@Rob03 What you're describing has a real physiological basis, even if "withdrawal" isn't a formal clinical label for it in the same way we use it for substance detox. I'll touch on the science of it; I think you may find it fascinating.
Human touch engages multiple biological systems at once. When you receive safe, consensual touch, the body increases activity in the parasympathetic nervous system (your "rest and digest" state). That's associated with a lower heart rate, reduced cortisol (stress hormone) level, and increased vagal tone. Gentle touch also triggers the release of neurochemicals that, beyond Oxytocin (involved in bonding, trust, and downregulation of the threat response). Dopamine is also involved in both reward and anticipation neural pathways. If you start predicting cuddling with relief or comfort, the brain begins to treat it as a learned reward cycle; so the expectation of touch actually becomes part of the regulation loop.
So, when that suddenly disappears, one can get a rebound effect that includes:
This doesn't necessarily mean that one is "addicted," per se, but it will reflect the fact that the nervous system can become conditioned to external co-regulation.
Humans are fundamentally social-regulation organisms, in that we don't solely regulate stress internally; rather, we tend to often --- for a lack of a better term --- "borrow" regulation from other individuals who we deem safe through proximity, tone, touch, and presence, and cuddling hits all of these simultaneously.
So yes, what you're noticing is real in the sense that your nervous system is adapting to a specific regulatory input then reacting to its absence. The intensity of this usually depends on how much other baseline regulation you have outside of that context (sleep, exercise, social connection, stress load, etc.).
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions about this and I'll do my best to go deeper.
To have withdrawals from something means there is some sort of addiction. I am not addicted to cuddling and I'm pretty sure that other people aren't either, no matter how much they might enjoy it.
@pmvines I agree, yet perhaps we're different
@pmvines while it might feel like an overstatement to call the dip after cuddling withdrawal, my way of understanding addiction goes in the opposite direction. The experience of withdrawal (the dip after doing a thing which can be alleviated by doing more of the thing) is one of the factors that can come before and contribute to the person continuing to engage in the thing in unhealthy ways, or in ways that are harmful to other aspects of their life they value.