Mum with Alice in Wonderland syndrome says her body grows and time STANDS STILL

Real Fix

CREDIT: SWNS / Layla Chester  Meet the mum with Alice in Wonderland syndrome which leaves her thinking her body is growing and time is "standing still".  Layla Chester, 46, first experienced the bizarre symptoms after going to bed with a migraine during the pandemic.   When she woke up, her depth perception was distorted, which she described as "looking through a telescope backwards".   Her GP referred her to a neurologist, and after extensive tests she was diagnosed with the rare condition in July 2020.

Transcript

00:00Alice in Wonderland Syndrome feels like I am in the Matrix and sometimes it makes me feel like I'm going crazy.

00:13Hello, my name is Leila Chester, I'm 46 years old and I have Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

00:24Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is a distortion of perception in time.

00:28Distortion in perception of where I am in space, so things may appear bigger or smaller, further away or closer

00:37and it can also change your body image, make your body feel expanded or smaller.

00:47Alice in Wonderland Syndrome feels like I am in the Matrix, it feels like everything is not real,

00:55everything is distorted and sometimes it makes me feel like I'm going crazy.

01:02I actually have migraines and I've had them for many years and I went to bed one night with one particular migraine,

01:09woke up in the morning and had my first Alice in Wonderland attack, everything seemed further away.

01:16The TV is on the back wall behind me and I'm laying in bed looking at it and it just seemed to be travelling away from me.

01:25I panicked and this is the reason I'm not allowed to drive because if I had an attack whilst driving I'd have no perception where the cars are.

01:34Every attack is different so I get a bit of anxiety because you never know what to expect.

01:40Sometimes I can lie in bed and feel like my body is expanding, sometimes it can be time slowing down

01:47and then trying to have a conversation whilst that's happening is impossible.

01:55It's a neurological disorder so my eyes take in the information, it gets scrambled in there somewhere and then comes out as static.

02:05So I describe it to the doctor when I first spoke to the doctor as looking through the old 80s TVs.

02:12With the static on the TV I've got a layer of that over everything.

02:17I'd like to share awareness of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

02:21A lot of people experience Alice in Wonderland Syndrome as children, it's quite rare to have it as an adult.

02:28A lot of people on social media have actually messaged me and said oh my god this has a name, I experienced this as a child

02:35and I want them to know that they were not crazy as children, it is a very real illness.

02:51www.circlelineartschool.com

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