Today's Agenda: Addictions-Does One Always Replace The Other?

                      How many people do you know, or how many of you personally, have at one time been addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, or some type of illegal drug?  How many have attempted to quit their addiction of choice and succeeded?  Quitting your specific addiction can be extremely challenging, depending on how deep into the hole you've fallen.  I've had problems with addiction myself in the past, so based on my own personal experience, I have become very interested in the matter concerning the human mind in regards to addiction.  I have reached a personal conclusion, based on mine, and others I have personally discussed this with's experiences(plus several google search web articles I found), that we never seem to actually give up the actual addictive part of our personality.  Yes it's true, we can quit the addiction we initially set out to quit, which is great, however, our addictive behavior does not stop.
                     What I mean by this, is that we inevitably trade our addiction for another, to fill that hole left by the quitting of the other.  Some people simply trade one drug for one they consider less harmful, be that either marijuana, or something legal like alcohol.  Obviously, both are still bad.  As discussed in a previous post, alcohol is the most addictive, and dangerous drug there is in regards to withdrawal, organ damage, and overall deaths, and marijuana, whether people who use it are willing to accept it or not, does indeed release carcinogens when smoked, causing lung damage(not nearly as much as cigarettes), kills brain cells by the hundreds of thousands(which does indeed result in short term memory loss), and causes a sever lack of motivation to much of anything besides watch tv, play video games, and eat everything in sight.
(QUICK SIDE NOTE-Users of any drug, I don't care what it is, will always try and defend their use of it,  whether they are defending the harm of the drug itself, or stating the always classic, "I'm not addicted, I can quit anytime I want, I just don't want to," line, there is no drug known to man that does not have any type of harmful effect on you body, marijuana included, despite the belief of stoners worldwide.)
                    So you might be wondering, 'What about people that stop using a chemical substance like the fore mentioned, and don't trade it for another drug?  There's nothing that they can be addicted to other than drugs that could be considered negative.'  Of course, that was just my cheezy, classic high school informational video question, that always leads into something like, "Well actually, that is quite incorrect.  You can be addicted to anything, such as: food, candy, sex, exercise, soda, tv, etc.  Pretty much anything that we as humans enjoy, can be overly used and abused in an addictive manner, that could cause us either, physical or mental harm."
                     Now I can bet there's two on the above list that you may not agree with, those being sex and exercise.  Everybody loves sex(besides those who have never had it, or priests........unless it's with little boys), but it can most certainly become addicting in very negative ways like purchasing the company of a prostitute, excessive self pleasuring(including public restrooms, or wherever you happen to feel the urge. lol), and the excessive viewing of pornography.  It becomes a problem when your entire life surrounds sex.
                     Exercise is the same thing.  People that go to the gym for 6 hours or more a day, 7 days a week, while stuffing their body full of overdoses of vitamins and body building substances like creatine, etc, can be very harmful to your body, due to overexertion and to much chemical imbalance with the excess vitamins.  So even things that most would consider harmless, or even healthy(like exercise and sex both can be), can be abused in a negative way, especially for those who are leaving an addiction.  I know someone that had quit smoking cigarettes, and developed an unnatural, excessive addiction to chewing gum and eating sunflower seeds, to where it became a nasty, disgusting habit.  Nobody likes to stare at someone chomping on 4 pieces of gum, or see ashtrays and bowls all over the place filled with saliva drenched, chewed up sunflower seed shells.
                    So now that you've heard my thoughts on the subject....What are yours?  Have you experienced the same type addiction trade that I'm referring to, personal or with others?  Or do truly believe that addiction can totally be beaten without replacing it with even the smallest addictive behaviors?  Even religious practices can become addicted to and over used in a mentally unhealthy way.  Give me your feedback.