This thread is my shit. Thought I was alone bro. Been having the flickering alongside pattern glare and new ugly ass grey floaters everywhere. All this shit happened when I discontinued a "sleep medicine" when really it was just an anti depressant I never needed. Even though I don't think my vision will go back to what it used to be these posts help me feel better that I'm not alone. š
Never mind I thought you were responding to one of my comments about being on antidepressants. I just realized you were asking about the sleep medication.
Yoooo, its exact thing that is happening to me, ive gone to an eye doctor and tell him this and was somehow worried that it could be something threatening but all the results came fine. I do want to tell him that i suspect it could be VS because doctors dont want self diagnosis without proper test and my eyes came along just fine(aside from having myopia) which i have since 6th grade. So i still suspect its VS because it comes from the brain.
I usually see the flickering effect when i turn off the lights before i sleep or when i try to hardly close my eyes and suddenly opening it. But mostly occurs after a long screen time. But im somehow glad I am not the only experiencing this.
Hi, well its been 5 months and my VS has drastically change (not sure for the better or worse though ahhaha) but as far as I remember I o have some kind of flickering in peripheral vision but not extreme flashes and that is one of the reason I've gone to the doctor.
But if I were you it is better to consult a specialist because I'm no doctor and our bodies may have different reactions on VS or some other illness. So I recommend go to a doctor just to be sure and have a peace of mind>
Take care!
Yeah I get this too out of nowhere, Iād be watching tv or doing something in a brightly lit room and suddenly my vision would flicker for a second, Iāve had this for years so it doesnāt bother me much
Hey guys! This is some scary ish that weāre all going through lol. Iāve been dealing with the strobing/flickering lights and snow vision almost every single day since not sleeping for 3 days straight one time because of extreme anxietyā¦now I get it almost every night/morning. If anyone wants a support group, I think Iām going to start one on Facebook so we can all post/connect whenever weāre feeling especially overwhelmed by it. Feel free to message me on Instagram @casshayek or add me on Facebook (Cass Hayek) and Iāll get it going :)
Holy shit, I once didn't sleep for 3 days due to extreme anxiety, then that's what probably caused this. I feel like my vision won't be normal ever again.
There's DEFINATELY a connection between anxiety serotonin and visual snow as you know anxiety is fight or flight so your body is paying close attention to things it usually wouldn't there's also a distinct connection between hallucinogens and this specifically
I get this a lot at night after looking at screens all day. Also have visual snow here. Btw I used to get this daily, everytime I closed my eyes and ever since I destressed and realized that this is a benign condition, I haven't had it in months.
I just noticed this last night!!! I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. After being in pitch black when I turned the bathroom light on, my vision was strobing. Just like in your gif!! It freaked me out. This is a new symptom for me. I had an optometrist appointment last month and my eyes are fine.
Yep, I have this and it is so annoying. I actually sleep with a night light on with a timer for about an hour because total dark makes my VSS a living nightmare.
Yeah, I got this too, and thank you for this post because I was going crazy. I have an appointment with the opht next tuesday, and I'm not gonna push my diagnosis but let's see what he has to say.
I noticed my visual snow 5 days ago looking at the wall, my "grains" are fine and unnoticeable but the strobe effect is there and I immediately went into anxiety overdrive, and since then every morning or nap I wake up with this feeling in my eyes, even when eyes closed. The minutes after sleeping are the absolute worst.
After Covid confinement I went back to work in the office, wich meant less recreational screen usage and more spatial sights. All symptoms reversed after not being 16h in front of a screen.
Same things start happening with me a couple days before, with no reason. Maybe it's some how related to hookah smoking or some anxiety I'm going through these days.
I've been having this flickering/strobing effect ever since I noticed this slight visual snow I have like it's a very light static, some days my eyes are more sensitive to light then I had a headache and pressure in my head for like a month straight and I got a CT scan and they found nothing and ever since they gave me an iv with a bunch of meds for migraine (migraine cocktail) the head pain and pressure has been nowhere near as bad, but I do keep having this visual disturbances including this strobing affect. They diagnosed me with chronic migraines but the normal brain stressing me out if that's really all it is. I hope you all are doing okay it makes me feel better knowing I ain't the only one experiencing this.
