That “relaxation” after a cigarette a is the result of nicotine relieving the “tension” caused by withdrawal symptoms from nicotine in the first place. I was smoking as I read that one day and had what alcoholics call a “moment of clarity...” Of course that was it all along. What a sucker I was to ruin my blow thousands of dollars and health and almost ruin my health-a gift from God. I finally got off 20 years of smoking but it was incredibly difficult. I needed to taper off for 6 months and got down to a single cigarette at 11 pm. That was exceptionally tough to give up that last one.
I’m convinced that you just have to purge ALL nicotine out of your system, hold tight for 6-10 months while your brain’s entire dendritic network rewires and reboots and then live a life where you exercise your lungs with exercise and fresh air every day.
I think you're right about this. It's not so much the pleasure you get from smoking as it is the hell you suffer from not smoking. The nicotine tends to filter out a lot of neural background noise, leading to a higher threshold of stimulation. When the nicotine levels go down, all that background noise comes rushing back, with consequent stress and its related physiological manifestations. Getting another fix relieves the stress caused by the withdrawal.
BTTT
Hold tight for the rest of your life.
You have overlooked the "habit" and the power habitual associations will have over you for the rest of your life. The nicotine is out of your system in less than a week but the habits associated with the nicotine will remain.
The only true words of comfort when confronted with the habitual urge...it will pass.