"A wise man loses nothing, if he but save himself." --Michel de Montaigne
"To be human is to be addicted." --Richard Rohr
Addictions are replaceable. Maybe interchangeable. Like digging in dry sand. The material you remove is immediately refilled with the surrounding particles--until the removal is moot. When we give something up, there is always something else to fill the void. The alcoholic becomes a workaholic becomes a sex addict becomes a sugar junkie becomes an overexerciser, and so on.
Sit through enough AA meetings and at some point you will hear something like this: "I ate two sleeves of Golden Oreos, but it's better than taking a drink!" This makes me wonder if in an OA meeting somewhere someone is sharing, "I snorted a gram of cocaine, but at least I didn't binge on Oreos!"
Unless that "something" is spiritually nourishing (or God, as I will call it), the replacement will be insufficient.
Letting go of means letting God in.