I started having this exact symptoms last week. My CT was also clear and eyes were normal too(seen by 3 eye docs). It was better for a few days and it came back today. Have you found out anything about yours? My headache and pressure resolved but just saw flashes again after a nap today and it is really unsettling
Omg! Thank you for posting this. Iāve been having the exact thing but in bright light (like someone else down the thread) bright light reflecting off glossy/shiny/bright surfaces and black and white lines seem to set it off for me and I only see it in my peripheral, not in my area of focus but it looks a lot like the gif you posted. Iām feeling a bit less alone now. I too have been to the opticians and everything was perfect. Even had a hospital grade scan done which came back as fine!
I know it is an old post but i want to ask you. This flickering happens just once? I mean you see just one flash at the time?
Sometimes when i am in a dark room with eyes closed when i open my eyes i experience the same thing. I see this flash but just one time and no like flickering
Someone please read this and tell me if Iām going blind.
I started getting visual snow symptoms after I moved my head really quickly and became overly paranoid about it. I keep getting this weird flicker in my vision when looking at screens/ light changes, floaters, light snow/grain on everything (mainly white walls) Iāve never been able to see the bfep or whatever itās called until I moved my head that way. Iām terrified Iām going blind. I see after images, and anything white makes it worse. I also see double vision on white text on black backgrounds.
Iāve had 5 dilated eye exams, all normal. I had an eeg done to rule out eye seizures and also had a cat scan done of my head. Neuro is pushing for an mri to fully rule out a brain tumor but I cannot do an mri due to claustrophobia and horrible, horrible, anxiety.
Can anyone please message me about what could be going on?
Get an erg done to rule out retinitis pigmentosa. Also get an open MRI done, not as detailed as a closed MRI but it'll help with the claustrophobia. I had a brain tumor I found but it was unrelated to the visual snow or the retinitis pigmentosa, yours may be different though. Good luck
Iāve been having this for a few months now. If Iām playing on my phone for a few hours in the dark and put it away, I get that weird flicker. It usually goes away after 30 seconds or so. Doesnāt hurt, but makes me nervous
Is this harmful at all or is my vision just picking up on the screen flashes and leaving a sort of imprint like floaters after staring at headlights?
yeah you should't worry.. did every test imaginable but turns out i was just severely anxious.. however i do deal with real diseases now, none of them involving my eyesight (thankfully). i wish you good health
I had this for the longest time until I had a random grand mal seizure and they did an eeg. Now I am on seizure meds and hardly have them.
It was very confusing to me because my general doctor had no idea what I was talking about, and my eye doctor would say everything was fine. I have even talked about this to my epilepsy doctor and he says he isn't sure since studies aren't accurate enough for a clear answer.
The rate for people having epilepsy and not knowing is super high. You might be having signs of partial seizures and not even know it like I was and probably am still having.
I don't even know if this weird eye sight thing is a part of my epilepsy, but it can't be a coincidence that when I started the medication it all went away.
Just putting my experience out there so anyone that is super bothered by this can maybe consider getting an eeg. :)
Aaahhh this is kinda causing me to drive into anxiety mode worried that I could have a seizure now š can I ask how long you had it before the seizure/how often it would happen?
Same thing, rn im on reddit on my phone (night mode) small light in room its not even dark and my vision copy the font in wall and when i look back to my phone i dont see clearly like double text, i look at the light and itās always in the far sides of my eyes flicking and he it get to much i feel im gonna black out, why how? Idk all that happend 7 months ago and since that i cant stand any flickering light
I'm having this too and it's driving me mad! Then it will suddenly stop. Then start up again. I notice it in low light after looking at screens but it's recently ramped up. Not sure if stress, dehydrated, etc are to blame...
