{"id":503657,"date":"2026-06-21T07:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/503657\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T07:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:58:08","slug":"october-7-trauma-reminders-may-trigger-smoking-cravings-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/503657\/","title":{"rendered":"October 7 trauma reminders may trigger smoking cravings, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Hebrew University of Jerusalem-led study found that reminders of collective trauma can cause an immediate spike in cannabis and tobacco<\/a> cravings among regular users, according to research published in the Journal of Health Psychology.<\/p>\n

The peer-reviewed study, led by Dr. Vera Skvirsky, Dr. Uri Lifshin, Maayan Yacubovitz, and Hila Avnit, examined how exposure to reminders of the October 7 attack<\/a> affected regular cannabis users and daily tobacco smokers in Israel.<\/p>\n

Researchers said the findings suggest that smoking-related<\/a> cravings are not only a matter of habit or physical dependence, but may also function as a rapid psychological defense against thoughts of mortality and vulnerability.<\/p>\n

The study was based on terror management theory, which holds that people instinctively seek to suppress or manage fear when confronted with reminders of death or existential threat.<\/p>\n

In the first experiment, moderate to high-risk cannabis<\/a> users were asked to read an article about the October 7 attack, accompanied by recognizable images. A control group read an article about dental pain.<\/p>\n

\"ManMan smokes a cigarette (illustrative). (credit: GBJSTOCK, SHUTTERSTOCK)Similar results among tobacco smokers<\/p>\n

Participants exposed to the October 7 material reported significantly stronger cannabis cravings than those in the control group, the researchers said.<\/p>\n

A second experiment used the same method with daily tobacco smokers and found a similar increase in nicotine cravings after exposure to collective trauma reminders.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings highlight how addictive behaviors are often deeply intertwined with our basic need for psychological survival,\u201d Lifshin said. \u201cWhen people are reminded of a collective existential threat, the immediate urge to smoke isn\u2019t simply a physical habit. It is a rapid defensive response designed to push thoughts of mortality out of conscious awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anxiety and psychological buffers<\/p>\n

The study also found that people with high attachment anxiety, meaning those who worry more about their own lovability and the reliability of support networks, reported higher overall cravings.<\/p>\n

However, the researchers said attachment security, self-esteem, national identity, and self-affirmation tasks did not reduce the immediate cravings triggered by trauma reminders.<\/p>\n

That finding suggests the cravings were an urgent and reflexive attempt to suppress threatening thoughts, rather than a longer-term effort to build psychological security.<\/p>\n

Broader public health implications<\/p>\n

The findings come as Israeli researchers and clinicians continue to examine the long-term psychological effects of the October 7 massacre, the ongoing war, displacement, and repeated exposure to traumatic news.<\/p>\n

The authors said the results may help explain how media reminders of collective traumatic events can affect health-related behavior, even after the initial event has passed.<\/p>\n

The research paper, titled \u201cThe effect of collective trauma on craving for cannabis and tobacco,\u201d is available in the Journal of Health Psychology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Hebrew University of Jerusalem-led study found that reminders of collective trauma can cause an immediate spike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7438,40197,163,85,46,16906,13672,22914],"class_list":["post-503657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cannabis","tag-cigarettes","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-marijuana","tag-smoking","tag-tobacco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}