Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in the life
of a fictional character in one of your favorite Disney movies? Well unfortunately
there are people out there that have to live the life of Alice in Alice in
Wonderland. This week I am going to be talking about a syndrome called Alice in
Wonderland Syndrome. Most of us have seen the movie Alice in Wonderland. In
this movie Alice drank a bottle that said “drink me”, which allowed her to
shrink small enough to fit through a very small door. She then ate a cake that
said “eat me” and this allowed her to grow tall enough to reach the top of a
tall table.
This syndrome occurs in about 10-20% of the population and
only occurs a few times throughout the lives of the affected individuals. Individuals
with this syndrome experience clusters of related symptoms. These symptoms include
the individual seeing their body parts and others changing in size. They also
find their surroundings altering in size. They also see colors a lot brighter
than they are and straight lines will become wavy. Most people that experience
this syndrome usually have migraines, epilepsy, or head trauma. Children that experience
this syndrome tend to develop infections and migraines in their future growing
up.
Dr. John Todd first described AIWS in 1955. He named this
syndrome after the famous novel because what the individuals were experiencing
was very close to what Alice experienced. It was later found that Lewis
Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland actually suffered from severe
migraines and Lilliputian hallucinations. This could be what gave him the idea
for his book. He might have had this syndrome and decided to include it in his
book.
This syndrome is sometimes mistaken by doctors as drug
intoxication or psychosis. People with this syndrome have episodes that are
short in duration but that can happen multiple times in a day. Doctors have
studied the brain activity on these individuals with MRI’s and have found their
brain function to be normal. One doctor by the name of Dr. Aurora did an MRI on
a patient of 12 years old with this syndrome. With the results, she concluded
that the electrical activity caused abnormal blood flow in parts of the brain
that control the vision of shape, texture, and size. Therefore, the brain of
someone with the syndrome is barley different than someone with a normal brain
per say.
There are no known cures for the syndrome other than medication
for migraines which seems to be the main cause of this syndrome. Next time you
are wishing to be part of a movie or live in the lives of a fictional character….
Make sure it’s a fun one and not something like Alice in Wonderland.
"You're mad. Bonkers. Off your head...But i'll tell you a secret...All of the best people are."
-Alice in Wonderland
No comments:
Post a Comment