So if an addict wants to quit his addiction, can he say:
'I'm breaking free from drinking.' ('Uwalniam się od pijaństwa')
?
Both would be OK. The difference, however slight, would just be a mental sensation.
Those prepositions deserve some attention though. In spatiotemporal situations, e.g.
from Warsaw to Berlin, from Christmas to Easter, Warsaw and Christmas are starting points or beginnings.
Of Warsaw/Of Christmas to Berlin/to Easter doesn’t work.
Also,
from contrasts with
to and with it introduces an interval separating a beginning or start and a terminus of some sort. However, what’s more important,
from doesn’t need the presence of
to for the separation to surface. (“…coming from Warsaw”).
Outside of the spatiotemporal relations,
from prompts for a source or origin.
Other verbs that clearly call from sources or origins (and assimilate their prepositions from the spatiotemporal domain) seem to confirm that and in present-day English do not accept
of; today
of would rather prompt for a cause:
Emerge from (not of), disappear from (not of), elicit from (not of), evolve from (not of), derive from (not of), guess from (not of), suffer from (not of)…
Some verbs can accept both
of and
from allowing the ever so slightly different percepts of source vs. cause:
Die from/of TB, from/of wounds…