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If you think smokeless tobacco is "up to snuff" and safe, think again. Whatever you call it - chewing, dipping or spitting - it is every bit as hazardous as smoking. The majority of medical professionals think more so because users are less aware of the dangers. Cancers of the lips, tongue, mouth and throat can swiftly grow in people who use smokeless tobacco and leave ugly - even lethal - results.

Regardless of the painful and dangerous consequences of smokeless tobacco, quitting with usual practices is very difficult. Many people think the reason lies in nicotine, a natural, super toxic substance found in tobacco that is the plant's guard to prevent being eaten by bugs. Analyzing equal amounts, nicotine is more lethal than strychnine or snake venom, and three times more lethal than arsenic.

When dipping, the nicotine makes its way to the brain in under 10 seconds, where it creates a flood of dopamine, which brings about a relaxing feeling. Nicotine also promotes adrenaline production, so it both calms and energizes. However, the mental component of smokeless tobacco addiction is much stronger and produces many more impediments to quitting smokeless tobacco than nicotine.

Many users took their first chew as early as nine years old. In as little as a few months, using smokeless tobacco becomes a fixed habit that delivers reliable stress relief. In addition to the psychological conditioning, a social conditioning occurs, as images of many sports celebrities dipping also attract young users.

Understanding that there are individual physical and emotional factors that play a role in a chewing habit makes it easier to create a plan to prevail smokeless tobacco addiction. Let's examine each element separately and look at effective methods to curb them.

Dipping for Relaxation and Pleasure: Just like using a pacifier to soothe an anxious toddler, over the course of time, people who use tobacco products start to associate putting an object in their mouths with satisfaction and relaxation. Curbing the effects of tobacco usage means addressing all aspects of the addiction.

Tobacco Dipping is a Conditioned Response: The classic model of a conditioned response relates to Pavlov and his dogs, which were trained to anticipate food - and thus began salivating - when a bell was rung. In accordance, if, for example, you always chew tobacco after each meal, you will consequently have a desire to chew when you finish eating.

In your mind, the images of folding the napkin and pushing the play away may be tied to using snuff, even if you are not conscious of it. Developing awareness of the trigger images or situations can help you beat cravings.

The Physical Addiction to Nicotine, But ! : Despite the powerful addiction, doctors maintain that the physical part of nicotine addiction is broken after people quit using tobacco for seven days. It's my strong belief that nicotine addiction comprises a mere 10 percent of smokeless tobacco dependency. As such, 90 percent of the battle to quit dipping involves overcoming the mental and emotional components. So what does this mean for people like you who would like to quit?

Quitting becomes much more feasible if you can:

A. Address and eliminate the tension or anxiety that compels you to use smokeless tobacco B. Cancel the conditioned responses to chew in particular situations

But how does a person conquer those issues?

Self-hypnosis offers a way to address the emotional and psychological elements of the addiction while reducing impediments, which will eliminate the symptoms of withdrawal. When we realize how self-hypnosis works, it makes the decision to quit dipping much easier to take on.

When people dip for relaxation and pleasure, it is to soothe stressful feelings. People often play the same images over in their heads, like a bad film, which leaves them feeling tense and anxious. Using self-hypnosis and different Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques, you retrain your brain to immediately and naturally stop stress-inducing images and replace them with soothing pictures and mental movies. This produces satisfaction and relaxation while eliminating cravings and oral compulsions. You shake the inclination to put the chew in your mouth, and you don't get any desire to substitute food in its place. This suppresses weight gain.

To battle the conditioned response of chewing smokeless tobacco, the NLP Flash technique removes the associations of dipping during certain activities or situations. This means your subconscious won't trigger the craving. Further, the Flash can even be used to create a compulsion to reject smokeless tobacco.

Employing specific and strategic NLP methods makes the decision to quit dipping effortless and painless by averting cravings, withdrawal and weight gain. The process is dependent on training the unconscious mind to adhere to the same thought patterns that produce your mental addiction to smokeless tobacco in the first place, to eliminate the addiction.

Your brain is a powerful toolfar more powerful than an addiction. With steadfastness and the aid of self-hypnosis and NLP, you can quit smokeless tobacco forever.