Why do we always crave what we can't have?

Question

You want something, get it, and then that's that! Next thing you know, you're craving something because you haven't got it and the cycle repeats... WHY do we always want endlessly??

Answer 1

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), the 14th century scholar and poet was obsessed with a lady called Laura and wrote somewhere in the region of 400 sonnets dedicated to her. She shunned him and his desire stayed strong until her death: "In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair - my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames.
However, as Lord Byron noted: “Thinks you, if Laura had been Petrach’s wife, He would have written sonnets all his life?”
Possession often extinguishes desire sadly.

Answer 2

Some things we crave that we can't have (like no more hunger) we learn to deal with because we see everyone also shares that fate, so it doesn't seem so onerous.

For other things we crave, it is mostly because we are craving something we want but don't know (or can't admit) what it is. Therefore, in absentia, we try to fill that craving with some other substitute. However, if what we are craving is not something that can be substituted, our feelings will only be momentarily satisfied.

Let's say you have a craving for peanut butter. The only problem is that 1) you don't know you are craving peanut butter and 2) there is no peanut butter in the house. So, normally, you start 'eating' random things, hoping that you will get lucky and strike upon what it is you are needing. Because what you are wanting is both unknowable to you and not within your vicinity, your craving will only be partially satisfied, if at all.

Cravings are supposed to motivate us to restore the balance within. People who spend too much time around others start to crave being alone, while those who are alone, after awhile, begin to crave the companionship of others.

In other words, hunger (or cravings) is an internal compass we have that is supposed to lead us to what we need. It is when we have neither the knowledge nor the access to that which would satisfy our cravings that the difficulty lies.

Answer 3

It's just how we are.. We crave the things we don't have because we think it'll make our problems become better, or anything around that.

Also, it can relate to what our bodies are addicted to, like some other people have recently said. Such as alcohol, drugs, and even sometimes food.
Like, when you get those things and your body has them in its' system, then it's okay for a few hours, and then it craves it again because it's gone.

Answer 4

Everyone is addicted to something like smoking, drinking or food, we want it because our bodies crave for it

Like smokers will always need to smoke so they don't get cravings, but as soon as they stop smoking, they will find it hard to give up because their bodies is use to having a routine with nicotine.

It's as simple as that!

Answer 5

I'm not like this, I'm happy with what I have but I am old-school. I think that people are like this because the government and the media encourage us to constantly buy things we don't need in the hope that this will solve our problems/make us happy and when they don't, well, just buy something else!

Answer 6

This is an age old question. Paul screamed to God, why do I do the things I hate? When we continually strive to put things into our lives that we think will make us happy, only to find that we still aren't happy, it is because we have a huge missing element. God, will fill all those spaces that are empty, even when we have overloaded our lives with things, people, stuff. Look to him, and he will provide. I wish you God's blessings, you are very smart to have figured out this mess, some people keep going and going, and never understand why!

Answer 7

altered ego's answer hits the nail!
The essence of human intelligence is to want something.
Technology may someday be able to recreate perfect human or even super human intelligence artificially, but there will always be one significant difference. Robots, machines, computers only want what we tell them to. See it as a biological determinant, to live means to want things: to sustain life, to procreate and to be safe from harm, to express oneself etc.

Answer 8

I think it is the thought that spurs us to evolve. Wanting something different, wanting more, has led humans up to the top of the food chain.

Answer 9

i crave things my body needs like salt i don't eat anything with salt on i hate crisps an i make fresh food so no added salt so sometime i crave salty things

Answer 10

I think it's just human nature and goes back through the ages