Hypochondria and the Pen

...and the paradox flies--is hypochondria itself a disease (or diseased state), and is that state accepted as such by the hypochondriac and by his/her medical professional?

The Proustian hypochondriac feels the world press too keenly on him; he mistakes perfectly ordinary sensations for deep afflictions.

Click to expand...

fairly standard narcissism in many respects, and a vital arrow in any artist's quiver.

Um. I can't eat anything circular in any way except circuitously, as for sounds, the snicking sound of rubbery plastic rubbing against itself really ruins my mood.

Also, you are funny and cool, too much so to not get published, and I have concluded this simply from your posts on AW, so i imagine your concerted efforts at prose must be very powerful.

I always understood it to be a condition of "imagined" ailments. Such as my mother claiming to our family doctor that I was faking it or a hypochondriac only to have him turn around and tell her that I had Bronchial Pneumonia and it was quite advanced in both lungs.

She often was given to such statements: "I'm taking you to the doctor Kim Marie and if you're faking it, I will never believe you again." To her dismay upon repeating that same thing to the doctor he gave her quite the lecture on how maybe I wouldn't get so sick if she didn't smoke in the home.

But I digress. LOL

Perks my darling girl, I am suffering right now from what I can only consider a hyper response to any tactile sensations. My teeth are tender, my skin burns and tingles and my glands are being hyper vigilant over any small amount of stress. It's like the slightest bit of stress and my immune system gives me "the hell in" as they say in South Africa.

I do think that there is a tendency for some in the artistic pursuits to believe they must suffer for their craft, in what ever form they think it must take and will make it happen with their attitudes. Most people aren't aware of what they think or say and how much power that has to bring things from their fears into the fruition of reality.

All I can say with assurance is, we need to chill. I even had this discussion with my 18 year old today. I constantly forget to stay in the moment. I recognize this from time to time when my self conscious mind takes on the voice of Yoda and says:

"Always with this one, her mind always looking to the future but never on where she is."

holy, perks. you're crazy!

(-;

Hypochondriac about hypochondria. You're aces.


It's the artist who moves beyond hypochondria as hermitage to write that's tragic. They become the writer's block sickos tied into knots made up of the sicknesses they imagine themselves to have. Then, the wrist slitting ensues and the real art begins. blood birds are beautiful!

KTC said:

holy, perks. you're crazy!

(-;

Hypochondriac about hypochondria. You're aces.


It's the artist who moves beyond hypochondria as hermitage to write that's tragic. They become the writer's block sickos tied into knots made up of the sicknesses they imagine themselves to have. Then, the wrist slitting ensues and the real art begins. blood birds are beautiful!

Click to expand...

You know, you promised not to tell anyone about that. I swear, I've moved back to the city!

I don't know about hypochondria, but that sounds an awful lot like the noise-sensitivity I get when I have a migraine coming on.

Perks, you have one trait a true hypochondriac can't have; self-deprecating humor. In other words, the hypochondriac doesn't even know there's something called 'taking yourself too seriously.'

Like William said, hypochondria is a frequent by-product of narcissism. And artistic temperaments are possibly more susceptible to this, given their sensitive nature. But...I don't think narcissism or hypochondria or any of those negative off-shoots of sensitivity are necessarily the baggage all good writers must carry. After all, the best writers are those who give us a window into their soul where we can see a bit of ourselves reflected back--and that is probably too much of a writing challenge for the narcissist.

Are you accusing Perks of deprecating!

KTC said:

Are you accusing Perks of deprecating!

Click to expand...

(Ssh, KTC, it'll just make her twitch if you draw attention to it.)

Here's what I think (which you can ignore if you like, because I've already had a glass of wine).

This literary hypochondria seems to me to be an oversensitivity to every-day sensations (and yes, Perks, I'm with you on that dry-against-dry rubbing thing: it makes my teeth creep to the extent that I can't fold clean towels or use cornflour). As writers we need that oversensitivity to notice the stuff that we write about: all those small twitches and character traits which illuminate our work and add depth to it. It's the tiny details which matter; and most people--those strange, non-writing folks who I'm told manage to somehow enjoy their lives despite their strange ability to live without writing things down each day--most people don't notice those things, and don't know how we do it.

So there.