Is this just part of the creative process? Or is it a symptom of mental health challenges that one might see as a positive symptom when it allows for output of amazing creativity?
I hadn’t heard the term at the time but years ago someone I know with bipolar mania wrote song lyrics all over the walls of a house. Like within a few days the walls were covered. It was this ambitious five album plan he created in his mania. So I had a sense of this condition before I knew its name.
That's a great question and a complicated one. My understanding, although I don't know for sure, is that while he was in the midst of it, at least at first, it felt good to him. It did feel compulsive and out of control but he loved the energy and didn't know something was wrong. But eventually it became too much.
What a great post. I didn't realize that hypergraphia also meant writing/drawing interfered with functioning. You inspired me to create a word for my 'graphia' - supergraphia since it's my super power.
Wow, this explains the most confusing few weeks of my life. I started journaling about a painful family event and, before I knew it, I was waking up earlier and earlier each morning to write.
At first it was wonderful: words came so easily and my thoughts suddenly made sense. However, when I went to work I wasn’t able to do any documentation (I work in healthcare). Instead, I would write little poems on the notes app about my patients’ eye color or how great they were to talk to. I got so absorbed in it that I actually left the office without finishing my work. I got so freaked out, I called out of work for the rest of the week.
Then I proceeded to write about 300 notes in rapid succession, some of which were actually incredibly lengthy. I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. I didn’t stop to eat or drink or sleep. I barely even went to the bathroom. If I managed to get an hour of sleep, I would wake up with random rhyming snippets in my brain. They were so loud and impossible to ignore.
Long story short, I ended up at the emergency room when my blood pressure skyrocketed from a lack of food, sleep and water. When I got there, I suddenly couldn’t stand any lights, sounds or eye contact and they had to put me in a dark quiet room with an IV to get some water in me. After a couple of hours I felt like myself again.
That’s when, at 38 years old, I discovered I was bipolar. It was the craziest ride and I have zero interest in ever feeling this way again. I’m afraid to write and journal now in case I can’t stop it. If there was a way to access hypomania without mania, that would be amazing. Thank you for your post. Sorry for rambling 😅
I'd never heard of the term hypergraphia - this was so interesting. And The Midnight Disease sounds like a fascinating read too.
I hadn’t heard the term at the time but years ago someone I know with bipolar mania wrote song lyrics all over the walls of a house. Like within a few days the walls were covered. It was this ambitious five album plan he created in his mania. So I had a sense of this condition before I knew its name.
Wow, that sounds pretty extreme.... Did he experience it as something positive, creatively - or more as a compulsion he couldn't control?
That's a great question and a complicated one. My understanding, although I don't know for sure, is that while he was in the midst of it, at least at first, it felt good to him. It did feel compulsive and out of control but he loved the energy and didn't know something was wrong. But eventually it became too much.
What a great post. I didn't realize that hypergraphia also meant writing/drawing interfered with functioning. You inspired me to create a word for my 'graphia' - supergraphia since it's my super power.
Wow, this explains the most confusing few weeks of my life. I started journaling about a painful family event and, before I knew it, I was waking up earlier and earlier each morning to write.
At first it was wonderful: words came so easily and my thoughts suddenly made sense. However, when I went to work I wasn’t able to do any documentation (I work in healthcare). Instead, I would write little poems on the notes app about my patients’ eye color or how great they were to talk to. I got so absorbed in it that I actually left the office without finishing my work. I got so freaked out, I called out of work for the rest of the week.
Then I proceeded to write about 300 notes in rapid succession, some of which were actually incredibly lengthy. I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. I didn’t stop to eat or drink or sleep. I barely even went to the bathroom. If I managed to get an hour of sleep, I would wake up with random rhyming snippets in my brain. They were so loud and impossible to ignore.
Long story short, I ended up at the emergency room when my blood pressure skyrocketed from a lack of food, sleep and water. When I got there, I suddenly couldn’t stand any lights, sounds or eye contact and they had to put me in a dark quiet room with an IV to get some water in me. After a couple of hours I felt like myself again.
That’s when, at 38 years old, I discovered I was bipolar. It was the craziest ride and I have zero interest in ever feeling this way again. I’m afraid to write and journal now in case I can’t stop it. If there was a way to access hypomania without mania, that would be amazing. Thank you for your post. Sorry for rambling 😅
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I’ve so often heard that same sentiment - if only the hypomania was possible without the tipping into mania!