Imagine sitting on your sofa. Suddenly, the phone in your hand begins to swell. It grows until it’s the size of a microwave, yet you can still feel its actual weight against your palm. You look at your feet. They’re miles away. You feel like a giant in a dollhouse, or perhaps a tiny speck in a cavernous living room. This isn't a drug trip. It isn't a scene from a movie. For people living with Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, this bizarre, disorienting distortion of reality is a Tuesday afternoon.
It’s terrifying. Honestly, most people who experience it for the first time think they’re having a stroke or losing their mind. But usually, they aren't.
The clinical name is Todd’s Syndrome, named after John Todd, the British psychiatrist who first described it in 1955. He noticed that several of his patients experienced intense bouts where their perception of size and distance just... broke. They weren't hallucinating things that weren't there. Rather, they were misinterpreting what was there. It's a glitch in the brain's processing unit, specifically the parietal lobe, which handles your sense of space and time.
What it actually feels like to have Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
The symptoms are weirdly specific. We call them "metamorphopsias."
One of the most common is micropsia. This is where objects appear much smaller than they actually are. You might look at your dog and see a creature the size of a hamster. Then there's macropsia, the opposite, where a coffee mug might look like a massive barrel.
But it’s not just about things "out there." It's about you, too.
Many people experience pelopsia (objects appearing too close) or teleopsia (objects appearing miles away). I spoke with someone once who said the hallway in their house suddenly looked like it stretched on for three miles, making the walk to the bathroom feel like an impossible marathon. There’s also a time distortion element. Minutes can feel like hours, or everything might seem to be moving in fast-forward, like a glitchy YouTube video set to 2x speed.
It’s often fleeting. An episode might last five minutes. Or twenty. Sometimes it happens just as someone is falling asleep—a state known as hypnagogic imagery.
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The migraine connection and other triggers
Why does this happen? We don't have a single, tidy answer, but we have some very strong leads.
The biggest culprit is migraines.
In many cases, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome acts as a sort of "aura." You know how some migraine sufferers see flashing lights or zig-zags before the pain hits? Well, for others, the world just changes size. Dr. Grant Liu, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania, has documented many cases where these perceptual shifts occur right before or during a headache. Interestingly, in children, the syndrome often appears without the headache, which makes it even harder to diagnose.
Then there’s the Epstein-Barr virus.
This is fascinating to me. Research has shown that AIWS is actually one of the early symptoms of mononucleosis (the "kissing disease"). A study published in Pediatric Neurology highlighted that for some kids, seeing the walls shrink was the first sign they were sick, days before the fever or sore throat showed up.
Other potential triggers include:
- Temporal lobe epilepsy.
- Use of certain psychoactive drugs (cough syrup with dextromethorphan is a known one).
- Extreme stress or sleep deprivation.
- Brain tumors (very rare, so don't panic immediately).
Lewis Carroll and the "Real" Alice
We can't talk about this without mentioning the book. Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, famously suffered from severe migraines.
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Historians and neurologists have long speculated that Carroll used his own experiences with Alice in Wonderland Syndrome to write the book. When Alice eats the cake and grows tall, or drinks the potion and shrinks, Carroll wasn't just being whimsical. He might have been describing his own bedroom. While we don't have a diary entry where he explicitly says, "Today the walls moved," his descriptions of distorted body image are so clinical that it’s hard to believe they weren't based on personal experience.
Is it permanent?
The short answer is no.
For the vast majority of people, especially children, they simply grow out of it. The brain's wiring seems to stabilize as we reach adulthood. If it’s caused by an infection like EBV, the symptoms vanish once the virus clears. If it’s migraine-related, treating the migraines usually fixes the "Alice" episodes too.
There is no "Alice in Wonderland pill." Doctors don't treat the syndrome itself; they treat the underlying cause. If you're stressed, you manage stress. If you're having migraines, you might get prescribed beta-blockers or anticonvulsants like topiramate.
The real treatment is often just reassurance.
Knowing that you aren't "crazy" and that your brain is just having a temporary processing error is incredibly powerful. When a child sees their hands growing to the size of dinner plates, the fear is often worse than the symptom. Explaining that it’s a "brain blink" can lower the anxiety that often makes these episodes feel more intense.
Navigating the diagnosis
If this is happening to you or your kid, you need a neurologist, not a psychiatrist.
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Because it sounds like a "mental" issue, people often go to therapy first. But this is a structural, electrical issue in the brain. A doctor will likely want an MRI to rule out anything scary and an EEG to check for seizure activity.
They’ll also ask about your family history. Do you get migraines? Does your mom? The genetic link is remarkably strong.
What to do during an episode
If you feel an episode of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome coming on, the best thing you can do is ground yourself.
Close your eyes.
The distortion is primarily visual. By removing the visual input, you give your brain a chance to reset. Touch something with a known texture—a cold stone, a soft blanket, or the wooden grain of a table. This provides "haptic" feedback that contradicts the visual lie your brain is telling you.
Breathe deeply. Anxiety speeds up your perception of time, which only worsens the "fast-forward" feeling of AIWS.
It’s also worth keeping a "trigger diary."
Did you stay up until 3 AM? Did you have a lot of caffeine? Are you about to get a period? Often, there’s a pattern. Once you find the pattern, the world stops shrinking and growing quite so much.
Actionable Steps for Management
- Consult a Neurologist: Skip the general practitioner if you can and go straight to a specialist who understands migraine auras.
- Track the Triggers: Use an app or a notebook to record the time of day, your diet, and sleep levels when an episode occurs.
- Screen for EBV: If the symptoms are sudden and accompanied by fatigue, ask for a blood test for the Epstein-Barr virus.
- Optimize Sleep Hygiene: Since exhaustion is a major trigger, maintaining a rigid sleep schedule can significantly reduce the frequency of "glitches."
- Focus on Grounding: Practice sensory grounding techniques (5-4-3-2-1 method) to stay connected to reality when the visual field begins to warp.