I remembered an Australian customer telling me that nicotine is a short term drug. He told me then that smokers are not addicted to nicotine. If nicotine was the problem then you would not be able to sleep 6 to 8 hours straight. You'll have to wake up in between to get your fix. He said the addiction is in the habit. The act of lighting a stick, inhaling the smoke, blowing it out, sometimes making "0" shapes out of the smoke, tapping the ashes on the ashtray - all these are what a quitter misses. With this in mind, I asked for a stick from an officemate (who had this really big smile while giving me the cig) and started to puff on it unlit. Someone once said: "A cigarette is a pinch of tobacco rolled up in paper with fire on one end and a fool on the other." Well this stick I was sucking on had no fire on one end and a macho on the other. Hah! I would tap the unlit cigarette on the ashtray, imagining the ashes spreading on the clean tray, then take a hit again. Phone rings. At least I was holding a cigarette and blowing imaginary smoke. That calmed me down.
This is an excerpt from a post I did more than 2 months ago on how I stopped smoking. Click here if you're interested. I've been off the habit 30 years running. Before I quit I had been smoking for 21 years. Good luck.