Visual Snow

Does it act like a slight tint?

I probably have VSS ( I say probably because I haven't been check out yet), as I started to experience very mild static in my sight field which sometimes gives me anxiety.

I also started to experience headaches and I heard that people with VSS often suffer from migraines or headaches.

I'm asking help because Monday I'm going to a 3-4 day school trip at Venice and I don't want to be in constant pain, especially since we will be out a lot.

Along with possible visual snow I'm also experiencing acid reflux after months since I had it the first time.

I also would like to treat my headaches because I'm afraid of not sleeping for several days straight because of the pain. I already suffered enough when my acid reflux wouldn't let me sleep.

So, did any of you have found ways to manage headaches and also possibly other symptoms related to VSS?

im so cooked the static is everywhere

I went to an event last night at a stadium where there were lots of bright lights and spot lights. I didn’t look directly at them but when I left I noticed the after images were very intense and persistent. It looks like many crescent shapes in a circle around my eyes. I hope that makes sense. I’m worried I did some permanent damage because the after images are still not going away.

I have crazy strong blue afterimages for every light my eyes see, expecially at night. Do you realte?

I got to know how atropine dilates the pupil and the shadow of floaters become less noticeable but how does it make bfep disappear too? Like yeah it does but HOW??

Someone recently stated that this paper proves that VSS is caused by elevated serotonin metabolism in several areas of the brain. This is incorrect. Serotonin is definitely involved, but we cannot say that is the mechanism by which we get VSS. They did this through an fmri study comparing functional connectivity of different brain regions, and estimations of different neurotransmitter levels.

I just read it again, I've actually read it before, I'm very familiar with this paper and similar work.

The authors never assert such a claim, because you can't come to that conclusion with validity simply from the difference in functional connectivity of those networks.

Here's a few relevant quotes from the full article:

"The data presented here show that patients with VSS demonstrate significant differences in functional brain networks related to SERT and NMDA molecular systems, and not GABA-A and NAT, with respect to HCs. These changes, involving crucial areas of the sensory and limbic systems, not only confirm functional connectivity alterations of VSS found in previous studies, but also allow us to view those findings in light of molecular mechanisms that could be specific to the syndrome."

"Overall, these findings suggest that serotonin might be influencing the dysregulated integration of complex sensory stimuli typical of VSS."

"Interestingly, a recent case reported VSS symptoms arising after exposure to citalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.23 Further, lamotrigine, which has an inhibitory function on 5HT2A receptors and is widely used in patients with typical migraine aura and HPPD,76 has also shown anecdotal efficacy in VSS.7 However, a larger case series has shown that both citalopram and lamotrigine are mostly inert in patients with VSS,8 thus suggesting that serotoninergic transmission has a more complex role in the biology of this condition."

"An interpretation of our current findings is that serotonin might be modulating the altered connectivity within areas of the visual motion network in VSS, via dysfunction in the salience network, and could thus be causing wrongful allocation of attention to the noise-like percept of snow and increased neural gain within the visual system."

I actually agree that the research points towards serotonin dis-regulation or alteration as part of the characteristics of Visual Snow Syndrome, but I think it is irresponsible to simply decide that this is the cause, and come up with a mechanism that seems plausible, and call it fact.

The researchers themselves don't do this, because it's not valid to do so. Otherwise they would have said so. Every researcher ever wants to have a finding like that, if they don't claim it, you can bet it's because to claim it would be invalid.

Because we want this forum to be accurate, please refrain from taking research and forming your own conclusions that the authors don't. They know more about their research than you do.

We don't know the cause of VSS, if we did, they would say so, because they want to get published in top journals, and big results will help do that. Please stop claiming we know what causes it, as this just confuses people and raises hopes that may not be well founded.

Since I was like 10 I realized that when I stared at a single point for like just 10 seconds (though the odd look starts after just like 3, almost immediately) my static would start getting very chonky and chaotic, colors would saturate and idk how to desbribe it but i'll start seeing random neon rainbow glimpses in the wall of static and it gets swirly.

Shit would start warping, like a red curtain with dark patterns would just shift into a solid disturbing red and it would get blurry and deformed. My whole field of vision gets covered ina wall of static the shade of the lighting of the space I'm in, everything starts moving around and weird blue and green blotches will show up. Like gang is that what acid trips feel like 😰. It all quickly fades when i looks away and blink a couple times. Blinking involves the warping but only a bit. It genuinely looks spooky.

Is this a normal thing that happens to people without vss too or a weird thing of the syndrome? Also i have photopsia but i also have this reverse photopsia where i see black dots in the same way i'll see the light.

