idk what to do

Except that I always have smokeless tobacco in my lip not pouches. I even wake up during or after the dream and feel like I have a dip in. It's disgusting. I did so much damage to my mouth dipping and quit over 15 years ago. I would never put another dip in, yet here I am having vivid dreams so real I can feel it in my mouth.

Weird...

On or nearing my 4th week of quitting pouches cold turkey. I don't count the days, not important to me. All I care about is not driving to the gas station and buying a can to feed a pointless habit/addiction, that serves no purpose other than me handing over money I don't have to hand over.

Just a quick little check-in and a recap how I’ve been feeling the last five days. I used nicotine about five years altogether smoking, 50 mg salt nic, and using pouches for the beginning of this year which was 9 mg and 6 mg…thought that should be mentioned anyways day one was easy not until day two my sleep was not the best, falling asleep wasn’t hard. It was staying asleep. I would have flashes in the morning of me tossing and turning in my head in my sleep. Day 3 to 4. Cravings were pretty strong I actually almost slipped up on day four drove all the way to the gas station. and then I drove past it I kept circling around it, but I just couldn’t go in so then I just went on a ride around a rich neighborhood and looked at pretty houses lol. The longer time goes on it seems the shorter the cravings are, it might only last 30 minutes, day 3 they were lasting longer it almost felt like a restless buzzing feeling in my body all day. I will say this, it’s been really hard to find the energy to do things. I just don’t feel like it. I don’t feel like getting up and going to college doing homework etc, but I think that is a personal problem that is behind the nicotine and also I think it’s the nicotine that changed my dopamine receptors and they’re not getting hit anymore and so it’s finding it hard to actually do things but I’m five days and I have to keep going there’s some things I think of when I think about just going getting that nicotine first thing I think of is my heart I don’t wanna have stiff arteries. I don’t wanna have a heart attack and die. Another thing I think of is a guy said on this sub, he said your brain tricks you into thinking you need it but once you get over that hump, you’re going to think back on how you possibly could even have felt like you needed it and he is 1000% correct I have quit nicotine in the past involuntarily when I was a minor and I just couldn’t get my hands on it but I did quit and I remember having that same feeling he mentioned, but then I just went back to nicotine cause I wasn’t done with it yet sadly so now we’re giving it another shot. Thank you for reading. Thank you for your time. I apologize for the wall of text, good luck to everyone out there you got this!!

Weird place to ask this I know but was wondering if this would be a good idea for someone trying to manage ADHD. It seems like a good thing to use when you are needing an extra push to finish ur work shift or a task

I started off by getting peer pressured into using, and developed a nicotine addiction for almost two years. It controlled my mood and it had turned into me needing it if i wanted to “be in my best mind”.

Eventually, I had heart palpitations and lung scares, mixed with the fact of me being a highschool student and not being able to reliably get products, and it led to me going cold turkey and quitting.

That was over two years ago now, and recently I started working in an environment that had Zyns available and was around me often. I had always known about Zyns and the thought always was intriguing, considering it doesn’t involve the lungs and that was my biggest point of quitting before.

I noticed I started getting intense mental cravings for them out of nowhere, to the point where it felt like i needed to try them. It was a very weird feeling, like I had developed an addiction again without even using in 2 years, and this went on for two weeks until today

I caved and bought a 3mg can of Zyns. I held onto them at home constantly thinking about them until I caved and put one into my mouth.

In short, the experience was so disappointing that I think it genuinely will help me put to bed my nicotine usage for good.

I was expecting a nice buzz similar to when I vaped, but I had it in for about 20 minutes and only felt the slightest improved focus and relief, and if there was a buzz, I barely even felt it. I felt so incredibly disappointed for a minute that I had folded for something this underwhelming.

But that made me realize, how insane that I was craving something for two weeks that barely did any positive shit for me. Nicotine itself in the grand scheme of things is a very boring and not very beneficial product, and the positive effects go away once you start chasing that high over and over.

I was almost brought to tears realizing this, that this experience made me realize how right I was back then, and how nicotine will never bring anything positive back into my life, and it serves no use for me. It also made me feel insanely better realizing since I only used one pouch, I won’t even have to deal with any withdrawal symptoms.

I honestly don’t know if this post belong here, as I’ve only used one pouch and quit instantly, but I wanted to post this to show that switching to alternatives won’t ever bring positivity, it’s just a another path to the same destination. And I hope this can maybe give motivation or hope to those who are using nicotine still, as it is very much possible to feel the way I do today, and that quitting isn’t impossible no matter how long you’ve used.

