By Annum Shehryar
Most of us would be very familiar will the fantasy novel and Disney films called ``Alice in Wonderland’’, which is about a young girl who falls down a rabbit hole and enters a subterranean fictional world populated by anthropomorphic creatures. She also experienced a distorted sense of time and had a skewed perception of her own body size as it kept changing from time to time.
However, many would not be aware of the background of this concept. How did the author, Lewis Carroll, come up with such a plot? He was afflicted by migraines which had caused him to experience distorted symptoms like the very rare “Alice in Wonderland” syndrome (AWS). This syndrome is a rare condition that causes temporary episodes of distorted perception and disorientation. One may feel smaller or larger than they are, or they seem to witness their environment shift or furniture moves further or closer than it actually is. This condition is also known as Todd’s syndrome. It also can affect multiple senses such as touch, hearing, perception of time, and vision. This syndrome mostly affects children and young adults. Most people tend to grow out of these distorted perceptions as they age but it can last in adulthood.
One misconception is that people believe that this syndrome has something to do with a problem with your eyes or a hallucination. This is not linked to eyesight or any kind of hallucinations, it is how your brain perceives the environment you’re in and how your body looks. Symptoms of this include migraines, fever, epileptic seizures, strokes, brain tumors, etc. It is still not clear on what exactly causes AWS, but it is confirmed that it is also not a sign of mental or neurological illness. Researchers believe that unusual brain electrical activity results in irregular blood flow to the brain sections that perceive the environment and experience visual perception. Such irregular electrical behavior may be attributed to several causes. One research showed that 33 percent of AWS affected people had infections. Both head and migraine trauma are related to 6 percent of AWS episodes. Yet there was no known reason for more than half of cases with AWS.
These episodes last for few minutes up till an hour in a day. It varies from person to person. A British psychiatrist John Todd was the first person to describe this syndrome in 1955. He had many patients who suffered from migraines and also complained about how they saw objects around them distorted and unusually out of proportion. They also lost track of time as their perception led them to believe that either time was passing way too quickly or too slowly. None of these patients had shown any ocular defect or mental illness. These patients could very well understand that what they were experiencing was not real.
There is not a specific test where doctors can diagnose a person with AWS. They either do it with an MRI scan, EEG (electrical activity of the brain), or through blood tests. There is no proper treatment of this syndrome yet. If anyone is experiencing symptoms, it is best to rest and wait for it to pass. If they experience migraines or have infections, then treating those many stops the symptoms. They also need to be reassured that the symptoms are not harmful.
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