Yes, it is possible to become addicted to spending time with someone. This is a pretty common thing, and many people experience this situation when they fall in love. It's fine to feel that sense of addiction to your lover's touch or think that it's too long to be with them throughout the day.
Touch starvation refers to the desire for physical contact that people may experience after receiving little to no physical interaction with others for a period of time. Some people may compare it to the desire for food during hunger.
We bond through physical touch. Skin is the largest organ in your body and sends good and bad touch sensations to your brain. When you engage in pleasant touch, like a hug, your brain releases a hormone called oxytocin. This makes you feel good and firms up emotional and social bonds while lowering anxiety and fear.
In fact, it's a human need. Humans are wired to have a deep longing for physical contact. Our need for physical affection with human beings is rooted in our biology, as touch and close connections with others is of huge importance in our overall well-being, mental health, and survival.
Craving physical touch is called skin hunger, or touch deprivation. According to Healthline, it “occurs when a person experiences little to no touch from other living things.” For many people, this is their reality right now.
As humans, we're wired to crave touch. On the day of our birth, we're cuddled, rubbed, and snuggled by others — from parents to the medical staff. Physical touch can help ease feelings of sadness and pain. When we're without touch, it can affect our mental health and physical well-being.
That's your brain talking. Being around the one you love and getting to kiss or cuddle them releases oxytocin. Oxytocin, which has been called the "love hormone," is the thing that makes you feel all lovely inside about your partner and can make you want to invade their personal space even more.
Physical contact of a non-sexual nature — the hugs and squeezes, the handholding, the random touches — can be an effective pathway for maintaining intimacy, with its many benefits.
Talking to a friend, family member, or a mental health professional can help you better manage and cope with your discomfort towards physical contact. They may also provide helpful insights or advice that could help you find ways to alleviate any fear or anxiety associated with being touched.
Men love physical intimacy. Not just sex, even a non-sexual touch is something that can make them go crazy. Cuddling, hugging from behind, playing with their hair or touching their neck gives them a feeling of being loved. All these actions give them a sense of attachment, passion and care which every guy loves.
"Everyone has different needs to be close to another," Degges-White says. This means there is no hard number for how long it takes to develop touch starvation. If you share your bed with someone every night, you might miss their presence the first night you're sleeping alone, Degges-White says.
But taking your physical affection to the extreme right at the beginning of a relationship could be a red flag. It could mean you are overcompensating for the other more important aspects of a healthy relationship that are absent. It could also mean your partner may be abusive.
Hands are also the parts of our bodies that have most nerve endings, so massaging fingers and hands can be super-sensual. Our results show that bottom and hips are the most desired places to be touched at by mere 23% of the respondents. This is a zone close to intimate and should be touched only in safe environment.
The highest level of intimacy, requires the greatest amount of trust in our relationship. It is only when we feel truly safe with somebody, that we become willing to share the deepest core of who we are. It's up close and personal.
Level five is the highest level of intimacy. It is the level where we are known at the deepest core of who we are. Because of that, it is the level that requires the greatest amount of trust.
He has a strong sexual attraction to you
A physical touch means different things when applied to different parts of the body. A hand placed on your lower back or around your sides and hips has sexual significance and means that he is very attracted to you.
Men who are attracted to you might even engage in more touch. If a man actively tries to touch you during your interaction, it may mean he wants to get closer to you or close the distance between you two.
That being said, New York City-based relationship expert Susan Winter recommends couples keep in touch on a daily basis, or — at the very least — every other day, especially if they're long distance. “Without ongoing contact, your relationship will wither,” she warns.
People who don't get their dose of affectionate touch seem less happy, more lonely, and have a higher likelihood of suffering from depression, mood and anxiety disorders, as well as secondary immune disorder.
Being averse to hugs can also result from trauma, experts believe. “These experiences are all stored in the body, and they interfere with experiencing pleasure from touch… When trauma is stored in implicit memory in the body, people don't like to be hugged or touched.
Touch deprivation can increase stress, depression, and anxiety, and lead to numerous additional negative physiological effects. Individuals who go without positive physical touch for a long period can even suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.