alice in wonderland syndrome

Table of contents
Introduction
Symptoms
Diagnosis
Possible causes
Treatment
Summary
Feedback
Discussion / support
Other information sources
Note: If you'd like to discuss matters relating to Alice in Wonderland Syndrome or see what others are talking about, please have a look at the forum.

Introduction
The information on this page was written by me, Rik Hemsley. I am not a medical professional. I began experiencing the symptoms described here in 1997 and at the time could find no information on the subject. This page exists to help those in similar circumstances.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS or AWS) describes a set of symptoms, the most famous of which are:

Alteration of body image: the sizes of parts of the body are perceived incorrectly.
Alteration of visual perception: the sizes of external objects are perceived incorrectly.
Most reports are about children experiencing AIWS symptoms, though many people experience it in later life. Many people say they had AIWS symptoms as a child, but 'grew out' of them around their teens.

The most common time to experience AIWS symptoms is at night.

Symptoms in detail
The most prominent and often most disturbing symptom is that of altered body image: the sufferer will find that they are confused as to the size and shape of parts of (or all of) their body. The parts usually mentioned are the head and hands; growth seems more usual than shrinkage. This phenomenon seems to have the medical term 'metamorphosis'.

The second major symptom is the distortion of visual perception. The eyes themselves are normal, but the sufferer 'sees' objects with the wrong size or shape and/or finds that perspective is incorrect. This can mean that people, cars, buildings, etc. look smaller or larger than they should be, or that distances look incorrect; for example a corridor may appear to be very long, or the ground may appear too close.

Other symptoms which have been referred to as part of AIWS include:

Distorted time perception; time moving quickly or slowly.
Distorted touch perception, e.g. a feeling that the ground is 'spongy' under the feet or that the sensation received from touching something is simply incorrect or unrecognised.
Distorted sound perception.
Diagnosis
When I first created this page, there were about four other sites on the Web that mentioned AIWS. Now there are over one thousand and the number appears to be growing steadily.

It appears that still only a minority of medical professionals have heard of the syndrome. If it is possible to have AIWS symptoms with no underlying cause, then perhaps more people would be diagnosed with AIWS itself, but it seems likely that there is (almost) always an identifiable cause, so AIWS is probably seen as an interesting side-effect.

Possible causes
Classical migraine
I used to have classical migraine symptoms. These included flashing lights, jagged streaks across the vision and nausea. No pain was involved - apparently this is common. I am now taking anti-migraine medication, which has effectively removed all migraine symptoms, but didn't seem to have much of an effect on my AIWS symptoms. I am currently assuming that my AIWS symptoms are caused by migraines.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
The Epstein-Barr virus, which can cause infectious mononucleosis, also known as 'glandular fever' or 'mono'.
Treatment
I have not heard of any treatments specifically targetted at AIWS, but there are treatments for the possible causes listed. The anti-migraine medication I take is effective on migraine symptoms but has only a minor effect on AIWS symptoms. I don't have any information on the effectiveness of treatments for Epstein-Barr virus or Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. Some possible treatments have been mentioned on the forum.

I believe that my AIWS symptoms have lessened due to changes to diet and lifestyle. The changes I have made are those which are usually effective against migraines: trying to avoid chocolate, red wine and strong cheese, keeping to a regular sleep pattern and avoiding hangovers and excess tiredness.

Summary
AIWS is sometimes a frightening condition for the sufferer. If you suffer from AIWS, please be assured that the symptoms themselves do not indicate that you are 'going mad' or have anything serious wrong with you.

If you have more information about this condition, please do not hesitate to contact me. and/or post on the forum.

Feedback
Since setting up this page, I've had quite a few messages from people with symptoms the same or similar to those I have experienced. I have included a selection of quotes here, with permission from the authors.

... when I've been lying in bed, generally when the room is darker but still visible. I feel the distortion of body image (not visual but how my hands & limbs feel), touch, & vision perception.

My notes: Quite often, especially if I have been asleep for a long time (12h+) I wake up feeling paralysed and my hands look and feel very strange, with my fingers appearing very long and skinny.

... in its [Temporal Lobe Epilepsy] milder forms, the seizures are profoundly subjective, profoundly difficult to put into words. Deja vu, that's easy to communicate, but other TL seizures border on religious experience - or can be as ordinary as a migraine.

My notes: I included the Temporal Lobe Epilepsy link, because it seemed to suggest that AIWS may be related in some way. I was sent a link to an interesting quiz, which refers to a different (?) type of epilepsy. It's interesting to me as I recognise nearly all of the described symptoms. I have had tests for epilepsy: the results were negative.

