Hypergraphia

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.

Related Topics:
Neurologist - Temporal lobe - Epilepsy - Hyperlexia

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Hypergraphia was a central issue in the mysterious story of Virginia Ridley, a Georgia woman who also suffered from agoraphobia and epilepsy and remained secluded in her home for twenty-seven years. When her husband, Alvin Ridley, was accused of holding his wife in the home for almost three decades and killing her, her ten thousand-plus page hypergraphic journal was central at the 1999 trial and in the ultimate acquittal of Mr. Ridley. Her writings literally answered every question raised about the mysterious woman in the small town of Ringgold, Georgia, when prosecutors had assumed that she had been held against her will and murdered.

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