Learning about all those different things psychologically - about grief and my own addictions and problems and stuff like that, and really getting an education on it, I think it was part of the process of it, learning about it and trying to lick it.

Sambora frames recovery as an intellectual and psychological undertaking as much as a moral or willpower test. By emphasizing “learning” about grief, addiction, and personal “problems,” he suggests that naming and understanding underlying causes—especially unresolved loss—can be integral to changing behavior. The quote also implies a shift from denial to self-study: education becomes a tool for self-awareness, helping him recognize patterns and triggers and making treatment feel like an active process rather than passive suffering. His colloquial “trying to lick it” underscores the ongoing, effortful nature of recovery: progress comes through sustained engagement with one’s inner life, not a single decisive moment.