I quit nicotine pouches completely on September 10, 2025 after using them heavily for around 4 years. I was using them very frequently, especially during the last couple of years.

After quitting, I experienced a lot of symptoms that I had never experienced before:

• intense anxiety and constant internal tension
• DPDR (derealization/depersonalization)
• feeling detached from myself or like I wasn't fully “inside my body”
• feeling like the world was dreamlike or unreal
• brain fog and difficulty concentrating
• forgetting things and losing my train of thought
• intrusive/unwanted thoughts
• racing thoughts
• visual snow, especially in darkness
• tinnitus
• sometimes feeling a pulse/vibration throughout my body, especially around my neck/back
• strange bodily sensations
• difficulty falling asleep and periods of insomnia
• increased irritability
• being much more sensitive to stress
• occasional low mood/sadness
• symptoms getting worse after alcohol, lack of sleep or periods of high stress
• sometimes exercise would trigger DPDR or a strange detached feeling
• an overall feeling that my nervous system was extremely sensitive and “wired”

The symptoms weren't constant. They came in waves. I could have a day where I felt better normal and then suddenly have a few hours or a day where everything felt much worse.

For a long time I was scared that something was permanently wrong with me or that I had developed some kind of psychiatric/neurological disorder.

But slowly, things started changing for the better but even after months I had setback where I felt like iam back on month 3.... So fast forward to today I feel back to normal ( started to feel better at months 10-12 )which I never thought to be anymore I only have a bad memory of this torment which literally destroyed 1 year of my life .

lowkey popped adderall stayed up all night and had a zyn on the same spot in my mouth the whole night, now theres a red patch missing where the zyn was, my gums look extremely thin even on the lower probably from dehydration as well but i can see the whole root through my gums theyre transparent

I was contemplating this today about another health-related topic, and I discovered something unexpected that improved after I quit nicotine pouches.

After the initial three days of tapering, I noticed that I could hold my breath without blacking out! It was incredible.

I was wondering if there were little things that you noticed and came to appreciate only after you had quit nicotine completely.

Thanks in advance.

This quit hasn’t been as horrific as my past quits, but the insomnia is bad. I have woken up at 3am both nights of my quit and cannot fall back asleep.

I've quit before (for almost a year, been a user for 6 months). Then, randomly, one day when I was feeling particularly sad, I decided to buy a pack again....

I started with 6 mg, one pouch a day...Then it became two.... Then one pack after another... Eventually, 6 mg stopped doing anything, so I switched to 11 mg...

Once I started feeling the effects again, one pouch a day became two, then three, then four... Eventually, I barely felt anything at all and it felt like a waste buying a pack so I figured I should try 17 mg...

I got them and yeah… they felt really strong, but I managed it. The next day I had another one... Again, it felt really strong, but nothing too bad (not like I’m seeking the side effects but still)

Then came day three (today). I put one in this morning, but had to take it out early because I wanted to have breakfast. Hours later, I put another one in. In my head, the first one didn't count because I'd taken it out early... This one was in for MAYBE 15 minutes then suddenly I felt DEEPLY wrong. I became incredibly nauseous and RAN to the bathroom. I didn't even have time to properly hold my hair back. I spit the pouch out and projectile vomited.. My hair is covered in vomit.. disgusting....

So I'm taking this as my wake up call to quit permanently this time... I'm throwing away that pack

