myStrength

  When Rex Braddock was a kid, he snuck some his mom’s KOOL cigarettes to smoke in the woods behind their house. They tasted terrible, he said, and he didn’t have any further interest in smoking – until he joined the Navy.   Smoking was just a natural part...

  Brandy House was 19 when she started smoking cigarettes. “It was more peer pressure,” she said. “There was just something in my thinking that said smoking is cool and I want to try it.”   That led to a 20-year habit. Her brand cost $8 a pack – and she...

  In 30 years, Gale Rhinesmith never tried to quit smoking. She genuinely enjoyed it. But the cost - financially and physically - took a toll.   “With my generation, that’s what people did,” she said. Everyone smoked – and you could smoke anywhere. There...

  Jennifer Smith was about 15 years old when she started smoking. It was a difficult time in her life, and cigarettes were believed to help with stress. Plus, they were cheap, and everybody did it.   She got up to a 2-pack-a-day habit. She tried to quit....

  People with a serious mental illness die 25 years earlier than their peers due to physical health conditions ... that are related to smoking.   While people with a mental health condition make up only about 20 percent of the population, they smoke 40...

  In the addiction treatment world, there's a rising star: Medication Assisted Treatment. But this approach has been around a while when it comes to tobacco. Learn why it's so effective.   Medication Assisted Treatment, or MAT, is the evidence-based practice...

  There's so many excellent resources to help you on your Quit Journey, it can feel almost overwhelming. Here are some of our curated resources to check into first:   myStrength: Available to staff, clients and community members, myStrength offers...

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  Most people know that nicotine is bad for you. But do you know why it’s bad for you? What exactly is going on in your brain and body that causes so much damage and makes it so hard to quit?   Nicotine is a chemical found in tobacco leaves – the addictive...

  Along with nicotine, cigarettes contain about 7,000 other chemicals; 70 are known to cause cancer. Smoking accounts for nearly a third of all cancer deaths, and as much as 90 percent of all lung cancer.   Breathe in that smoke and your lungs begin to...

  Smokeless tobacco (chew, dip, snuff or snus) contains over 3,000 chemicals; 28 are known to cause cancer.   Smokeless tobacco contains about 3 to 4 times the amount of nicotine compared to cigarettes, and carry an increased risk of heart and cardiovascular...

  There’s much that remains unknown about vaping. Many chemicals used in the liquid that’s heated and aerosolized for inhalation are unknown, and we don’t know how lungs will respond to them over the long term.   Dr. Thomas Eissenberg, a tobacco researcher...