Addiction
Information, Symptoms, Treatments and Resources
Kick the Smoking Habit
Anti-Smoking Counseling
Anti-Smoking Counseling
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.
By MedHelp Editors. Published July 5, 2011. Updated March 30, 2015.
Reviewed by Joseph Sclafani, MD on April 10, 2015.