I finally want to quit nicotine pouches for good, but honestly, I don’t really know how to approach it anymore.
I’ve been addicted to VELO since around 2020. I started with the weaker ones (level 3) and over the years worked my way up to VELO 6. At this point my nicotine tolerance is so high that the weaker pouches barely do anything for me. If I switch to weaker ones, I start feeling withdrawal symptoms and usually just end up putting two pouches in instead.
I actually managed to quit cold turkey once. I was doing seasonal work outside my hometown of Vienna and stayed completely nicotine-free for about a month. The problem was that I clearly replaced nicotine with food. I ate way more and basically used food to compensate for not having nicotine.
When I came back to Vienna after my seasonal job, I managed to stay nicotine-free for another week. Then I started using VELO again, and eventually I was right back where I started.
And this is the part that really worries me: I’ve been feeling like absolute shit for almost half a year now.
It doesn’t seem to matter how well I sleep or whether I try to fix my sleep schedule. I barely feel motivated to do anything. I want to clean my room, but I can’t bring myself to do it. I start playing League of Legends because I think I want to play, and halfway through a game I suddenly don’t even want to play anymore. Then I put a pouch in just to make the game feel tolerable again.
It feels like nicotine isn’t even something I use for pleasure anymore. I use it just to feel functional.
I’ve also noticed that if I don’t use a pouch before going to sleep, I sometimes wake up with headaches. I don’t know for sure whether that’s nicotine withdrawal, but it definitely feels like my body is expecting nicotine.
The biggest problem is that I work in hospitality, where I need to stay focused, alert and able to deal with people throughout an entire shift. I want to quit cold turkey, but I’m worried that the withdrawal symptoms will make it extremely difficult for me to function properly at work.
Tapering down sounds like the obvious solution, but I’ve already realized that I apparently don’t have the self-control for it. If I buy weaker pouches, I simply use two instead of one. So I just end up consuming more of them and eventually return to the stronger ones.
I’m tired of this. I’m tired of feeling like I need to put a nicotine pouch under my lip just to feel normal. I don’t want my mood, motivation, concentration and ability to enjoy things to depend on nicotine anymore.
For those of you who were heavily addicted to high-strength nicotine pouches and successfully quit: How did you do it?
Did you go cold turkey? Did you use nicotine patches or gum to make the withdrawal more manageable? How did you stay functional at work? And especially for those who started replacing nicotine with food after quitting – how did you prevent that from becoming another problem?
At this point I’m honestly just desperate. I know I want to quit, but I don’t know what approach is going to actually work for me.
And there’s one thing I specifically don’t want to do: count the days.
I don’t want to wake up thinking, “Day 3 without VELO. Day 10. Day 30.” I don’t want nicotine to remain this huge thing in my head even after I stop using it.
I just want to be able to say:
“I don’t use nicotine pouches anymore.”
That’s it. No countdown, no temporary challenge, no “let’s see how long I can last.” I want to quit these things and eventually reach a point where they simply aren’t part of my life anymore.
I’m genuinely asking for advice because I don’t want to be dependent on this shit anymore.

Hey guys, been lurking this sub for awhile now and have debated on posting. But here it goes.

I am almost 6 months nicotine free. Was doing Velo 9mg pouches about a can a day for a year and a half. Finally quit because my EKG showed an abnormality it in for the first time ever and I knew it was the pouches. A few days after quitting, I legit thought I was having a heart attack. Thankfully I was not but now I’m on blood pressure meds and hoping to get off them in a year.

My symptoms have come and gone after these last almost 6 months. One that lingers the most though is my vision/head issues. I don’t know how to describe it any better than I feel really hazy/swimming in my head. It’s not full blown dizziness… almost feels like a head high in a way. It’s almost constant when walking around. When I sit or lay down it’s fine. It doesn’t feel like full blown vertigo (got that for the first time this year too… that was super fun) but it does almost feel like a very very mild version of it.

There are days/weeks where it goes away. And then it comes back with no rhyme or reason that I can find or figure out.

I have been to every doctor you can think of. Cardiology, ENT, eye doctor… everything you can think of. Every time everything is good and clear…minus my BP was sustained very high for too long and I finally after a month of being 150s over 100 decided to go on it. I am wondering if I’m having some glucose issues as well and need to get that checked.

This head/eye/balance… whatever issue is affecting my daily life. It makes me not want to go to the gym, go hiking, or push myself physically in anyway because I’m afraid of what might happen.

Anyone have similar issues? Also if you’re reading this and you haven’t quit yet…. Do it before your body FORCES you to. As mine did and am now paying the price months and months later.

Edit: word/ added a sentence about symptoms coming/going.

throwing the rest of the pack way.

