alice in wonderland syndrome?

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this may have been mentioned somewhere in the 64 quadzillion postings here:
a recent guardian article on a chap with "alice in wonderland syndrome"

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/wel ... 50,00.html

also known as micropsia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_W ... d_syndrome

lewis carroll sometimes gets tossed into the aspie category.

i experienced this like they guy in the article when i was in my teens. it
is not as extreme now but still happens.

often, apparently, linked to migraines but i don't get those.

i don't know if this is associated with autism/aspergers - so curious if there
are any other alice in wonderlanders out there.

fg

go ask Alice when she's 10 feet tall.

Thank you for that article, it was very informative.
The description comes close to what I was discussing with a friend a couple of months ago after a fever. I have these odd hallucinations when I have a fever (fortunately I don't have a fever that often), but it also happens for no apparent reasons.
The worst is when it feel as if my furniture and the walls becoming huge and thick as if they could suffocate me or everything becomes round and like fleece to the touch. And then a moment later everything becomes as thin and rough as a wooden stick! The change is fast.

The thing that is easiest to bear is when the floor suddenly moves, because it only ever does for a second or so, the downside is my head starts to spin and my eyes hurt.

But I'm used to it, I have it since I was three. But since I nobody in my family has seizures (none that I know of at least) and no migraine, except that my aunt has cluster headaches, I'm not whether this odd syndrome has to do with my own sensory hallucinations.

I have experienced this while trying to rest when I had the onset of mononucleousis. I seem to be vulnerable to this annoying disease as I catch it almost every year. As a result I get to experience this strange syndrome for a few days annually. Luckily it seems to go away when I begin to recover from the mono.

I mainly experience the tactile distortions where trying to pick up a pencil feels more like picking up a tiny sliver of wood. I have also experienced bodily distortions where my hand or foot would either feel really small, or the rest of my body would making my hand or foot seem really huge.

It is a really bizarre experience. I usually experience this while lying in my bed with my eyes closed so I don't really know if I have ever had the visual distortions. In a small way I appreciate it as it gives something interesting to an otherwise dreadful sickness.

When you are weary and feeling small syndrome topic

I remember as a four year old having a feeling like this while lying in bed. I was put down for a nap in the afternoon. I was not terrified, only curious about the shrinking. I was looking at my reflection in a door knob (a shiny gold coloured round one) and I sensed myself growing smaller and smaller. I had the same sensation at various times throughout childhood, and when I was a sixteen year old and placed on certain pyschodrugs I had the same sensation, so it must have something to do with the brain. Epilepsy? In my case I do not know. I have never knowingly had a seizure.

In Lewis Carroll's case his perceptions may have had an organic base, unless he unwittingly or not ingested mind altering drugs, thus a basis for ideas leading to the story of Alice? I know the whole keyhole bit started my interest in keys and locks, a perseverance I have pursued for 45 years.

Interesting parallel with migraines, though, as I have had some doozy cluster headaches throughout adulthood.

I have never had the opposite 10 foot tall Alice adventure. I may go ask her what it is like?

Great link/article, fainting-goat, and thanks to all posters. I have never shared any of these experiences before.

I'm very surprised, because I experienced this as a child and to this day I kept thinking why and didn't know. I'd see the furniture at home as being extremely tall. I think this one was the last thing I didn't yet understand about myself. I still have minor symptoms of this in the dark, just as the article mentions.

Thanks for posting it, and I have a feeling this may very well be connected to Asperger's.

Very interesting. I haven't experienced anything this dramatic myself, but it seems like being oversensitive to certain sensations could be a milder manifestation of the same thing.

