mechanism

Craving is a wave, not a command. A cue fires — a place, an hour, a mood — and the system predicts relief from one specific thing, narrowing attention onto it. The prediction is physical and convincing, and like every wave it rises, peaks and falls. Most peaks are under twenty minutes; the thing that makes them longer is arguing with them.

not to confuse with

restless: energy without a specific object · bored: nothing pulls at all · anxious: the pull is toward relief from a forecast, not toward a thing · excited: the pull is forward and leaves you fuller, not emptier

in the body

narrowed attention, salivation or tension depending on the object, the body already rehearsing the motion of getting it

feel it

Watch the wave instead of debating it. Debating means the object stays in focus, and focus is what feeds it. Two minutes of noticing without acting is usually enough to see it crest.

what to do

Delay and change the scene: ten minutes, different room, hands busy. If it passes, you learned the wave is a wave. If it does not, decide deliberately rather than automatically — a chosen yes costs far less than an automatic one.

don't

do not argue with it in your head — that keeps the object on screen · do not test yourself by staying near the cue · do not promise «never again» inside the peak: that is the vow that breaks tonight

if you do nothing

The automatic yes runs and the loop gets stronger: each unquestioned surrender teaches the cue that it works. The window between cue and action shortens until there is no decision left in the middle.

after

log the cue, not just the outcome — cues repeat and can be redesigned · the wave that passed is evidence worth keeping for the next one

your track

8 episodes · median 7 → 3 · usual cue: evening + phone in hand · best tool: ten-minute delay ✓5

keys

0–9 set the scale · enter = next step · d = tool done · esc = close dialogs

+ add your own · open in Library: practices →