Chatelaine, what you said in your post was very similar to how I feel.
Apart from reasons given in previous posts, the reason I write, too, is because I want and need to. There have been times in recent years when circumstances have prevented me from writing and, during those times, I have felt deprived, and also detached from 'me', if that makes any sense. It is as if an essential part of me has had to shrink away.
With reading, too, I usually have more than one book on the go at a time - dipping into one or the other depending on how I am feeling.