Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

Yes, I know I refer to Alice in Wonderland a lot here, but this is a real syndrome. I'm not sure that its specifically a bipolar thing, but it does deal with altered states of mind and I was thinking of it this evening so I thought I'd write about it.

One day- maybe last year, maybe two years- I went into the bathroom. As I stood in front of the toilet, I gradually began to feel as if the toilet were very far down- very far away. As I continued to stare, it appeared as though I had grown very very tall- maybe ten feet tall! I kept standing there, looking down from on high. My arms felt longer. My legs felt longer, too. An overwhelming sensation of leaning over the toilet from way up on high filled me- maybe even a feeling of floating above everything. There were no Skittles to eat, and no rabbit to talk with. The sensation lasted several minutes. I don't remember coming down- literally- from this. I only felt like I had turned into Alice in that tiny little room after eating or drinking the food with a little note on it. I have since read that this is a real syndrome and that sometimes they can be precursers to migraines, though I felt no pain or nausea at the time.

Edit: Since I've written this, I've showed it to people on a bipolar board I belong to online. Many of them say they've experienced the same thing, albeit one said it was on LSD. One relayed having hands really big while driving, dwarfing her steering wheel. Another said it was while she was manic. I can't remember if my episode was while manic. I would have to say that I don't think it was; it was several years ago, and my definite manic episodes were just a few weeks ago and a year ago.

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