Comments on: Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

By: ben

ben — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:03:38 +0000

im 29, iv been getting this since i was a kid. i still experiences it on a weekly biases. Although for me its more, every thing that is far away feels like it close and every thing close feels like its far away

By: Alana

Alana — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 05:06:19 +0000

Hey, so glad I finally looked this up because it’s scared me for years. Mine mainly occurred when I was very young at night time but I’ve noticed it reappears when I’m stressed. My symptoms include a weird either taste or feeling on the back of my Tongue and everything seems to be either smaller or abnormally large, and sometimes everything will suddenly sound like its going far too fast, like my breathing or my heart(which is particularly scary) or any noise around me and I have to really focus or cover my ears to make it stop. Mine can’t be that bad though because my larger and smaller perception is mainly when my eyes are shut and I can just feel it, or if I’m picturing someone or something in my mind their size and shape etc is all warped. And the time speeding up thing (always speeding up never down) happens very rarely now (but when it does theres never a pattern with the other times, it can literally happen whenever) at least, but still freaks the hell outta me. I’m just glad I’m not the only one experiencing this. I never told anyone cause I was (and still am) worried they would think I was making it up for attention or just imagining things and wouldn’t take me at all seriously.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:04:21 +0000

I also have AIWS, and have had my entire life (am now in my 30s). I experience it just exactly as you describe it. However, I have an additional very strange occurrence which affects my perception of myself. During an episode, I perceive myself (my own body and indeed my mind) as something else entirely. Most commonly I feel myself become a piece of of corrugated cardboard. Sometimes I feel like a piece of flat hard plastic. Sometimes I feel like a piece of fuzzy fabric. I am not crazy and at all other times feel like a human being, just like everybody else! It’s truly bizarre.

By: nicole

nicole — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:39:49 +0000

Karin,

I felt that I should email you about your son. I had this as a child and through my teens. I didn’t tell anyone until I was about 17. I thought I was losing my mind and scared to death I was suuering from some mental issues. I didn’t have the feeling that I was getting bigger or smaller but I felt as if time was moving slow and speeding up. If someone was speaking to me during this time they sounded really slow. I use to have this aweful fear over take me at the same time. Infact I remember hearing voices that were not really there…as if some man was speaking with a angry tone to me. I remember feeling so alone, this really affected my grades in school and my selfasteem. I remember how alone I felt and when I did talk to my doctor she looked at me as if I were crazy…I never spoke about it again until now. I was thinking about it last night and googled it. I was surprised to see so many others like myself. I am 31 now and can’t remember the last time I had this happen to me. I hope your son grows out of this soon and I hope he has found someone to talk to. If there is anyway I can help please let me know.

Nicole

By: Aaron D. Campbell

Aaron D. Campbell — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:28:52 +0000

My wife has this all the time. They actually told her that it is a common issue for those with Fibromyalgia (which she has). The funny thing is, while you say that sleep makes yours go away, hes usually bothers her the most when it happens as she’s trying to sleep. She finds it nearly impossible to fall asleep while it’s going on, and often has me turn on a light to help.

All in all, it doesn’t seem scary or dangerous (especially not compared to all the other things my wife is dealing with), but it does really annoy her!

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 07:48:40 +0000

Same here – triggered by reading, but I haven’t experienced it in quite a while. It wasn’t as persistent as Mark’s though. Most of the time I could snap out of it easily, so I actually often tried to make it last longer – the foolishness of youth O;)

By: josephine

josephine — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:18:32 +0000

I used to experience something similar to this when I was a kid. It would always be in the morning after i woke up. when i talked to people it seemed like everything was happening really fast, everyone was talking fast, but everything was happening in slow motion at the same time. it was like the moment sped up, and then happen really slow at the same time. i cant really explain it. when i was in high school i would experience it while i was getting ready for school. i would be putting on my make up and it was like things happened really fast, the thoughts in my head were really fast but then when i actually did the action it was in slow motion, and my thought would kind of echo. my thoughts would echo in my head it would happen really fast and really slow at the same time. kind of repetitive. it would last for about 15 -45 minutes, after i got to school it would usually stop. i dont know if this makes any sense but it what you are describing sounds similar to what i experienced.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:00:12 +0000

I feel your pain! Growing up I dealt with these. But they never happened during the day (full blown anyway). But they always happened at night. Sometimes they would be connected with dreams or with a fever and when I would wake I would deal with all the things you descibed. Along with slow motion screaming that would get louder and louder in my head?? Not sure how to describe it…but very frightening as a child.