In my case it used to happen in the evenings when I was concentrating on a book or on a monitor.

After trying numerous drugs, enduring several hospitalizations and a number of doctors (one tried to tell me my son must be mentally ill) we finally found a drug that worked. Neurology at the [clinic] suggested Periactin - an old antihistamine. After one pill my son's vision was normal up to about 7 feet. After two pills he was completely normal. He has been symptom free for several weeks now.

My notes: I hesitate to suggest remedies here, especially drugs, so please, don't take the above quote as advice. I'm not qualified as a medic in any sense, I'm just collecting information here.

When I was young, around 5 to 10 years old, I would have these "episodes" when the world around me would instantly become a mirror image of what I was used to. It happened once when we were returning home and we were riding down the one-way street we lived on. All of a sudden, it felt as if we were now going east instead of west, all of the traffic was going in the wrong direction, and our house was now on the opposite side of the street, and at the other end of the block. Once in the house it was difficult to find my way around. Then all of a sudden things were back to normal.

My notes: these symptoms are different from those I have experienced and previously heard about, yet appear (to me at least) to be a variation on the theme. I included the quote as I found it very interesting.

Discussion / support
I have set up the forum for those interested in AIWS. If you have experience of the syndrome yourself or through friends/relations, or are simply interested in talking about it, please feel free to register and join in. The forum is viewable by all, if you don't want to contribute but would just like to read what others have written.

Other information sources
Please let me know if you find a broken link here. They seem to disappear faster than I put them up.

I deleted the link to stuff about 'subsyndromal' epilepsy as the page has been removed for some reason. The page suggested a link between AIWS symptoms and Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. The symptoms are similar. I've recently been tested for epilepsy and told I don't have it, though I have heard from one person who has AIWS and TLE.
Some readers swear by Harry Potter. I prefer to swear by Peter Leroy.

Peter, Eric Kraft's boy hero from Babbington, Long Island ("Clam Capital of America"), is the whiz-kid veteran of a score of zany adventures chronicled in "Little Follies," "Where Do You Stop?" and other installments in "The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy." And it's a little puzzling why he and Babbington haven't become as prominent a part of American pop culture as, say, Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon. (I do realize it's impossible to hope he could rival Potter popularity.)

One pleasure of the series is that you get so many Peters in a single book: the boyhood Peter, confident of his place in the microcosm of Babbington; the venturesome Peter always taking on new projects (many inspired by his favorite magazine, Impractical Craftsman); and the middle-age Peter, blissfully married but with a wary view of the world around him and his own prospects in it.

In the best of the Leroy tales, Kraft fondly and humorously evokes the foibles, limitations and allure of small-town America. And for those who enjoy literary games, the books come festooned with sometimes pointed, sometimes ridiculous allusions to the classics of world literature.

"On the Wing" continues Kraft's "Flying" trilogy, which opened last year with "Taking Off." Volume One found Peter trying to correct the false impressions that led to him being celebrated as "the 'Birdboy of Babbington,' the epitome of American ingenuity and pluck, teen division."

True, he built himself an aerocycle at age 14. And true, he got it to New Mexico and back. But what he never made clear was that 99 percent of his journey was either earthbound or aboard a commercial airliner.

"Taking Off" ended with Peter heading west. "On the Wing" chronicles the road trip ― or, actually, two road trips: the one he made in his teens and one he makes with his wife, Albertine, decades later, retracing his earlier footsteps.

The American heartland young Peter encounters bears a strong resemblance to Alice's Wonderland. Some strangers conspire to put him off his food. One tries to hold him for ransom. Others are so worshipful of him that it seems some mistake has been made. No one has heard of Babbington ― "Is that on our planet?" ― and no one wants to hear about it. And, oh yeah, his aerocycle keeps talking back at him.

Grown-up Peter, with Albertine on hand to smooth things over, has fewer mishaps. But the two still encounter some strange phenomena: a newspaper that prints "Tomorrow's News Today," a group-therapy session for people suffering from "pre-traumatic stress syndrome."

Peculiar museums turn up on both itineraries. And quirks of language, along with quirks of human behavior, are addressed. What, for instance, is the difference between an "egotist" and an "egoist"?

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu and French proto-surrealist Alfred Jarry are among the guiding cultural lights in "On the Wing," helping the book achieve liftoff even when Peter's aerocycle fails to get off the ground. "Taking Off" is clearly the best place to start if you're wanting to hop aboard Peter's journey. But "On the Wing" whets a sharp appetite for the closing volume, "Flying Home," due next summer.

