Here's an interesting article

[conuly]

On "Alice in Wonderland Syndrome" - not sure if that's the real name or not.

It reminded me of something I go through sometimes, that I think started round about in high school. I posted about it a few years ago, and got some concerned responses, but I really couldn't *do anything* about it at the time so I worked *really hard* to forget all about it, and eventually the problem went away.

Well, it came back a few months ago, and was really freaking me out, and it seems to have stopped for right now, but let me describe it.

Sometimes, I stop... I stop registering part of my body as mine. I mean, I know it's mine, and I can still use it, and I feel things... but it doesn't seem like mine to me.

So I'll be sitting and it will seem like all my vision is coming out of my left eye (it's usually the right side of my body that's affected). If I close my left eye, my right eye still seems fine, and, indeed, with both eyes open I have full 3-d vision, so it's not a physical thing - but I perceive it all as being from my left eye only, not both eyes.

Or I'll stop thinking of my right hand as mine, like it's disattached from my body. I know it's mine, I know it's there, and I can hold things with it, but I can't stop the creepy feeling that it's not actually mine, that it's gone or that it's a fake hand or something.

And then, on top of all this, I start thinking that because of that I'll have trouble *using* the affected body parts.

All I can find with the amazing internets is that sometimes this is related to DID. But... I don't think that applies. It's not stopping me from living my life, anyway, it's just very... creepy.

Comments

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

Those are all things I've experienced before with some regularity (though not, fortunately, any significant frequency). I seem to experience it most strongly when overtired, though it will still sometimes happen when I'm perfectly awake and well-rested.

But it's strange, all the same.

Though, mm, part of me wonders if it's somehow related to the way the brain processes information. You know, when you're wearing socks, you're not consciously aware of the feel of the socks all the time (well, most people aren't, anyway--let's assume for example's sake). You'd go mad if you were fully aware of every little sensation all the time, so the brain blocks out anything unnecessary. I wonder if sometimes, when I'm not using parts as much, my brain decides it doesn't need to acknowledge the pieces not in use, thus resulting in experiences like the ones you mention.

Curiouser and curiouser.

[conuly]

Freshman bio lab. High school. The lab sheet asked "Quick! Are you wearing shoes and socks?" and then went on to say basically what you just said, that we filter out constant sensation like the feeling of wearing clothing.

I always feel socks, and other clothing. Constantly.

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

Fascinating that you should have these feelings of alienation from your body! I don't know if you got the AIWS link from my LJ, if not, I wrote about it recently -- but yes, it's one name for it, the other being Todd's syndrome. Actual feelings of detachment aren't really a part of it, just distortion. Detachment ideation and an inability to habituate yourself to clothing sound like a more basic disruption of proprioperception -- cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioperception#Impairment -- but not something long-lasting, like Neglect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemispatial_neglect#Varieties_of_hemispatial_neglect) or Agnosia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosia). Out of curiosity, do you get migraines?

[conuly]

No, I don't. My mom and sister do, and for a short period - starting in high school - I got something I thought then might be cluster headaches, but they weren't very often nor especially severe.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Most interesting. I have some similar stuff that goes on sporadically, which I just lump under the category of "sensory anomalies" - mostly visual, but sometimes tactile/kinesthetic.

I always feel all of my clothing, even though it's very carefully selected to be as soft, smooth and non-binding as possible. LOL, hell, I'm constantly aware of my hair; I usually wear it braided back with a silk scarf over it, because otherwise it's difficult to leave it alone. And I've never gotten used to having fingernails either - I have to keep them filed and buffed and oiled as short and smooth as possible, else they drive me crazy and I end up biting them to bloody shreds.

I had migraines constantly when I was in my teens and 20's, till I wised up and stopped scarfing down toxic pseudo-food, particularly soda pop and snack cakes. I still get bad headaches occasionally, but usually they're tension headaches due to neck-muscle spasms rather than migraines.

[conuly]

That's why my hair is short, and why I bite my nails. I'd bite my *hair* off if it got long enough, but it never does get to that point!

I might like it long, but I'd have to suffer through months of it being long enough to bug me but too long to tie back, and I might scream.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

Those are all things I've experienced before with some regularity (though not, fortunately, any significant frequency). I seem to experience it most strongly when overtired, though it will still sometimes happen when I'm perfectly awake and well-rested.

But it's strange, all the same.

Though, mm, part of me wonders if it's somehow related to the way the brain processes information. You know, when you're wearing socks, you're not consciously aware of the feel of the socks all the time (well, most people aren't, anyway--let's assume for example's sake). You'd go mad if you were fully aware of every little sensation all the time, so the brain blocks out anything unnecessary. I wonder if sometimes, when I'm not using parts as much, my brain decides it doesn't need to acknowledge the pieces not in use, thus resulting in experiences like the ones you mention.

Curiouser and curiouser.

[conuly]

Freshman bio lab. High school. The lab sheet asked "Quick! Are you wearing shoes and socks?" and then went on to say basically what you just said, that we filter out constant sensation like the feeling of wearing clothing.

I always feel socks, and other clothing. Constantly.

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

Fascinating that you should have these feelings of alienation from your body! I don't know if you got the AIWS link from my LJ, if not, I wrote about it recently -- but yes, it's one name for it, the other being Todd's syndrome. Actual feelings of detachment aren't really a part of it, just distortion. Detachment ideation and an inability to habituate yourself to clothing sound like a more basic disruption of proprioperception -- cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioperception#Impairment -- but not something long-lasting, like Neglect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemispatial_neglect#Varieties_of_hemispatial_neglect) or Agnosia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosia). Out of curiosity, do you get migraines?

[conuly]

No, I don't. My mom and sister do, and for a short period - starting in high school - I got something I thought then might be cluster headaches, but they weren't very often nor especially severe.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Most interesting. I have some similar stuff that goes on sporadically, which I just lump under the category of "sensory anomalies" - mostly visual, but sometimes tactile/kinesthetic.

I always feel all of my clothing, even though it's very carefully selected to be as soft, smooth and non-binding as possible. LOL, hell, I'm constantly aware of my hair; I usually wear it braided back with a silk scarf over it, because otherwise it's difficult to leave it alone. And I've never gotten used to having fingernails either - I have to keep them filed and buffed and oiled as short and smooth as possible, else they drive me crazy and I end up biting them to bloody shreds.

I had migraines constantly when I was in my teens and 20's, till I wised up and stopped scarfing down toxic pseudo-food, particularly soda pop and snack cakes. I still get bad headaches occasionally, but usually they're tension headaches due to neck-muscle spasms rather than migraines.

[conuly]

That's why my hair is short, and why I bite my nails. I'd bite my *hair* off if it got long enough, but it never does get to that point!

I might like it long, but I'd have to suffer through months of it being long enough to bug me but too long to tie back, and I might scream.