Marwa Gaber
Illustration by Kilaarts
Everyone is familiar with the cinematic masterpiece that is Alice in Wonderland. But did you know that each character was a portrayal of a certain clinical disorder?
Alice in Wonderland is a story where a girl follows a rabbit in a blue coat down a hole, only to find herself in a peculiar world full of creatures that only get stranger as the plot develops.
She continues to find the characteristic ‘Eat me’ signs near food or drinks that cause her to grow dramatically or shrink to the size of a crumb. However, this alteration of image is actually a rare neurological disorder.
Alice in wonderland syndrome (also known as Todd’s syndrome or Lilliputian hallucinations) was first discovered by John Todd, a British psychiatrist. Patients usually experience micropsia (objects seem smaller than they are), macropsia, teleopsia (objects seem farther away than they are) or metamorphopsia (straight lines appear curved and warped).
These patients usually have an associated misperception of time; they may feel like it is moving too fast or too slow. This might explain why it was always tea time in wonderland.
In addition, sound may also be distorted in patients with Todd’s syndrome. Sounds can be louder, quieter or even at a different pitch than normal. It is important to note that these distortions are not hallucinations, for hallucinations would mean that these perceived sounds and objects do not exist in reality. They do, just in a different form.
These episodes often last from 5 to 20 minutes but persist for years and leave the person in a sense of depersonalization and derealisation after each episode.
The exact cause of this syndrome remains a mystery, but it has been linked to migraines, temporal lobe epilepsy, brain tumors and some infections such as Lyme disease, mononucleosis and H1N1 influenza. It is more common in children than adults.
As for the other characters; the famous Mad Hatter was a symbol for PTSD as well as chronic mercury poisoning, which was very common among hat makers.
The rabbit who always believed he was late, suffered from general anxiety disorder and Absolem, the hookah smoking caterpillar, had grandiose delusions, which fed into his belief of greatness and superiority.
‘We’re all mad here’ was not an understatement.
References:
Weissenstein, A., Luchter, E., & Bittmann, M. S. (2014). Alice in Wonderland syndrome: a rare neurological manifestation with microscopy in a 6-year-old child. Journal of pediatric neurosciences, 9, 303.
Blom, J. D. (2016). Alice in Wonderland syndrome: a systematic review. Neurology: Clinical Practice, 6(3), 259-270.
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