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hypergraphia

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 1:31 am
by uncronopio
From Wikipedia:
Hypergraphia is the uncontrollable urge to write. It is not a formally-recognized disorder, although it has been embraced by neurologist Alice Weaver Flaherty in her book The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain. It is sometimes associated with temporal lobe epilepsy. It is unclear what, if any, relationship has with the trait known as Hyperlexia.
and from Medical terms:
Hypergraphia: The driving compulsion to write; the overwhelming urge to write. Hypergraphia may compel someone to keep a voluminous journal, to jot off frequent letters to the editor, to write on toilet paper if nothing else is available, and perhaps even to compile a dictionary. Hypergraphia is the opposite of writer's block.

Temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with hypergraphia. This association has been known at least as early as 1974 (Waxman SG, Geschwind N. Hypergraphia in temporal lobe epilepsy. Neurology. 1974;24:629-36). A number of prolific writer may have had temporal lobe epilepsy, including Byron, Dante, Dostoevsky, Molière, Petrarch, Poe, and Tennyson.
We may have some hypergraphia sufferers in this forum ;-)

Re: hypergraphia

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:56 pm
by KatyBr
Hypergraphia is the uncontrollable urge to write.
Temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with hypergraphia.
Is it possible to have the firse without the second? sigh, I often have a compulsion to write, and write and write, I wrote 12,000 plus words last week, but the impetus is gone now...

Kt

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 7:31 pm
by uncronopio
Hi Katy, I am not sure about the answer. Actually I came across this word while waiting to see the doctor, where I was reading a copy of National Geographic. There was an article about the brain/mind and an example of hypergraphia. This woman had very intense episodes of hypergraphia following, first, losing her first twins and, second, the birth of her daughter I think. She mentioned that there was a relationship with hormonal levels.