Woman Thinks She Lives In The 1970s After Virus Damages Her Brain

What would you do if one day you woke up to be your future self? Alison Winterburn went through a similar situation when she woke up one day and realised that she looked way older in her mirror reflection, and the prices of basic goods have skyrocketed.

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Alison Winterburn believed she was living in the 1970s

Although Alison certainly did not do any kind of time travel, she was so distressed by the change in her surroundings that she had to stop looking at newspapers and anything related to the outside world. She believed that she was, in actuality, way younger than her face depicted. She was convinced that she lived in the 1970s..

The reality was that it was 2012, and she was a 51-year-old woman. She shared her thoughts with Ladbible and said, "I was genuinely shocked to see a middle-aged lady looking back at me and not the youngster I expected." Alison then revealed why she did not let her husband buy newspapers, "For a long time I wouldn't allow my husband to buy the newspaper because I was horrified by the inflated prices."

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Brain virus damaged Alison's Frontal Lobe

She also added, "I couldn't quite comprehend the time jump between the era I thought I was living in and my twenty-first-century reality." Alison remarked that "how much?" soon became her catchphrase for a while. The woman from England messed up the timeline after falling ill in 2012 and her family noticed her having difficulty speaking and avoiding eye contact.

Upon diagnosis, Alison found out that she was suffering from encephalitis, which is a virus that sparks inflammation in the brain, resulting in such cases. Despite the regular dosage of medications, the virus attacked the former psychology teacher¡¯s frontal lobe. The scarring resulted in extreme short-term and long-term memory loss.

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Gradually her short-term memory improved

Alison talked about the time and told the publication, ¡°I truly believed it was still the 1970s.¡± She shared that her family was a big part of her recovery, ¡°This unnerving bout of confusion lasted for several weeks. Gradually, my short-term memory improved and, with the continued support of my family, I slowly came to terms with the real middle-aged and married-with-children 'me'.¡±

Even after a significant recovery, Alison faces many challenges. She had to quit her beloved job and opened up about the difficulties she has to face, ¡°The major problem I face even today is not knowing where I am. It¡¯s like you¡¯re not the same person you were before.¡±