The scientist in me worries that my happiness is nothing more than a symptom of bipolar disease, hypergraphia from a postpartum disorder. The rest of me thinks that artificially splitting off the scientist in me from the writer in me is actually a kind of cultural bipolar disorder, one that too many of us have. The scientist asks how I can call my writing vocation and not addiction. I no longer see why I should have to make that distinction. I am addicted to breathing in the same way. I write because when I don’t, it is suffocating. I write because something much larger than myself comes into me that suffuses the page, the world, with meaning. Although I constantly fear that what I am writing teeters at the edge of being false, this force that drives me cannot be anything but real, or nothing will ever be real for me again. Alice W. Flaherty
About This Quote

To say that you are addicted to something is usually used to describe a drug, but one of the main components of addiction can be not having enough of something. Our body needs oxygen to survive and if we don’t have enough oxygen, it will start to affect us physically. To say that someone is addicted to something means that their life is full of meaning and purpose, even if that meaning or purpose isn’t necessarily healthy. Some people are addicted to their work or writing or art, but these are all activities that provide them with a sense of meaning.

When you are addicted to something, you are more likely to put effort into it because the reward is so high. Think about some activities that you might be addicted to… do they make you happy?

Source: The Midnight Disease: The Drive To Write, Writers Block, And The Creative Brain

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