It's just like riding a bike.... you never really forget a habit (good or bad.)
According to a 2009 MIT study, "Habits help us through the day, eliminating the need to strategize about each tiny step involved in making a frothy latte, driving to work and other complex routines. Bad habits, though, can have a vise grip on both mind and behavior. Notoriously hard to break, they are devilishly easy to resume, as many reformed smokers discover. ... Important neural activity patterns in a specific region of the brain change when habits are formed, change again when habits are broken, but quickly re-emerge when something rekindles an extinguished habit -- routines that originally took great effort to learn."
The study also suggests that a learned pattern remains in the brain after the behavior is stopped, and that is why it may be so hard to change a habit.
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