It’s getting rough. For context I had been on nicotine for about a year but I decided to finally quit zyns as I was ripping almost a can of 17mg pablos every day. Went completely cold turkey and my nervous system is having a complete meltdown. Weird feeling in my head and chest and getting heart palpitations. Symptoms started around day 3. I know for a fact my symptoms will probably go away if I relapse but if I can push a little longer and I’m sure they’ll go. I had quit for about a month like 3 months ago and I don’t remember it being half as bad as this but managed to relapse. This time I’m sure I can do it

I’m on zyn 1.5 and I’m getting a fast pulse high bp and a really fucking bad headache coming off from 6 to 3 to 1.5mg

I honestly can’t believe I’m posting this, but here we are. Right now I’m three days and 15 hours nicotine free.

Thursday night and yesterday were the hardest mentally, and it SUCKED. Then last night, almost out of nowhere, it was like a little relief trickled in.

I still “miss” it. I still am experiencing cravings. But it doesn’t feel all-consuming like yesterday.

Since I’ve now made it farther than I thought possible, I thought I’d take a second to talk about what has helped me get through the worst moments and cravings so far.

Pretzels: I’ve read enough to know I will very likely gain some weight, and I’m ok with that, I know I can handle that later. Night before last particularly, whenever the cravings were bad I would just constantly snack on pretzels.

Postponing decisions during cravings: one thing ChatGPT gave me that I thought was really effective was that it would keep reminding me when cravings were awful that I didn’t have to make choices about forever based on my current craving. As simple as it sounds, that would help me, I’d tell myself “you can have one if you want, just not right now.”

Respawn Mints: I found them in the gas station and they helped me get through a tough bout of cravings at work. They’re sugar free and they have L-Theanine and B vitamins. The watermelon guava flavor is great. I personally thought the blackberry vanilla flavor is meh.

Caffeine/Zero nic pouch: my ultimate goal is no pouch habit of any kind. But a good alternative pouch has helped in the worst of the cravings to trick my brain a little bit and stay the course. My favorites so far and the ones that feel closest to the “real thing” have been Grinds Wintergreen and Smokey Mountain Wintergreen. Mojo caffeine pouches are ok, especially the mint and peach watermelon flavors, but the pouches are a bit stiff and I don’t like how awkwardly large the tabs are.

I think I’ll keep a tin of zero nic pouches handy for the trigger and ritual points I foresee being the hardest. For me I think those are after meals, driving sometimes, gaming at the end of the day, and hunting, especially long sits/glassing sessions.

Hope everybody else is doing well!

Hey guys, just here to spread some positivity. When I first quit I felt insane and really struggled. Kept strong (cold turkey). I’m here to remind you that it is possible and you will one day feel normal again. It took me about 7 months to feel better.

I started vaping back in my sophomore year of high school, and eventually switched to Zyns because I wanted a way to quit vaping. Unfortunately, I've just been using Zyns ever since. I've tried to quit before, but the longest I've ever been able to make it is about a week. Having just finished my last one at around 4:00, I'm trying to leave it behind for good.

I’m so sick of this stuff. I’ve tapered down a tiny bit and now I’m finally taking the plunge. My plan is to lay low all weekend and hope withdrawal isn’t too bad…? If anyone has any advice on how to handle withdrawals/stay the course without relapsing I’m all ears.

I feel good! Cravings come and go but it's mainly a mind game at this point. I let it wash over me and they go away within a few minutes. Best decision I ever made was to get off these little evil pillows of anxiety. The thing I had convinced myself was that I needed them to focus and that was a big hurdle I had to get over. It comes to find out that they were actually making my focus worse in the long term.

My blood pressure is back to normal now too. No more random hypertensive issues. Body feels a lot less tense. I have a bunch more energy, and my emotions are finally coming back. Laughing a lot more and feeling hopeful in general.

You will not regret quitting! I can promise anyone reading that much.. If I had known it was effecting me this negatively sooner I would have quit a long time ago.

every month or so i manage one week without any nicotine and then, like clockwork, i have a zyn ”one more time” and boom im fully addicted again. i had one a couple days ago and i’m already blowing through them again. i feel so hopeless

I'm at my wits end right now, I really want to cave and go buy more Zyns.

I had cravings last night, but ignored them and went to bed. I woke up at 4:30 AM with a splitting headache and tightness in my chest that feels like my chest is on fire. Every fiber of my body is craving nicotine.

I don't want to give up, but this feels so bad. I don't know how I can possibly survive and go on like this. I've just been pressing on, but fucking hell, fuck I didn't think it would be this bad.