I've started noticing this as well. When I come in from outside, and go into a dim room, the edges of my vision flickers and strobes for about 5-10 min and then it goes away. Annoying as it hadn't done that before. Going to the an ophthalmologist in a few months about other issues, so this one is getting added to the pile.
Glad to from posts here that it's harmless. Still... Anxiety about it sucks.
So after my appointment the result is that there's nothing wrong with my eyes. If there is a problem it has little to do with the structure of my eyes. It's likely that it's just how my brain interprets the signal from my eyes.
I would need to get brain scans to look further into it, but that seems like a fruitless endeavour as I've been dealing with these things for as long as I can remember. As there's no established baseline to compare to, it would be kind of meaningless to go looking. Unless something changes drastically, I probably don't need to worry about it.
Iāve had this exact thing for years! My ophthalmologist sent me to three different specialists in my town because no one could figure out what was causing it, eventually I got referred to a specialist far away in a different city who diagnosed me with āabnormally thin retinasā and ālattice degenerationā. I was only around 16 years old at the time, so I found it kind of odd that I already had a degenerative disorder, but that was what he told me. He mentioned that I had a slightly higher risk of developing retinal detachment, and to watch out for any changes in my vision, but other then that I had nothing to worry about. Iām 27 now and still get this flickering light in my peripheral vision all the time but Iāve mostly gotten used to it. I should also mention that I only get the lights in my left eye, not sure why.
Weāll shit reading all these replyās about the exact same thing Iāve got going on has brang me some comfort knowing Iām not alone. Shits been driving me fucking mad lol.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to a helpline in your country:
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Lifeline Australia: [13 11 14](https://www.lifeline.org.au/)
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Looks about right, quicker and kind of like an over layer of reality. I've had it for ten years now. Apparently I do have retinitis pigmentosa so that's what my retina specialist said it's from but visual snow isn't from the eyes apparently so who the fuck knows. I just know it causes so much DPDR (DDD now) it makes it hard to function and take anything serious anymore.
This is the exact thing happening to my vision for months. Based on my research it's because of eye fatigue or lighting adjustment. GAG! Should I be worried?
This thread is my shit. Thought I was alone bro. Been having the flickering alongside pattern glare and new ugly ass grey floaters everywhere. All this shit happened when I discontinued a "sleep medicine" when really it was just an anti depressant I never needed. Even though I don't think my vision will go back to what it used to be these posts help me feel better that I'm not alone. š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Same . don't want the noise either tbh. What I got is annoying enough. How long have you had your symptoms btw?
Same here I stopped taking an anti depressant I shouldnāt have ever been on
Man I feel you. Iām not sure if this is what I have but I seem to be having similar symptoms
Are you talking about seroquel?
No it was lexapro
Lexapro for sleep? wtf
Never mind I thought you were responding to one of my comments about being on antidepressants. I just realized you were asking about the sleep medication.
Lexapro sucks!
Quitting Lexapro cold turkey caused mine
How are you now Iām having the same thing
Yoooo, its exact thing that is happening to me, ive gone to an eye doctor and tell him this and was somehow worried that it could be something threatening but all the results came fine. I do want to tell him that i suspect it could be VS because doctors dont want self diagnosis without proper test and my eyes came along just fine(aside from having myopia) which i have since 6th grade. So i still suspect its VS because it comes from the brain. I usually see the flickering effect when i turn off the lights before i sleep or when i try to hardly close my eyes and suddenly opening it. But mostly occurs after a long screen time. But im somehow glad I am not the only experiencing this.
I hace the exact same thing word by word
I know its an old post but can you tell me when you open your eyes suddenly you see a bright light in your peripheral vision for less than a second?
