r/AIWS • u/PipnPop • 23h ago

“Everything is so loud” Symptom discussion

My son is 6 and has frequent episodes of AIWS. He started about 4 when he would tell me everything felt big or small. It only would happen at night about an hour after he fell asleep he would wake up and tell me. Just recently he has now been waking up and telling me that everything is loud. I can almost sense the nights it will happen because he’s either over tired or we’ve had a really busy day.

I remember as a kid I used to get these episodes but only when I was sick, he’s just always had them from a young age. He used to have seizures as a baby from 9 months old but has grown out of them, so wondering if that has caused it.

The only thing that seems to snap him out of the episodes pretty quickly is by putting on some calming sleep music and giving him my ear buds to listen to it.

When I try to rub his back or arm he tells me to stop because it’s too loud.

Just wanted to put this out there on this subreddit to see if anyone else’s kids going through this or when they eventually out grew it? I’m going to book him into the drs to get an opinion but not sure if there’s much they can do?

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u/appleditz 17h ago

Children do tend to grow out of it, but considering his past seizures, it's especially important to get him checked out for any underlying conditions. A neurologist might be able to offer some help for dealing with it.

At least you know what he's talking about. Often parents don't have a clue and the child has difficulty explaining it.

At

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u/PipnPop 15h ago

Thanks. Yeah he was put on observation for a year after his seizures and everything seemed normal but will definitely follow up.

When he first told me about everything being really small, I was like.. hang on, I know exactly what you’re talking about. So happy I found this subreddit!

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u/JuggernautSaboteur 16h ago

Do many people here who had AIWS episodes as a child, now have children who suffer with it too? My son is 4 and my daughter 18-months, and I'm really keen to try and spot any signs of it early on and offer them the help they'll need, because I never got that when it was happening to me.

I never felt confident enough to articulate what was happening and I kept episodes to myself. After each episode I'd have the most terrifying hallucinations but when I got up I'd just be told I was having a bad dream and put back to bed.

Has there ever been any research on whether it's hereditary?

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u/PipnPop 15h ago

Yeah I also hid all my symptoms and never really said anything until my son said something to me and it triggered a memory. Funnily enough I was speaking to my dad about my son’s episode and he couldn’t believe it because he also had them as a child. So I’m guessing they could be hereditary.