Cocooning your self in a non-smoking environment

This story was, at first, just a knee jerk experiment. My mum quit smoking February 2013. I was still smoking a year later. Every time I rolled a cigarette, a voice went off in my head, laughing at me: "Your mum smoked almost 50 years and was able to quit. You haven't smoked 30 years, yet, and still can't quit! Loser…” Dad had already quit for good in 1981.

I was due to visit mum in Vegas May 2014, and three weeks before take-off from Sydney, I still didn’t have a plan. One week before take-off, I had an epiphany. May 10th, 2014, was my departure date from Kingsford-Smith International. It was still a week before take off. I had just enough Drum rolling tobacco to run out Wednesday, 7th May. I bought a 40-Pack of Longbeach. On Saturday morning, May 10, I had just 2 smokes left. I had one at wake up, then had breakfast. After a few last minute pack ups, I got on the train to the Airport. I had the one last smoke just outside an entrance into the Airport. You can’t smoke at most western airports, especially Sydney and LAX. You can’t smoke on airline flights.

At 10:10am, May 10, 2014, I had my last smoke. After that, I got on a 13-hour Trans-Pacific flight. I landed in heavily non-smoking LAX. Once I landed in Vegas, my parents whisked me off to their house in Centennial Hills, northwest of Las Vegas. I didn’t break the news about using the trip as a springboard to quitting until we got to their home. I didn’t have a rental car, so I was completely reliant on Mum and Dad’s cars, who were not insured for non-Nevada licences, so I couldn’t use them. I was completely stuck on foot and taxis were to expensive. The nearest convenience store for smokes was over an hour away by foot. No way was I walking over an hour just to buy smokes!!!

I spent three weeks with non-smokers, cocooned in a non-smoker environment. I went three weeks smoke-free. The only temptation was visiting a smoker friend of my parents, but she smoked such horrible light cigarettes, I couldn’t cave. When we went out at night, anywhere near a store, I didn’t cave.

The biggest test was coming back to Sydney. I live only 3 minutes from a train station, with a 7-Eleven in between only 90 seconds from home. I got off the train and went straight home, only having looked over my shoulder at the 7-Eleven. I’ve been smoke free since.

It was a crazy plan, but it worked. I would never expect the Australian Psychological Association and the Australian Medical Association to endorse my technique because I believe it was a lucky fluke that only worked for me. If you think it might work for you, then, by all means, give it a go