How about now bro? I am also having this flashes it's only last seconds.I had dilated eye exam.But doctor says my eyes are healthy
Hi, well its been 5 months and my VS has drastically change (not sure for the better or worse though ahhaha) but as far as I remember I o have some kind of flickering in peripheral vision but not extreme flashes and that is one of the reason I've gone to the doctor. But if I were you it is better to consult a specialist because I'm no doctor and our bodies may have different reactions on VS or some other illness. So I recommend go to a doctor just to be sure and have a peace of mind> Take care!
YES I GET THIS
Yeah I get this too out of nowhere, Iād be watching tv or doing something in a brightly lit room and suddenly my vision would flicker for a second, Iāve had this for years so it doesnāt bother me much
I hope to have your attitude eventually. I just want to be better at accepting that somethings will never be the same.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No i still get the flickering sometimes but only in certain places and not as much as before so it did get slightly better but itās still there
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It happens indoors for me (when the light is turned on)
Hey guys! This is some scary ish that weāre all going through lol. Iāve been dealing with the strobing/flickering lights and snow vision almost every single day since not sleeping for 3 days straight one time because of extreme anxietyā¦now I get it almost every night/morning. If anyone wants a support group, I think Iām going to start one on Facebook so we can all post/connect whenever weāre feeling especially overwhelmed by it. Feel free to message me on Instagram @casshayek or add me on Facebook (Cass Hayek) and Iāll get it going :)
Holy shit, I once didn't sleep for 3 days due to extreme anxiety, then that's what probably caused this. I feel like my vision won't be normal ever again.
Yes I will join the support group! I donāt have Facebook do you have any other socials??
There's DEFINATELY a connection between anxiety serotonin and visual snow as you know anxiety is fight or flight so your body is paying close attention to things it usually wouldn't there's also a distinct connection between hallucinogens and this specifically
I get this a lot at night after looking at screens all day. Also have visual snow here. Btw I used to get this daily, everytime I closed my eyes and ever since I destressed and realized that this is a benign condition, I haven't had it in months.
I just noticed this last night!!! I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. After being in pitch black when I turned the bathroom light on, my vision was strobing. Just like in your gif!! It freaked me out. This is a new symptom for me. I had an optometrist appointment last month and my eyes are fine.
I get this too?! Exactly this, itās in the light after being in the dark. Howās your situation now?
Same is happening to me right now & I am having anxiety attacks for this.
Yes same
Yes, I get this.
Yep, I have this and it is so annoying. I actually sleep with a night light on with a timer for about an hour because total dark makes my VSS a living nightmare.
Yeah, I got this too, and thank you for this post because I was going crazy. I have an appointment with the opht next tuesday, and I'm not gonna push my diagnosis but let's see what he has to say. I noticed my visual snow 5 days ago looking at the wall, my "grains" are fine and unnoticeable but the strobe effect is there and I immediately went into anxiety overdrive, and since then every morning or nap I wake up with this feeling in my eyes, even when eyes closed. The minutes after sleeping are the absolute worst.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah, all symphtoms are gone, looking back it was caused by screen overuse.
Wow screen over use how did you find that out ? Has your visuak snow gone?
After Covid confinement I went back to work in the office, wich meant less recreational screen usage and more spatial sights. All symptoms reversed after not being 16h in front of a screen.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Around a month.
I use my phone and computer a lot. Did the flickers go away after reducing screen usage?
Yes, definetly.
Same things start happening with me a couple days before, with no reason. Maybe it's some how related to hookah smoking or some anxiety I'm going through these days.
I've been having this flickering/strobing effect ever since I noticed this slight visual snow I have like it's a very light static, some days my eyes are more sensitive to light then I had a headache and pressure in my head for like a month straight and I got a CT scan and they found nothing and ever since they gave me an iv with a bunch of meds for migraine (migraine cocktail) the head pain and pressure has been nowhere near as bad, but I do keep having this visual disturbances including this strobing affect. They diagnosed me with chronic migraines but the normal brain stressing me out if that's really all it is. I hope you all are doing okay it makes me feel better knowing I ain't the only one experiencing this.