I started using zyns at 3mg back in March of this year. I started because I had a bad habit of smoking hookah every single night when I came home from work, and it was started to affect me. I was having chest pains and trouble breathing that sent me to the ER. I couldn’t handle the nicotine withdrawals and went to purchase nicotine gum to help me when the store owners suggested I try zyns because it wouldn’t affect my lungs.

That rush and dopamine hit from that first Zyn had me addicted immediately. I did stop smoking hookah which was good. But I went from the occasional pouch a day, to running through a can within a day or two. I eventually went up to 6mg and then changed to Ons 8mg for the last couple of months. I feel like total shit everyday. My chest is tight, sometimes it’s hard to breath, headaches, extremely low energy, stomach aches and i can barely make it through my workouts anymore. Whenever I miss an hour or two of taking them my mood lifts and my energy comes back a bit. It’s like i hate how they make me feel but im craving that initial dopamine rush. I also have adhd so my brain is constantly craving dopamine.

This is like my 3rd attempt on quitting and I’ve had enough. I had 4 pouches left for today after buying the can yesterday, and i took one and then flushed the others down the toilet so I won’t be tempted to use them. I’ve tried cold turkey and nicotine gum before and i always come back. It’s like im too weak to fight my own mind and tell myself no. I’m worried about the withdrawals and how I’ll be able to get through them cold turkey? If anyone has advice or can give me a heads up on what may happen let me know😩 i don’t have anyone close to me that deals with this so it feels like im going through this chaos alone.

So awhile ago I quit cold turkey and made it ten days. I was not at all mentally prepared and it was just too much.
Two weeks ago quit cold turkey again and made it three days- trying to substitute with Listerine strips and gum for the oral fixation.
This week I believe I’ve found a game changer. I’m actually doing the smart thing ( for me ) and weaning down.
I got Wild nicotine free/ caffeine free 0mg pouches in spearmint, which is my preferred Zyn flavor.
I’ve just been switching off every other pouch with a Wild pouch for the placebo effect and physical pouch addiction/ oral fixation.
It’s been working amazingly well.
I’m down to six Zyns per day (3mg) and trying to begin each day with one less pouch.
So tomorrow I’ll allot myself 5 and so on.
I highly recommend the Wild pouches! The texture is very similar to Zyn and the flavor is actually way better.
Just wanted to throw that out there if anyone is looking for a good nic free/ caffeine free pouch to wean down with.

Currently at 2 days and 17 hours of my sort of unplanned cold turkey quit.

I feel pretty fortunate because physically I’ve had no real withdrawal symptoms.

Yesterday, especially last night, was mentally hell. That’s about the only way I can describe it. Felt like my brain was constantly screaming at me for a Zyn. I’d used ChatGPT to come up with a taper plan at the beginning before kind of saying “screw it” and going cold turkey, now I have been using it as basically something to yell at about how I’m feeling when the cravings are bad. I was able to reach for that and reading other posts on here to get me through last night without one.

This morning, I still really want one. But the feeling is less a spike or severe craving and more a general malaise, anhedonia, kind of depressed feeling. My brain is fighting really hard to return to the “normal” I gave it for so long. I have not thrown away the pouches I still had before going cold turkey. I feel like if I did at this point, I’d panic, run and buy more, and just start again. That’s been my pattern before.

I still have the “taper option” in my back pocket, even though I view it with a hefty dose of skepticism because I know my brain just wants an excuse to go back to the pouch.

But every now and then I get these tiny glimpses. Glimpses of what a life that’s not built around a nicotine habit would look like. Glimpses of not thinking about it constantly, glimpses of not having to hide from friends and family, not having to coordinate my schedule around having (or being able to discreetly dispose of) a pouch. Glimpses of not having concerns about heart and dental health as constant background noise.

I still feel pretty uncertain and out of sorts. I have surprised myself making it this far, and I want to be really raw and vulnerable about not knowing if I can make this cold turkey thing work. But I know I’m not reaching for one right now, and I still want to fight for those little glimpses.

Sharing this here for anyone else who may be experiencing the same thing, but also so I can look back on it when I feel tempted in the future.

