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If you think smokeless tobacco is "up to snuff" and safe, think again. Whatever it is called - chewing, dipping or spitting - it is every bit as dangerous as smoking. Many doctors judge more so because people are not as aware of the risks. Cancers of the mouth, lips, tongue and throat can swiftly grow in people who use smokeless tobacco and cause ugly - even deadly - results.

In spite of the painful and dangerous consequences of smokeless tobacco, quitting with usual methods remains extremely difficult. A lot of people think the reason lies in nicotine, a natural, super toxic element found in tobacco that is the plant's defense to prevent being eaten by insects. Measuring equal amounts, nicotine is more deadly than strychnine or snake venom, and three times more lethal than arsenic.

When dipping, the nicotine makes its way to the brain in less than 10 seconds, where it creates a flood of dopamine, resulting in a relaxing feeling. Nicotine also accelerates adrenaline production, so it both energizes and calms. However, the emotional component of smokeless tobacco addiction is much stronger and creates far more challenges to quitting smokeless tobacco than nicotine.

A lot of users took their first dip 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 athletes dipping also attract young users.

Knowing that there are individual emotional and physical reasons that contribute to a chewing habit makes it easier to develop a plan to overcome smokeless tobacco addiction. Let's look at 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 child, over the course of time, people who use tobacco products start to associate putting an object in their mouths with relaxation and satisfaction. Curbing the effects of tobacco usage involves addressing all components of the addiction.

Dipping Tobacco is a Conditioned Response: The classic example 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 relation, if, for example, you always use chewing tobacco after each meal, you will consequently have a craving to chew when you finish eating.

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

The Physical Addiction to Nicotine, But ! : In spite of the powerful addiction, doctors maintain that the physical part of nicotine addiction is quelled after people quit using tobacco for a week. It's my firm belief that nicotine addiction comprises a scant 10 percent of smokeless tobacco dependency. Therefore, 90 percent of the fight to quit dipping involves overcoming the mental and emotional components. So what does this mean for people like you who want to quit?

Quitting becomes much more feasible if you can:

A. Deal with and remove the tension or anxiety that compels you to use smokeless tobacco B. Cancel the conditioned responses to chew in specific situations

But how does one conquer those issues?

Self-hypnosis offers a way to tackle the psychological and emotional factors of the addiction while reducing struggles, which will eliminate the symptoms of withdrawal. When we understand how self-hypnosis works, it makes the decision to quit dipping much easier to undertake.

When people dip for relaxation and pleasure, it is to pacify stressful feelings. People often play the same images over in their minds, like a bad film, which leaves them feeling tense and anxious. With self-hypnosis and various Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques, you retrain your brain to instantaneously and automatically stop stress-inducing images and replace them with calming pictures and mental movies. This generates relaxation and satisfaction while reducing cravings and oral compulsions. You shake the craving to put the chew in your mouth, and you won't get any desire to substitute food in its place. This suppresses weight gain.

In order to combat 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.

Using specific and strategic NLP techniques makes the decision to quit dipping easy and painless by sidestepping symptoms of withdrawal, cravings and weight gain. The method depends on retraining the unconscious mind to abide by the same thought patterns that produce your mental addiction to smokeless tobacco in the first place, to eliminate the compulsion.

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