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This is your brain on nicotine, stress: addicted 

A smoker's brain learns this deadly lesson thousands of times a year: When feeling anxious, cigarettes will help.

With every one of the 73,000 puffs a pack-a-day smoker ingests annually, doctors say, the brain is permanently rewired to seek relief from stress by smoking.

That interplay between smoking and stress, alluded to by ABC News anchor Peter Jennings when he revealed that he has lung cancer, is the downfall of many a would-be quitter. . . .

"So when you smoke, you feel better," she said. The brain "remembers" that, in a way, she said. She calls smoking a "brain disease," one that permanently rewires the structure of the brain.

In stressful times, the memory of nicotine's powerful balm kicks in for even longtime ex-smokers, like Jennings. "Their brains remind them: 'What did you do at a moment like this? Smoke!' The brain tells them: 'Do this because it will make you feel better,' " she said.

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