Posted June 2016
Smokeless tobacco is known by a host of names: dip, rub, chew, snuff, chaw, spit tobacco, mouth tobacco and many others. Regardless of the name used, it is dangerous and deadly. According to the American Cancer Society, this type of tobacco can lead to cancer of the mouth, tongue, cheek, gum, esophagus, and pancreas. It’s also closely associated with the greatly increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke. In Kentucky, 6.7% of the population uses smokeless tobacco (placing Kentucky in the top ten states for most usage). In Indiana, it’s 4.6%. Users are typically white males although some women use dip. For women, using smokeless tobacco also increases the risk of premature and stillborn births.
Many people feel that dipping is a harder habit to overcome than smoking cigarettes, and the statistics bear that out. Although cessation statistics are hard to come by, the general consensus is that quitting smokeless tobacco may be up to 50% harder when compared to stopping the use of cigarettes.
Can hypnosis help those who want to quit using smokeless tobacco?
According to ESPN, Bruce Bochy, the skipper of the San Francisco Giants, thinks so as does quite a few of his current and former team members and staff.
It all started when the team’s equipment manager’s wife successfully utilized hypnotherapy to stop smoking cigarettes. Then, the equipment manager used hypnosis to stop dipping and Blochy (who had dipped since he was 18 years old) and other team members followed. All were able to stop!
Some smokeless tobacco users will tell you that dip is safer than smoking cigarettes…and it is…but only slightly. Using smokeless tobacco delivers about 30 deadly chemicals into your body. For Blochy and the other Giants who quit dipping by using hypnosis, such arguments are pointless. They will tell you that whether you deliver those deadly chemicals through your lungs or through the skin on the inside of your mouth, using tobacco in any form puts your health and life on the line…all for a useless (and many feel disgusting) habit.
If you are a dipper and want to stop, a Certified Hypnotherapist at the Louisville Hypnosis Academy can help.