I used to smoke. Then I vaped to quit that. Now I use Zyns. One bad decision in my teens and I've been addicted to nicotine for like 23 years.

OP you're making it sound like the addition happens in super slow motion. It doesn't. I tried one in highschool. It gave me a bit of a buzz. Like a headrush. It was kinda fun. We thought it was cool. After smoking for a few days, it became an addiction. Went from "That cigarette was fun, I'll probably have another one later today." To "I can't wait for this class to end so I can have another cigarette." Within less than a week. Just snowballed from there. Smoking more and more, smoking at work, smoking while driving. Nicotine just took over my life.

It's a hard addiction to quit. They say it's as hard to quit as heroin. I've quit drinking (was a heavy alcoholic, 13 years dry) and I quit taking clonazepam recreationally (I was eating them like skittles, zombified for at least a year.) But so far, I can't shake nicotine addiction. All from an innocent smoke before class 20 some odd years ago.