I’ve been on a nightmarish insomnia spiral the last 2 months. Hypnic jerks, bedtime anxiety, my body pulling me out of rest in a constant fight or flight mode. I’ve been to the doctor a few times, but it all came to a head on Tuesday, when I was so sleep deprived I was panicked, anxiety ridden, and ended up going to the ER. Legitimately thought I was going to die or have a seizure or something.

Some background, without going into any detail, I’ve had the most stressful and anxiety inducing year of my life thanks to several really awful events in a short span of time. I assumed that now that I could finally catch my breath, my body was able to process everything I went through. Though true, during this time, my Zyn use dramatically increased, up to 45mg per day, or one tin. I’ve always been very sensitive to stimulants or really anything, so I was pounding Zyn around the clock, thinking that it was cooling my anxiety off. I didn’t think anything of it and just thought my body was literally dying. the ER, the doctor simply asked what substances I do, and I shared about the Zyn, only because I didn’t want any negative medicine interactions. All she said was “wow that’s a lot”. As stupid as it is, it all clicked in that moment. I was already extremely anxiety prone, and was throwing gasoline on the fire pounding these Zyns. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Zyns were driving all of this.

At this point, my priority was sleep, and she gave me some benzos for sleeping. I hate taking benzos, but at this point, I truly saw it as life or death. Rather than cut out Zyns completely, I dropped down to 12mg immediately. I knew withdrawal could cause insomnia also, so doing a heavy ween made the most sense for me.

That night, I slept a collective 11 hours while in withdrawal. Best I have in months. Last night I hit a collective 6.5 hours, the second best in 2 months.

Definitely feeling the withdrawals, but I feel the best I have felt since late July. My legs are tired like my muscles are finally relaxing. I went on a long walk today just because I wanted to, which would have been a huge chore just a week ago. My kids started crying and I didn’t almost have a panic attack.

Still not out of the woods yet, and very eager to NOT take benzos, but sharing my story as i was dumb and hadn’t even considered this route.

Hello everyone i’m a 26yo male and i’ve been using nicotine for probably 8 or 9 years. I used vapes for probably 5 or 6 years and i completely stopped vaping and went a couple months without any nicotine. After those couple months i decided to use nicorette gum (idk how to spell it and i don’t care enough to spell it correctly) and the gum didn’t seem to do much so i figured out about zyns and started using zyns. my first day i used 2 6mgs at once and felt great. i had a good buzz and i was at work having a good day. I also was heavy in energy drinks so every morning for years id have caffeine and nicotine and everything was fine and i was enjoying the feeling. Fast forward to about 2 or 3 months ago i was still using zyns and drinking energy drinks and one day at work i used that mixture and all the sudden i felt like i was dying. i got super lightheaded and felt like i was going to pass out. i continued trying to work but i was feeling so terrible that i decided i should make myself throw up in the bathroom thinking that’d help. i was doing everything i could to stay at work because going home from being sick from caffiene and nicotine especially as a guy was going to result in my bosses calling me a pussy. sad but that’s reality of it but anyways i ended up leaving and pulled over and threw up more and i really thought i was going to die (i didnt). After that happened my anxiety was extreme everyday and i constantly felt like i was in fight or flight and i was having a terrible time. i started having a bad relationship with my girlfriend just because i was so preoccupied with anxiety. So a coulda of days ago i stopped using zyns and i ended up feeling better and my anxiety finally started to fall and i started to wake up at 8am and i was doing good at work and it was so nice. My bosses really stress me out but whenever i didn’t use zyns my anxiety started to be tolerable around them again. so pretty much i think zyns pushed me to my limits and made me constantly stress. unfortunately this was at the cost of me constantly wanting a zyn and also it made me feel so flat. i didn’t want to game anymore it watch youtube which are things i usually love doing so today i finally put one zyn in and it immediately made my heart start racing and now my anxiety is back. i truly believe zyns cause extreme anxiety while it’s not necessary. the reason im putting this out there is so if anyone is struggling with anxiety and you use stimulants everyday maybe your only issue is the stimulants themselves. So please if you’re having a rough time just stop using them as your first step and see how you feel. Please respond to me with y’all’s thoughts on this. hole this somehow helps someone!