When people ask me how I became a teacher, I tell them my career literally crashed into me. I was twenty-six and had been in New Mexico for barely two years, and married for less than twelve months. Everything seemed fresh to

Cover illustration by Allen Crawford.
Cover design by Angela Moore.
me�y beautiful wife, Lala, the pale blue southwestern sky, even the crusty enchilada casserole I served waiting tables in the evenings. After leaving a hectic advertising job in New York City, my life seemed as simple as an inmate� wardrobe choices. Then, one day, I was visiting a friend who worked part time at a local hippie school. While we were talking, a boy tore around a corner and ran straight into my groinage. I doubled over while he hit the deck headfirst. Just as I� always done with my younger brothers, I picked the kid up, brushed him off, and sent him on his way. I didn� ask him how he was feeling about our collision, or if he needed to apologize to my bruised junk to create a sense of closure. We did no art therapy, aromatherapy, or Real Boys sharing out. The head of the school had been watching from her window and liked my simple, direct approach, which my friend translated later into We desperately need a goddamn man around here. Even though I was waiting tables at night, I thought being a teacher might be fun. I imagined a lot of picking up, brushing off, and sending kids off to play in the fields of the bored. Obviously, as any teacher sober or otherwise would tell you, I didn� know shit.

And, as I learned later, if you teach in a private school, you don� have to. Private schools don� require a certain number of degrees or multitiered levels of certification the way the public schools do, which was perfect for an uncertified guy like me. I was assigned to be an assistant first-grade teacher in this alternative school on the southeast side of town. Classes were held in a series of ramshackle adobe buildings with low ceilings adjacent to a moldy

This week� piece by SFR columnist Rob Wilder is excerpted from his newest book, Tales from the Teachers?Lounge. Wilder will read from his book at 4 pm, Friday, Sept. 14 at The Cowgirl, 319 S. Guadalupe St.
greenhouse and a hardscrabble playground. Like any hippie school worth its patchouli, we offered circle time and a rabbit named Loveheart, and instead of saying grace, we sang about the earth being a harbor, a garden, and a holy place, which covered the mariners, horticulturists, and zealots among us. Even though the school was founded on pursuing kindness and peace, many of our students had felony-with-training-wheels behavior patterns that had barred them from attending the local public elementaries. Since this was my first teaching gig after a short career in the backbiting business some call advertising, I was eager to help these little critters learn to read and write and do the kind of simple math even the actors from Saved by the Bell could master. I imagined myself sitting next to a girl in pigtails, helping her sound out Dick and Jane books. In this hippie haven, I never saw the Janes, though, and dealt mostly with the dicks. While Carly* (other than my close family and friends, I have changed the names and identities of the people mentioned), the head teacher, was leading counting games using rods made from recycled organic materials, I was escorting Jack, a local ambulance chaser� son, to the bathroom to flush the giant turd he� left for his classmates to view, and then rinse out the liquid soap he had kindly poured into all our drinking cups. Other days, I would try to coax a walrus-toothed kid named Elijah Muhammad into joining our circle instead of scowling at us from his scrotum-like throne on our only beanbag chair. This little baseborn Bartleby, however, preferred to do nothing most days but construct elaborate forts in thornbushes, swear under his incisor, and pendulate exclusively on the middle swing outside.

The freakiest student we had by far was a nine-year-old girl named Ray who was born to a crack addict mother and immediately adopted by a man whose love for elaborate drapes and exotic sea salts made it apparent that he was probably playing for the wrong team. Today we would bandy about famous names for Ray� tangled and moist web of issues�ourette�, Asperger�, Kanner��ut back then everyone just called this oddity with the short and uneven bangs �hat girl.?


At one of our first circle times that year, all the six- and seven-year-olds were gathered near the turquoise-tiled fireplace sharing their fear of fascism and wishes for renewable energy resources, but I couldn� help watching Ray because of her smorgasbord of twitches and tics. It was as if a violent video game had been implanted into her brain and her face was the exploding screen. Her eyes were never both open at the same time, and the side of her mouth always held a small balloon of air�eady to spit, whine, or bubble in some spasmodic sound effect. Maybe the other students were accustomed to Ray and kids like her, or they had their own inner twisted shit to contend with, but they basically ignored Ray until she jumped up and ran to the outside door screaming, �atch out for the danger! Watch out for the danger!?Shaking her fist at the small glass window, she stamped her feet and then butted her head against the wood like a ram learning to count the hard way. Carly quietly asked me to handle it. I had absolutely no training dealing with crazies other than my three brothers, their sketchy friends, and the high-maintenance (read: bitchy) customers at the hotel restaurant where I worked at night. I didn� know what to do other than open the door and let this girl follow her batty-ass bliss. Once she caught a glimpse of daylight, Ray bolted out of there like a rabbit violated with a cattle prod. She scooted down the open stretch of dirt road in front of the school�egs and arms akimbo?like the scarecrow� love child in The Wizard of Oz. Since I was chasing her, I guess that made me Margaret Hamilton sans broom, which, given my naturally squinty eyes and the way I wore my hair at the time, is a pretty fair comparison.