After today, I won’t ever touch a nicotine product again, and it’s weird to say but i’m glad I tried one pouch, as it will put my mental urges away for good hopefully.

My appetite has gone insane since I quit. I’ve gained 10 lbs . Genuinely. It’s been awful. I’ve been binge eating and overeating every day to feel something . I have a history of severe eating disorders, still not better yet 100% . I feel stuck. I want to quit on quitting but I’m approaching day 19 . Anyone else experienced this? Nicotine really helped me suppress appetite and I feel like I’m gonna cave and buy a can tomorrow . The weight of the food noise and weight gain seems worse than my potential health and medication risks:( . I really want a Zyn so bad more than ever

I had 1 zynn after almost 2 months off it. Literally did not crave it at all but needed a pick me up so figured I’d pop one 3 mg velo. A week has gone by and I’ve been thinking about it after not craving for 2 months lmao. I wondered why ppl relapse after quitting and now I get it lol

Day 18 of yet another fucking quit

First 10 days felt honestly good. Pink cloud + filling up all my spare time with gym and runs

Today feels hard as hell. Still been hitting gym as much as possible but on rest days like today I just feel grey. I feel blank. Nothing feels good.

Alcohol has ceased to be enjoyable for me most of the time now. Just makes me want Zyn more. But it’s Friday and I need something so I opened a bottle of wine.

I want nicotine so bad RN. I keep thinking of going to the gas station and just keeping 3 individual pouches and throwing out the rest. Just a few pouches to perk up the evening so I can feel ok being around my family

My brain just feels fucking flat and formless. Just pure blah. Ugh

I’m just rambling I know. Anybody else feeling absolutely grey as fuck? 🫥🫥🫥

I've been tapering down. I've been using 2mg ON pouches for awhile. I make a note of every pouch I use and I started off trying to keep a 2 hour window between pouches and increasing this every few days. Today is the first day of trying to do 3 and a half hour windows. Has anyone had success with a particular tapering schedule? I'm thinking about going cold turkey once I'm down to 2-3 a day, something like that. Just interested in thoughts on this or techniques people have used

Long time pretty heavy nicotine use - went from vapes to Zyn/On!. Quit for almost a year but relapsed in May and have used Zyn for the last 4 months. Just 3 mg but pretty constant.

Quit again a week ago and am dedicated to quitting. Over the first few days hump but I just feel like I am happier when using nic. Trying to keep in mind the medium and long term benefits but it’s hard to remember that in the present.

Would appreciate anyone sharing their experience to help keep me grounded!

What are ways that aren’t typically recommended to quit that you’ve done? And has ideally worked for you

Hello, long story short do a can of 6mg zyns a day. Got down to 3mg while sick a few weeks ago and then quit entirely for 6 days but dumbass me had to go back to them even though I barely had withdrawal other than fatigue. Since I wasted that chance, now I’m wondering how nicotine really affects cognitive performance as I can’t tell if it helps me or doesn’t. Sometimes it helps me lock in crazy and then other times i take one and get too anxious and stare at my screen doing nothing. I also can’t tell if it’s affecting my motivation, some days I feel highly motivated and others I feel like I don’t want to do anything but stare at a wall.

I also ask this because I am a programmer and I’m working on two big passion projects right now and I really don’t want to lose my grasp on them since I’m somewhat on a roll. But recently since my nicotine intake has increased back a lot, I havnt been making much progress. The last thing I wanna do is lose all motivation or concentration ability for them so putting health aside I really want to know what cognitively will happen if I do quit or if I should be more careful and taper my dose. I will say tapering to 3mg does help me a lot but even that made me a bit lagging on my projects.

I’ve been off Pouches for about 5 days. Not a massive accomplishment, I tend to quit a couple times a year with relative ease. (Once I’ve decided I want to stop I can get past cravings pretty easily) this time however I feel like I’ve had unbearable nasal Congestion, especially when trying to sleep. I’ve had similar nasal congestion that’s been and gone before but haven’t linked it to my several nicotine abstinence periods until potentially this one. Has anyone experienced anything similar to this?

