There was an interesting segment on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning. They talked with author and neurologist Alice Flaherty about hypergraphia, also known as “The Midnight Disease”, which is a compulsive need to write and is the title of her recent book. If that link breaks search for The Midnight Disease” in the archives.
I’m sure that to some extent I have a very mild case of this. She describes how she first started to feel compulsed to write after losing her twin babies after a premature delivery. She describes how she started writing so much that she was writing on tiny little post-its. The paperback book that I carry with me usually always has a dozen or so tiny little post-it notes in and or on it. I can see this with my friends on the Widownet. There are many there who seem to have a need to write.
There was also the interesting description of how this is based in the temporal lobe, along with manic depression, bipolar disorders, and highly emotional feelings, and epileptic disorders that affect this area of the brain.