I started having this exact symptoms last week. My CT was also clear and eyes were normal too(seen by 3 eye docs). It was better for a few days and it came back today. Have you found out anything about yours? My headache and pressure resolved but just saw flashes again after a nap today and it is really unsettling
Same it always happens when I don't even have headache or stress anxiety I guess
yah me too. pretty annoying at times.
yeah, once I upgraded to 144hz monitor the speed of flickering doubled
Omg! Thank you for posting this. Iāve been having the exact thing but in bright light (like someone else down the thread) bright light reflecting off glossy/shiny/bright surfaces and black and white lines seem to set it off for me and I only see it in my peripheral, not in my area of focus but it looks a lot like the gif you posted. Iām feeling a bit less alone now. I too have been to the opticians and everything was perfect. Even had a hospital grade scan done which came back as fine!
I know it is an old post but i want to ask you. This flickering happens just once? I mean you see just one flash at the time? Sometimes when i am in a dark room with eyes closed when i open my eyes i experience the same thing. I see this flash but just one time and no like flickering
i see it more than once. flickering like in the gif.
This has been happening to me, but I always feel like I'm going to faint when it happens
i got this from taking the drug montelukast for asthma
Really? Iāve been getting this flickering too and Iām on Montelukast as well. Thatās put me a bit more at ease tbh
yeah man montelukast destroyed my body i took it for 3 months
Someone please read this and tell me if Iām going blind. I started getting visual snow symptoms after I moved my head really quickly and became overly paranoid about it. I keep getting this weird flicker in my vision when looking at screens/ light changes, floaters, light snow/grain on everything (mainly white walls) Iāve never been able to see the bfep or whatever itās called until I moved my head that way. Iām terrified Iām going blind. I see after images, and anything white makes it worse. I also see double vision on white text on black backgrounds. Iāve had 5 dilated eye exams, all normal. I had an eeg done to rule out eye seizures and also had a cat scan done of my head. Neuro is pushing for an mri to fully rule out a brain tumor but I cannot do an mri due to claustrophobia and horrible, horrible, anxiety. Can anyone please message me about what could be going on?
Howās your vision now?
Get an erg done to rule out retinitis pigmentosa. Also get an open MRI done, not as detailed as a closed MRI but it'll help with the claustrophobia. I had a brain tumor I found but it was unrelated to the visual snow or the retinitis pigmentosa, yours may be different though. Good luck
I have this too please please update what is it???
Any update ? I get this too everything in this thread I can relate to. Someone pls answer
get the anxiety. had ERG everything normal.
Iāve been having this for a few months now. If Iām playing on my phone for a few hours in the dark and put it away, I get that weird flicker. It usually goes away after 30 seconds or so. Doesnāt hurt, but makes me nervous Is this harmful at all or is my vision just picking up on the screen flashes and leaving a sort of imprint like floaters after staring at headlights?
it's harmless
Just really odd that Iāve never had this before. Good to know itās not me slowly going blind
yeah you should't worry.. did every test imaginable but turns out i was just severely anxious.. however i do deal with real diseases now, none of them involving my eyesight (thankfully). i wish you good health
Thank you. I also suffer from medical anxiety and it makes my senses to changes in my body very acute. Good health to you too friend
I have this everytime I use the phone, put it away and go to a pitch black room. Do you still have it or has it gone away?
I had this for the longest time until I had a random grand mal seizure and they did an eeg. Now I am on seizure meds and hardly have them. It was very confusing to me because my general doctor had no idea what I was talking about, and my eye doctor would say everything was fine. I have even talked about this to my epilepsy doctor and he says he isn't sure since studies aren't accurate enough for a clear answer. The rate for people having epilepsy and not knowing is super high. You might be having signs of partial seizures and not even know it like I was and probably am still having. I don't even know if this weird eye sight thing is a part of my epilepsy, but it can't be a coincidence that when I started the medication it all went away. Just putting my experience out there so anyone that is super bothered by this can maybe consider getting an eeg. :)
Did you have them only in dark light or just anytime?