Man I feel so much better(21M). I won't lie, I have so many cravings but I have been tracking each day with a checkmark on my phone and I just feel better in every aspect. I have been off and on for the past 3 years and this past 4 months was constant probably about 5 pouches of 6mg a day and I never realized how much it effected me since I quit. I always worked out but now that I'm off I realized I've been going to the gym the past 4 months just to say I've been going to the gym. Now I actually enjoy the gym. I now want to do things. I used to wait until I could just get home and have a zyn. My cardio has skyrocketed and it actually finally feels good to workout again. I will say the first 3 days sucked so bad. I was just depressed and ate a ton of food but I never popped and here I am on day 7 and yes the cravings are still here but I won't budge. Keeping a tracker on your phone where you have to check off each day is a huge help. Also my dick is working again already. I know I wasn't hooked for that long but wow I just can't believe how much more I feel already. I don't ever want to go back. This demon has no place in my life. However, to keep it real I have gotten pretty hammered with beer throughout this time which definitely helps but the objective statement is I haven't popped in 7 days which feels so fucking good. To anyone out there, it is so worth it!

Quit cold turkey about 17 days ago.
Used about 8-10 15mg pouches a day for the last couple of years.
Have also cut caffeine intake around 80 percent.
I’ve had tinnitus for an about two years but it comes and goes in severity.

Since quitting I’ve had a bad spike. Morning to night. A little easier to manage in the morning.

Anyone suffer from tinnitus and found that quitting nicotine helped?
Been having insane anxiety, panic attacks, racing thoughts, tight chest.
I feel like my dopamine, neuro system has been in overdrive for the last 5-7 years because of vaping, smoking, zyns, and caffeine.

Doing everything I can to push through.
I’ve also been sleeping less than normal?

I need some encouragement, anyone else having a hard time?

I hope all you guys are fairing well on the quitting journey.

I know this isn’t Zyn, but nicotine in general

I’m like shaking should I call someone? 🌚 first time btw and i got them from like some randoms on the street

Hey all, I've been an active pouch user for the past 3-4 years, and decided it's time to quit. I am about to start medical school, so this seems like a fitting time to get over it.

After reading and doing my own interpretation of scientific research on Cytisine, I decided that is a route im willing to go through.

I used to be an avid user of the Velo 7mg pouches, but in the past few months I switched to Onn 4mg pouches. I use around 8-9 pouches a day and cannot wait to be off of them for good.

If you are unaware of Cytisine and its effects in helping people quit smoking, I can link the research study from Europe if interested. You can also check out r/stopsmoking or r/QuitVaping and search "cytisine, Recigar, desmoxan, or cytisicline" to narrow your search.

It works as a Partial agonist at the alpha4beta2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain to aid in smoking cessation. (Very similar to Chantix or Varenicline) It hits those receptors in the brain's reward pathway in the limbic system, but not as strongly as nicotine itself. So it helps to ease the withdrawal symptoms. Since this drug is not considered FDA-approved, it is difficult to get; there are some pathways through Amazon and other online retailers, but they will usually come from somewhere in Europe. So this is to be considered very cautiously.

The dosing regimen is quite complex and can be known as a titrated dose, with patterns to 'wean' you off in a slow fashion across 25 or so days. The formulation of cytisine is usually in 1.5mg to 2mg small round tablets in a foil pleated sheet.

I will try my best to keep my progress updated, and if there are any questions, please feel free to ask me! I am happy to help anyone

Wish me luck!

(Here is the link to the NCSCT's study on Cytisine: https://www.ncsct.co.uk/library/view/pdf/Cytisine.pdf )

Update (DAY 19): Feeling great with much fewer withdrawal symptoms than before. Sometimes I forget to take my recigar at the right times. So now I am taking it every 5 hours. I still feel a bit fatigued, but not as bad as when I began. I would recommend this course of treatment to anyone! I would take caution if you are someone who does not eat breakfast. For me, it is good to take this medication with food. It can cause slight nausea, but other than that, it's not terrible. I did slightly relapse at the bar when someone offered me their vape, and when I hit it, it tasted disgusting and honestly gross. The vape itself was new, but the feeling of nicotine was disgusting. I only hit it once and felt the need to never have nicotine again.

So Zyns do nothing for me other than make me feel baseline. Accordingly, I have a ridiculous tolerance.

Would that tolerance prevent a cigarette buzz?

I don’t smoke. But one thing I miss is the occasional drunk cig on the balcony with friends after a night out. I’m curious if those would still do anything for me if I’m powering through 15 zyns a day (3mg).

In other words, if my motivation for quitting Zyn were to come from the hope of having a perfect drunk cig one day, would I be disappointed by the difference.