Yes, IggysGirl, it is most definitely normal. I think that we crave bodily contact anyway, but we are especially aware of that need when we know what we are missing--when we have someone in our lives whom we care about so much but can't see him or her.

I empathize with you completely. I went 2 yrs without any sexual contact with anyone once, but I was tied up with work and school and didn't know anyone. So, I was lonely, but I could handle it fine through masturbation.

However, I've been in a LDR for over 2 years now, and our contact has gotten briefer and briefer with long periods between that contact for reasons that would take too long to go into here. I saw him last Sept., and it was long enough to be able to make love (about 3 hrs). I have seen him only once since then (1/20/03) when I saw him at the airport for 30 min--just long enough to give him a blow job in my car. We have no phone contact, no letters, no e-mails--only managing to meet on line for 10 to 45 min about once every 3 weeks. It is very hard.

The first year I met my need to share sexually by sending him X-rated pix and bringing myself to orgasm on cam in some of Yahoo's chatrooms. At least I felt like I was sharing something sexually with someone. It was so lonely to just masturbate solo all the time. I knew he'd be horrified to find out I'd be doing that, though, so I stopped this past year. I even stopped taking the pix the last month or so since he can't see them anyway.

It helps if you at least have platonic friends and relatives from whom you can get some hugs...some type of tactile contact.

Hopefully you won't have that much more time to wait until you're in his arms again.

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Communication is the key.