Date

Dear Medical/Health Reporter:

• More than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. each year are from smoking-related illnesses.
• Secondhand smoke is associated with 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia each year among infants to children 18 months of age.
• If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke than a young person whose parents are both nonsmokers.

We’ve all seen these statistics, or dozens of others like them, that tell us definitively that smoking is bad for us. Yet why is it that many people quit during the Great American Smoke Out and then two weeks later relapse and smoke a cigarette?

There are two components of the smoking habit: one physical and one psychological. The physical aspect of addiction is a result of continued exposure to nicotine, a powerful and addictive drug. The second factor is what psychologists call "conditioned association."

A one-pack-a-day smoker smokes over 7,000 cigarettes per year. Over time, consistent patterns of smoking develop. For example, a smoker may find that he or she typically smokes when driving, when talking on the phone, when having a cup of coffee or a drink of alcohol, when feeling angry, or sad, etc. These patterns become strongly ingrained and the activities, thoughts, feelings, etc. that often accompany smoking become automatic "triggers" that elicit a craving for a cigarette. A smoker may reach "automatically" for a cigarette, without thinking, or suddenly have a strong urge for a cigarette when in a setting where they normally smoke, that is a "conditioned craving." This is a very powerful effect that can make it difficult to quit and can cause a relapse to smoking even years after quitting.

November 18 is the Great American Smoke Out. As a service to your community, the Psychologists in Independent Practice would like to offer a psychologist in your area to speak with you on this topic. He/She would be able to discuss how to attack both the nicotine addiction and the conditioned habit. Psychologists can incorporate life management skills to help patients deal with stress, decision-making and peer and family relationships that often trigger smoking.

Your readers can call toll-free 1-877-603-4000 for a free brochure called "Straight Talk – Choosing a Psychologist." Readers can also use this number for the name of a licensed psychologist in their area.

I look forward to speaking with you.

Sincerely,