Funny, when I was less than 12 years old, I remember often (usually when sick) seeing people shrink, feel like they appear to be very far away, and feeling like they were slowed down. It hasn't happened since then, I wonder if it's related to this!

When I had fevers as a child I would experience my perception of space and my place in it wildly growing and shrinking. For me it was a rapid flip-flop (gargantuan then tiny, repeat) and was nausea inducing (or perhaps it was coincident with sickness induced nausea). My memories of it were while in bed since that’s where I was most of the time when sick. Strangely the bed came with me.

I dealt with this kind of thing for years growing up, and for the most part grown out of it but it can still strike me out of nowhere.

The feelings of the walls of the room suddenly racing away from you, or the feeling that your hands are suddenly 10x as big and everything you touch is tiny, are terrifying for a growing kid. Heck even talking about it now tingles those fears just a bit, but now I can for the most part logic myself out of it.

I slept with a light on in my room for many years, that was the only thing that helped.

(2023)

Perhaps related: Seeing the World (and Writing It) with Alice in Wonderland Syndrome https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19342909 09-mar-2019

I experienced this as a kid, mostly when sick.

Feels like the cubes part of the "metachaos" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UPUhn9hpTU

Surprised that the article never mentions psychedelics, because I experience something similar almost every time I am under the influence of one.

Fascinating, I had no idea that it's a thing.

Also interesting to see people they experienced this when sick as children. I did too, I remember two instances when I had fevers and was seeing such things. Some objects would suddenly have the wrong size, or my parents would appear like they're very far away. It was a scary experience that I think would be much less scary now as an adult, but definitely not something I'd like anyway.

I had intense AiW syndrome at times when I was younger. It would involuntarily come on if I was extremely tired, and I eventually learned that I could control it or even induce it with some mental focus. Once I learned to control it, I could push it to the point that my visual perspective was just like looking through a telescope backwards. I was the size of the head of a pin and everything was far, far away. When it got very intense, I would start to have an almost out-of-body sensation like what I was seeing was somehow separate from me - a fisheye movie and I was in a void observing it. My hearing would sometimes start to have a similar effect as well.

I remember asking my parents about it like everyone experienced it when I was maybe 8 years old, and they had no idea what I was talking about. It stopped happening involuntarily a long time ago (maybe late teens - I'm in my 40s now), but I'm sure I could still induce it if I really wanted to, specially if I'm tired and laying down in a dim room.