It sounds very much like accounts I've read of intoxication in people who ingest Amanita muscaria:
Perception of relative size of objects is lost, takes long steps and jumps over small objects as if they were trunks of trees — a small hole appears as a frightful chasm, a spoonful of water an immense lake.
IMO Carroll must have known this when he wrote AIW, as it is full of mushrooms.

i would freak out if i had that. yikes, just thinking about it is unearving

You know my real name's Alice and all my life I had people tease about me being in wonderland. All my life I felt like that. As for Lewis Carrol, has anyone seen the movie Dreamchild? Although I don't always believe in autiobiagraphical movies, this movie definitely depicts some of his symptoms to Asperger's. I watched this before I ever knew what Asperger's was. I laughed at it his character because he was so strange and socially akward. I thought, what the hell's wrong with this guy? On the downside, I could relate to his quirks. I then read a biography of him. Even his biography points to Asperger's or something. He was not what you'd call "The outstanding life of the part."

I guess what also are describing is macropsia rather than micropsia. I think I get macropsia quite a bit. I generally have a poor idea of what size I am relative to other things an people.

It sort of varies with mood, I have small days and big days.

I crossed the Looking Glass long ago.

That song rocks!

Hi!
I realize the chances of a reply are nil, seeing as this was posted back in '08. But, I, too, am neurodivergent and have AIWS. Most of the obvious episodes were before I was 16. Have had one or two bigger episodes in adulthood, but it has decreased in intensity over the years. I have lately wondered in ASD and AIWS might have a link as well. There's so little info out there. I didn't even know what I experienced had a name until 10 years ago. Interested to know if you've discovered anything.

Hi Jjuniper715
How strange. I was just reading through this thread and I wanted to share but then I saw this was from 2008 so I wasn't going to bother untill I saw your likeminded comment at the end. Thank You.

I would experience AIWS quite often when I was young, under 10 yrs old. While laying on my bed my pillow started to feel enormous and it would feel hard. It felt like I was sinking into my pillow and getting smaller and smaller. I had a bedside lamp next to my bed but it look so far away in the distance. I started to enjoy the strange experiece and I would play with it using my mind. One night I went into a full on seizure because of it and I was fully aware of it happening but it felt like my brain was malfunctioning. I didn't play with it again and I eventually grew out of it.

I'm 46 years old now and last year I suddenly remembered that I used to have AIWS. I had totally forgot about it. Anyway I remembered the strange smell and the feeling on my skin that I used to get with AIWS. While I was in bed one night and meditating I managed to bring back an AIWS episode and it returned exactly like I used to experience as a child. To this day I now have the feeling just in the background and ready to emerge at any time. I was silly to bring it back because seizures are dangerous at my age. I occasionally suffer from intense migranes... my vision goes blury on the left and it slowly works its way to the right. This blury vision takes about half an hour to cross from one side to the other. Then as soon as the blury vision disappears, thats when the headache starts pounding the back of my head. Its awful because it drains all of my energy. I get these a couple times per month.

I just want to say. Today I done an online assessment for Asperger syndrome and Autism. They do say its not an official diagnosis but I have a strong likelihood of Asperger syndrome or Autism. I can't go into everything but this would explain so much about my life. I know I need to get an offical diagnosis to see if I am on the Autism spectrum.

I've given my mental health a lot of thought today and I know I need to see my GP but I don't know what to say. I've never told him about my AIWS symptoms returning as an adult and I can constantly feel a seizure or an episode in the background ready to pounce at any time, Also I need to ask for an official Autism test. Also, I've never told him about the Migranes I experience each month, or my depression and daily isolation I choose.

Its a lot of stuff to tell a GP and I don't want him to think that I am making it all up. My GP only allows 10mins for face-to-face appointments so I don't know what to do or say in this short time.

I've got no problem with "necro-threads" if people are still interested in the topic.

I don't have that weird spatial thing. When I saw the title I thought it might refer to the way Alice was the only sensible character in the story and the others were mostly stuffed full of peremptory hypocrisy and idiocy. I've always been able to relate to her interpersonal experiences in that way.

Whenever I order something online, it's nearly always smaller than it looks on the screen, even when they post the size of the item and I take out my measuring tape just to be sure.