I’m now 28 and certain things once in a great while will trigger just a second of it during the day, Anything from a clip in a movie to checking email or hearing someone say something…I don’t understand it. Crazy stuff!!

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:32:54 +0000

My five year old gets this. Three times in the past two weeks now, and he hasn’t had anything night-terror-like since he was two. I don’t know what has brought it on lately, but every time it was when he woke from a nap. It scares the crap out of him.

He is freaked out, crying/screaming, and only able to start his sentences when he tries to talk. After a few words it crumbles into incoherence. BUT after the second episode, almost a week ago, he was able to explain that things looked too small. He had been staring in terror at my arm, reaching out and tentatively poking it. He said something like it wasn’t there or something (but now I know he meant it was too small and didn’t look right.

Yesterday he woke from a nap and everything looked too big. The ceiling fan totally made him wig out. I finally showed him his little brother and asked if he looked too big, but he said he looked the right size, so I had him snuggle his brother to help him calm down (I was too big and my eyeballs were freaking him out, apparently).

I am SO RELIEVED to have found some information about this. Thank you so much for posting!

By: chris

chris — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 04:57:24 +0000

Im going to apoligize for my spelling ahead of this…..When I was a child 5 years to 13 years i used to get migranes with vomitting high fever and the same nightmare that takes place in fast forward ….My family is in a space shuttle with a open top and every time in fast forward i would be trying to get in and it would shoot into space ……leaving me crying in my dream and in real life sweating high fever….after the dream would repeat itself over and over in fast forward 100s maybe 1000s of times i would wake up mostly by my mom, without the headache fever going away fast and my mom would tickle my back till i fell back asleep….this has happened 100s of times and has stopped as i got older….seems like it was yesterday……Why

By: Ellie

Ellie — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:31:44 +0000

A few years ago my daughter Lilly suffered from these symptoms; she was 3. I began to worry and the doctors brushed it off as her imagination. I was so worried. Then the migraines started… I would cry almost every night and my husband was worried sick. Till one day when Lilly was 5 we took her to a doctor who finally gave us some answers. I was so happy to finally know what the cause of these problems were!

She still suffers from it and now she has started school we had to tell the teacher about her condition and migraines. But we make it fun. Her favourite book is Alice in Wonderland and loves wearing her blue dress around the house. She always asks me “Mummy, are we in Wonderland yet?”. She is such a joy and now she watches the movie with her younger brother Ben who she dresses up as the White Rabbit. She deals with it so well and now when you ask her what she wants to be when she’s older she’ll always reply “the Mad Hatter”…

By: bethlouise

bethlouise — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:53:10 +0000

Hey,

Just been reading through all the comments, had never heard about AIWS before! Brief story of mine: was diagnosed with migraines when I was 12, then after having my son at 18 it seemed to ‘cure’ them. Had temp birth control (didn’t get migraines/periods etc. Sorry if tmi!) Had it removed early part of this year, which caused the migraines to come back… What I found was that things seem to be further away from me than normal, looking at my phone, it looked really small, so did my hands etc anything if I brought it close to look at. Felt like I was taller just cause everything seemed further away. Was put back on medication due to migraines, and this ‘feeling’ stopped. Found had side affect with the meds so stopped taking them, and have recently found that its happening again – things seem further away than what they actually are, does tend to happen more when I’m tired/headaches etc. Is this AIWS too? Or just my eyesight going funny?? Lol (though have been to opticians, eyesight is fine!) Sorry for the long post but just would like some info about it before asking the doc and them thinking I’m mad! Lol!

Xxxx

By: Rain Wilber

Rain Wilber — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:26:22 +0000

Hey, I say that you people are lucky enough to get to look at reality in a unique way. Sure it might be a little disturbing/disorienting depending on how often it occurs, but your left with a pretty unique perspective after each event.

I would guess that many artists have abilities like this.

By: jenny

jenny — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:02:21 +0000

i have this syndrome. it doesn’t feel good but i am happy to know i am not crazy. i used to think i was crazy

By: Nakarti

Nakarti — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:21:01 +0000

Good point there. Also that AWIS is triggered apparently often by migraines, and some of the temporal lobe epilepsy symptoms are the same as those of migraines, it would make sense it’s also an indicator of that.

If you’re on the border between the two, consider if the treatment you need for migraines is also a treatment for seizures or if you can treat them with regular OTC painkillers. (Glad I’m on the painkiller side and don’t get the wobbling sort of visual distortions.)