Please try to explain to a life long non-smoker in non-smoking terms what a nicotine high feels like as best you can.
I was once told that it was like the feeling that you get after a long struggle to accomplish a goal, the peaceful quite moment you experence when you realize that it is done. Anywhere close to the truth?
Mmm. In my experience, it’s a mix of heart pounding… light-headedness… relaxation… and mild euphoria. It doesn’t last very long–maybe 15 minutes on the outside, probably more like five. It’s also not something you get very often as a smoker–on the first cigarette of the day is when it’s most likely. After that, smokes just calm the cravings (which feels nice too, of course).
I’ve tried to quit smoking several times. The thing that pulled me back in was that “high”. If you’ve gone awhile without smoking, those first coupl’a cigs are really good for that.
Kinda light-headed seein’ stars kinda thing. Nice calm feeling. Now if only they could market that “first smoke high”. It would sell like hotcakes, but the only problem is that it’s so short-lived. Wow, guess that likens it to many illegal drugs, huh?
You can probably somewhat duplicate the experience by hyperventilating yourself. That’s the closest I imagine a non-smoker could get.
Mentally, your boss comes in saying you have to pull in an extra 10 hours this weekend on project “X”. He leaves and you see project “X” is already done. Physically, a slight feeling of calmness.
For me it’s a slight narrowing of focus. I started smoking because it was helpful (in combination with caffeine) for writing, coding, and doing certain time-consuming tasks on the computer that require attention to detail.