Hypergraphia

Does anyone feel the need to constantly write things down?

It's a disorder called hypergraphia.
Quirky Minds: Hypergraphia: A River of Words | Psychology Today

I can't have a conversation with someone unless I write everything down. This is why I much prefer meeting over the phone vs. in person. I get soooo much anxiety when I have to make eye contact.

It's causing me so many problems. I can't get anything started unless I type an elaborate summary of the task ahead, throw in links to helpful resources, and over analyze the dickens out of it.

HELP!

Dear dsmith,

What you wrote about sounds like me. Since I am not a physician or medical professional, I cannot offer advice that you or anyone could or should rely upon. I can only share what has helped me personally in full knowledge that what helps one of us might not work for someone else or might even make things worse.

What helps me is something a psychologist told me. He said: "In seeking to change something about yourself, aim for progress rather than perfection. Instead of aiming at 100%, aim each day to do something towards your goal, something more than zero. If you aim at 100% change, you are going to feel bad every day you don't reach it even if you are at 75% or 80% or whatever. You are setting yourself up for misery. Instead of this, aim each day to do something, anything towards your goal that will be more than zero. And when you do that you will start to feel better about yourself and ironically you will make more progress towards your goal."

I don't know, but this helped me with hypergraphia and with other struggles in my life.

Another thing he told me, was this. "Keep any failures you make in perspective." When I asked him what he meant by this, he said: "We all fall short of certain important ideals we have for ourselves. But there are failures and then there are big failures.

In the last 100 years there have been a couple of men who caused the destruction of tens of millions of men, women and children through programs of genocide. When you think you have failed or fallen short of something, remember . . . you have not failed at something that caused the destruction of ten million people, or a million people, or a hundred thousand people, or ten thousand people, or a thousand people, or a hundred people . . . and so on. So don't lose perspective. Try not to feel a level of disappointment, guilt or hopelessness that is inappropriate to the degree of failing you may have fallen into."

These two pieces of advice helped me a lot. I don't know if they would help you or anyone else and like I said, I am not a doctor or medical professional and so anything I say should not be relied upon. It is best to seek the personal and customized advice of a psychologist or other mental health professional when one is struggling against something difficult and it is causing great unhappiness. Bipolar is such a heavy, heavy load to bear and I think you and others who carry it are very heroic.

I hope you find something to ease the distress you are feeling. Thank you for posting what you did, because it will help so many people here who are struggling with 'hypergraphia' or other issues!

Sincerely yours, Yao Wen

I don't think I've ever experienced hypergraphia, but I know there are some regulars on this board who do.

This sounds very difficult to deal with indeed. I don't know anything about hypergraphia. All I can offer you is to urge you to never give up in your search for help!

Hi dsmith. I wouldn't say that I have a constant urge to write, but when I become hypomanic/manic, I do to a notable degree. I am also a gabby person, by nature, who also likes to think up all kinds of stuff. My thoughts race a lot. I find a great deal of pleasure in it, entertaining myself with it all. I also spend a lot of time on the computer, so writing is made easy. Sometimes it is not even completely directed at people, but are various notes/thoughts/ideas/reminders/play, etc, that I don't want to lose. Sometimes writing is a great psychological release for me. I have also called my writing "the dance and flight of my mind and fingers". I love to dance. I love music. I love these sensations.

I much prefer typing than handwriting. The latter seems too slow for my taste, and can make me feel frustrated. Sometimes even verbal speech cannot express thoughts fast enough. There have even been times when I was very manic, that rapid-fire gibberish shot out of my mouth. Once a psychiatrist at an IOP told me that he had never seen or heard anything like it.

I do relate to you about anxiety, and how writing thoughts ahead of time can alleviate it. When I need to communicate to people I know little (or big groups), I would rather read something I wrote ahead of time, rather than give an ad hoc speech. That's why I like forums like this, and emailing. That's why I dislike live chats and even texting. They become too much for my racing brain to process, or seem so limiting. Often times I will free write, then go back again and again and make modifications/improvements. That's even part of my pleasure.

If I had to list the members here who write the most, I'd be up there in the top few, I think. I'm aware of it. I know that people have only skimmed, or even skipped, some of my posts, at times. But knowing that doesn't make it easy to change such behavior. I don't really even want to change it.

I think I experience something like this sometimes.

There was someone here who would post very long posts and said that she had hypergraphia. She had "blue" in her name.