Individual counseling and group counseling have been found to help smokers call it quits, according to the US Surgeon General’s Clinical Practice Guidelines: Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence published in 2000. Approaches to counseling that work include learning how to distract yourself when a craving kicks in (a practice called problem solving) and social support in the form of encouragement, caring and concern from friends, family, community members and healthcare providers. Anti-smoking helplines (quitlines) also had a statistically significant effect on smoking abstinence after 12 to 18 months, according to Australian researchers.