The craving is emotional before it is physical

Dear Delyara, I don’t know if people understand that some cravings begin emotionally before the body even notices them. A mood shift. An empty evening. A wave of loneliness. A familiar kind of restlessness. A sense of not wanting to feel what’s coming clearly. And then the mind starts remembering relief. That’s the hardest part for me — not the thing itself, but how quickly the body can start leaning toward escape when emotion gets too loud. I am learning not to trust that leaning automatically. But it is still there.