Originally Posted by
krete77 
Found a website that says until I can unlearn all of my learned behaviors that I learned to evade as a kid, I'll never truly over come addiction. (found here;
OUTGROWING YOUR ADDICTION - 'The Little Book')
Any truth to that statement?
Yes, some. This is part of why we always discuss changing our lifestyle and routines plus avoiding triggering situations are essential in recovery. The "unlearning" is often referenced in the context of addiction-related environmental components that our brains learn to associate with the drug using behavior, and how we respond to triggers. The context of our addictive behavior. Classic examples are the drinking or using buddies, dealers, places where we engage in these acts.
The "learning" here refers to the mental associations generated through repeated experiences between drug use and those environmental components or our emotional triggers (eg. anxiety). So disrupting these learned associations, if possible, helps recovery to a certain extent. Unfortunately it won't take away cravings or prevent relapse very effectively, but can help some. For example, if we learn to respond to an emotional trigger in a different way rather than turning to our drug of choice, it can help change our behavior. Here the "unlearning" refers to the idea of disrupting the old association between, say, anxiety and drug seeking. Unfortunately, in reality, it will never work too well, it's not possible to forget these things, and this is why we always need to stay vigilant and why, sadly, relapse happens so often.