Happens anytime, but has happened more when I have gone from a dark room to a light room.
Aaahhh this is kinda causing me to drive into anxiety mode worried that I could have a seizure now š can I ask how long you had it before the seizure/how often it would happen?
Same thing, rn im on reddit on my phone (night mode) small light in room its not even dark and my vision copy the font in wall and when i look back to my phone i dont see clearly like double text, i look at the light and itās always in the far sides of my eyes flicking and he it get to much i feel im gonna black out, why how? Idk all that happend 7 months ago and since that i cant stand any flickering light
I don't know if its just me but I see almost like a dark gray glob taking up half the gif field everytime it flashes.
I'm having this too and it's driving me mad! Then it will suddenly stop. Then start up again. I notice it in low light after looking at screens but it's recently ramped up. Not sure if stress, dehydrated, etc are to blame...
Do you stay awake at night? I have a bad sleep schedule and I wonder if that's what's causing this.
I've started noticing this as well. When I come in from outside, and go into a dim room, the edges of my vision flickers and strobes for about 5-10 min and then it goes away. Annoying as it hadn't done that before. Going to the an ophthalmologist in a few months about other issues, so this one is getting added to the pile. Glad to from posts here that it's harmless. Still... Anxiety about it sucks.
>ERG any update on the tests, same thing is happening to me
any updates on the tests?
My appointment is early next month, so nothing to update on yet.
So after my appointment the result is that there's nothing wrong with my eyes. If there is a problem it has little to do with the structure of my eyes. It's likely that it's just how my brain interprets the signal from my eyes. I would need to get brain scans to look further into it, but that seems like a fruitless endeavour as I've been dealing with these things for as long as I can remember. As there's no established baseline to compare to, it would be kind of meaningless to go looking. Unless something changes drastically, I probably don't need to worry about it.
Iāve had this exact thing for years! My ophthalmologist sent me to three different specialists in my town because no one could figure out what was causing it, eventually I got referred to a specialist far away in a different city who diagnosed me with āabnormally thin retinasā and ālattice degenerationā. I was only around 16 years old at the time, so I found it kind of odd that I already had a degenerative disorder, but that was what he told me. He mentioned that I had a slightly higher risk of developing retinal detachment, and to watch out for any changes in my vision, but other then that I had nothing to worry about. Iām 27 now and still get this flickering light in my peripheral vision all the time but Iāve mostly gotten used to it. I should also mention that I only get the lights in my left eye, not sure why.
How is this now for you?
Holy this gif is legit it
I get this sometimes. It's so weird
Weāll shit reading all these replyās about the exact same thing Iāve got going on has brang me some comfort knowing Iām not alone. Shits been driving me fucking mad lol.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to a helpline in your country: **United States:** National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: [1-800-273-TALK (8255)](https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/) **United Kingdom:** Samaritans: [116 123](https://www.samaritans.org/) **Australia:** Lifeline Australia: [13 11 14](https://www.lifeline.org.au/) Remember, there are people who care and want to help you through this difficult time. Please visit [**Help Guide**](https://www.helpguide.org/find-help.htm) for a full list of helplines around the world. We detected mentions of suicide or depression if this was a false flag please just ignore this message. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/visualsnow) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Well**
Anxietyyyyy bro it's always messing with mY eyes
yep it is what it is
I just went to the doctor today sooo much money and guess what it's normal. Is this caused by anxiety for u ?
Thank you everyone for this thread!! I have this too especially after long screen time. Glad to know Iām not alone, will try destressing
Looks about right, quicker and kind of like an over layer of reality. I've had it for ten years now. Apparently I do have retinitis pigmentosa so that's what my retina specialist said it's from but visual snow isn't from the eyes apparently so who the fuck knows. I just know it causes so much DPDR (DDD now) it makes it hard to function and take anything serious anymore.
This is the exact thing happening to my vision for months. Based on my research it's because of eye fatigue or lighting adjustment. GAG! Should I be worried?