Addiction and cults do seem somewhat related. The first thing that comes to mind is Narconon and $cientology.
My wife used to work at a church based day care that, at night, hosted AA meetings. When we had board meetings for the school, there would be overlap.
While we were leaving one night, a bunch of AA’ers were hanging around outside, on a break or something. To a person, each and every one, had an obvious addiction besides alcohol.
There was a group of smokers talking, a group of obese people talking (and eating or drinking sodas) and then there was a group that my wife didn’t get at first which I found hilarious. When she inquired as to their addiction, I whispered in her ear...
“Sex”
Yep, it wasn’t so obvious with the men, but the ladies were all dress provocatively and their body language was definitely...inviting.
I came to the conclusion that night that some people just have addictive personalities and they might beat one addiction down, but they eventually substitute it with another.