It is a real-life episode that cannot be taken lightly.
As 95% of North Americans and 92% of the Europeans depend on main stream media for information nobody cares what really happens in Myanmar (Burma), Zimbabwe, Darfur (Western Sudan) and Sri Lanka. Of course, whenever there is a suicide attack or refugee crisis or opposition march the decision makers in Western capitals watch with excitement, believe and digest the media circus and interpretations presented through the "corporate" filters. Fox, CNN, CBC will give you the story according to their masters' and minders' approval. Expecting unbiased-truthfulness in narrating a story or reporting an event could be termed as AWIS (Alice in Wonderland syndrome), a disorienting neurological condition!! Well, the networks are there to safeguard the corporate interests.
Sadly, the once dependable BBC is also catching the infection from the American cousins - to be a corporate success!!
Sri Lanka is a basket case. The civil war is sapping the country's resources, destroying the moral fabric and promoting criminality. The island state is heavily dependent on bilateral aid and multilateral assistance for economic and political survival. If the donor agencies or donor nation(s) put pressure on the government of SL and showed interest in accountability and good governance then the result /outcome would have been different. This theory had been in circulation for decades. Strict adherence to pious and pompous declarations and "cold" diplomacy by the so called international community (read: US and EU) had led to chaos and had made the island of Sri Lanka a failed state.
Sri Lanka is a sovereign nation but Iran and Myanmar are "rogue" states according to Washington pundits!!
The Washington experts on Sri Lanka are defined as persons who know more and more about less and less UNTIL finally they know everything about nothing!!
What else can you expect from a blockheaded cop in Sri Lanka.?

The Jimson weed has a long history, said Dr. Michael Holder, an emergency room physician at Children's Hospital in Akron.

"I think Shakespeare referred to it in some of his writing and it goes back to ancient Egypt," he said. "It has been used for centuries in various homespun cures but has never been widely adopted by the medical community."

Jimson weed is an annual herb which grows up to five-feet tall. It has a pale green stem with spreading branches. The seeds are contained in a hard, spiny pod. The large flowers bloom in the evening and stay open most of the night.

As an herbal medication, various preparations of Jimson weed have been used over the years to treat asthma, chronic bronchitis, muscle pain, insomnia, and flu symptoms, Holder said.

An overdose is diagnosed using what is called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, he explained.

"The symptoms are red as a beet, dry as a bone, blind as a bat, hot as a hare and mad as a hatter," the doctor explained.

All parts of plant are poisonous and farmers try to eliminate wild plants from their hay so as not to poison their animals.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS), or micropsia, is a disorienting neurological condition which affects human visual perception.


An illustration by John Tenniel of Alice rapidly growing.Subjects perceive humans, parts of humans, animals, and inanimate objects as substantially smaller than in reality. Generally, the object perceived appears far away or extremely close at the same time. For example, a family pet, such as a dog, may appear the size of a mouse, or a normal car may look shrunk to scale. This leads to another name for the condition, Lilliput sight or Lilliputian hallucinations, named after the small people in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The condition is in terms of perception only; the mechanics of the eye are not affected, only the brain's interpretation of information passed from the eyes.

The syndrome is associated with, and perhaps in part caused by, the classical migraine headache. Occasionally, Alice in Wonderland syndrome is named as one of the first symptoms of mononucleosis. Micropsia can also be caused by complex partial epilepsy, and the actions of various psychoactive drugs (notably dextromethorphan).

Small children, usually between the ages of five and ten, form a large proportion of those afflicted by spontaneous temporary micropsia. Micropsia tends to occur during darkness, when the brain lacks visual size references.

Micropsia not only affects visual perception, but also one's hearing, sense of touch, and sometimes one's own body image; the syndrome continues even when the eyes are closed. Peripheral symptoms include anxiety, apraxia, and agnosia. Micropsia is also commonly related to patients suffering schizophrenia.

The disorder is named after Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where the title character experiences many situations similar to those of micropsia and macropsia. Because Lewis Carroll recorded at least one episode of classical migraine, scholars have speculated that he may have experienced this syndrome himself.