I believe that I did - in fact - have with drawl symptoms. I didn't really see it that way until I was past them. I had low carb "dieted" dozens of times in my life and never broke free from the addiction. That finally happened sometime in 2014 after I had stuck religiously to my low carb program for several months. After it happened staying low carb got easy for the first time in my life. Every other time it was a struggle. Something happened. Some would call it a psychological addiction. But if it is just 'psychological' it is not the same for everybody - much like you and your ability to give up smokes fairly easily.

From what I've read the toughest part of giving up smoking is the first few days. The stressful emptiness felt as the nicotine leaves the body is a physical withdrawal. Within a few days, though, the nicotine is gone. But is that the end of it for most people? Certainly not. The pull to give in and light up lasts for weeks, if not months. Rituals, habits, interpersonal relationships, emotions, stress relieve, etc. were all intertwined with the daily pleasures of smoking. Getting that out of your system and making a new life as a non-smoker is as hard, if not harder than those first 3 days. I'm sure that varies from one person to another. If you've smoked for decades, I'm sure that quitting is tougher than if you'd tried quitting not long after starting smoking. If you live in a family of smokers and are constantly exposed to others still enjoying the habit, I'm sure that makes life tougher, too. For ex-smokers who slip up, how many are pulled right back into the habit as if they'd never stopped? Most ex-smokers cannot become "recreational" smokers after they've had the habit. That first cigarette after not having one in a while gives you an incredible buzz that is extremely hard to resist repeating.

I think carb addiction works much the same way for some of us. But I don't think it is the "sweetness of sugar" that is the main issue here. I think that some of us are terribly addicted to the glucose metabolism. Our bodies only knew how to deal with glucose as fuel for such a long time. Getting used to running on ketones takes time. Our brain tries hard to try to get us to eat the fuel that it is used to running on. Withdraw symptoms include:

Keto/Atkins flu. Stop eating carbs and you will feel like crap.

After that I went through a terrible "food boredom" period. I'd almost gag at the thought of another bite of meat, eggs or green beans. It wasn't that way during the first few weeks. It isn't that way now. I eat meat, eggs, and LC veggies daily and I love them. The intense boredom with LC food was a temporary phase, but it lasted several months.

During those first few months eating low carb the pull to dive into some old junky favorite was amped up on steroids. Carbs were screaming my name. Walking into the break room at work and resisting the candy, cookies, bagels, or donuts required loads of willpower. The smell of pizza or baking bread could drive me crazy. I could be doing fine for days and some trigger would fire off some intense craving out of the blue. These were real experience that thankfully I don't have to endure anymore.

I've hung out on this forum for nearly 4 years. I've read many journals. I read journals of people that were successful. I also tended to follow journals of those with a lot of weight to lose. I see many people start this WOE and have some success. Those who were really large like I was rarely get past the first 6 months. Once they start cheating they get suck back into their old WOE just like an ex-smoker does when they start lighting up again.

Those who have not had a life-long weight problem or people with little weight to lose don't seem to have all of the same problems or at least not at the same intensity as I did. I will read posts by some people who were like me and I will totally identify with what they are saying. I will post similar things and others will reply "OMG - I totally understand". Others will comment and I know that they don't have a clue what I am talking about. It is often said that "we are all different", but what drives our beliefs, judgments, and opinions most is what we personally see and experience. For some of us getting off of carbs is just as tough as giving up a life-long habit of smoking. For others it is not. I don't really care about the technical arguments of what is an addiction and what is not. But I do think it is helpful for everybody to understand that changing to a low carb lifestyle is no easy task for some people. Unfortunately, the ones who need to eat low carb the most are the ones who have the toughest time making it happen. And just because doing it is easier for some, that doesn't make them superior nor is the one struggling with the transition inferior. But I get that vibe a lot - even on this forum and some of the low carb FB forums that I frequent.