I'm 3 weeks out from a concussion and the illusory palinopsia/trailing images is brutal and not getting better. Has anyone ever had this go away over time? I'm doing the normal vision therapy things like pencil pushups. Other symptoms are getting better, but the palinopsia is the worst. I can learn how to live with the visual snow and tinnitus but the palinopsia makes me feel so disoriented and awful.

Any success stores for palinopsia? I'm struggling to stay positive.

Hi, this has probably been asked before, but I discovered VSS yesterday ("wait, that's not normal??" Moment) and I did research. But some people say that it's very common and everyone they know has it, and others say it's so rare even ophtalmo won't believe them. I'm confused. You, who are in this subreddit since a long time, do you know ? I understand that, like synesthesia, people who have it think it's normal and don't report it.

Thank you

I practice dzogchen. My teacher was just saying this morning that we should try to ALWAYS be aware of our visual noise - BFEPs, black dots, floaters, whatever. On this sub we actually have a head start on this practice since we can see them without trying to see them.

The way our cognition works is that we have a top-down predictive model of the world. (See Predictive Processing Made Simple) I expect to see a flawless clear blue sky. We have to reconcile that with our bottom-up sensations, which are VSS and a bunch of artifacts. When the model and the sensations disagree, like they do with us, that sort of raises an alarm, draws our attention, creates anxiety. That works great if the disruption to the clear blue sky is a bird or a plane. Maybe we should pay attention to that. It gets dysfunctional when we get alarmed over VSS, which is just meaningless chronic noise.

We're not inside a meat robot, looking out through crappy fuzzy viewports at an outside world. The whole paradigm of I'm a subject observing objects outside myself is a delusion. It's very useful and helps us to function in the world. But it's very isolating and stress-inducing. And it's not an accurate depiction of the way the world works.

TL;DR - let go of your expectation of a clear blue sky. You are not inside a meat robot with fuzzy viewports on an outside world. Relax. Stressing out over the mismatch between the predictive model and your sensations is pointless.

Has anyone else noticed their VSS symptoms worse after COVID?

I've always had it, but it's where I could simply ignore it. But after having COVID 2x it's been so much worse. Even years after.

My whole nervous system is inflamed and every problem is amplified. My symptoms are significantly more pronounced.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I live in Sweden, i got the floaters and the static and im pretty damn sure i have it because i noticed the static about a Year or two ago and it hasn't stopped. I'm European and a minor so i probably won't get billed to all hell

Why did it start 2 months after the PRK surgery? It was not there immediately after the surgery. What could be the reason for it starting later?

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Does anyone else get weird after images in their peripheral vision kinda looks like lightning? I’ve just recently experienced this, but I can’t get it off my mind. It’s literally in the corner of my right eye. It goes away, and I only see it usually when I’m blinking but abnormal?

I don’t know if this is a silly question or not but definitely something I’ve been worried about. Is it safe for people like us??

https://youtube.com/shorts/jzd_ibs1cEE?si=DzThIdgZD21rEhWL

UK, Female, 39. High myope (-8.75).

I’ve been experiencing visual disturbances since the end of April (towards the end of pregnancy with second baby), beginning with peripheral flashes in both eyes and increased floaters. Optometrist originally diagnosed PVD but otherwise healthy OCT, colour fundus etc.

I began having other symptoms, starting with pattern glare, starbursts around lights, blur with high contrasts (e.g white on black) and mild static on various surfaces. Got eyes retested and it turned out I was wearing glasses one diopter too strong. Adjusting to the new prescription coincided (or led to?) with light sensitivity, difficulty seeing dark objects and most frighteningly blurry vision in lower light. I have many more symptoms- I just feel like I cannot see.

I’ve been to two consultant ophthalmologists, neuro and retinal. Both found eyes to be healthy and the retina specialist said I don’t even have PVD. Neuro called it functional visual impairment and retinal specialist said I my senses are heightened being post natal.

I am really struggling to believe this is true. I don’t have static across my entire visual field, although it is definitely there under artificial lighting, so doubt I meet the criteria for VSS.

The ophthalmologists did dilated pupil exams and OCT. They confirmed my retinas are healthy with no weak areas in the periphery. Am I to believe this is enough to confirm no further testing is required? I am very scared I have something degenerative that is difficult to diagnose.

Im posting this here as I believe the functional visual impairment or FND term is along the same lines as VSS but I apologise if I am in the wrong sub.

My questions are- does any of this sound like VSS or something similar? Should I stop questioning whether the ophthalmologists have missed something or should I request further testing?

The phenomenon has persisted since early spring this year. It is like a shadow or large dot that only appears when I blink and then quickly fades away, in the top right of the vision in my right eye.

An ophthalmologist who examined my eyes noticed no retinal detachment. My retina was also fine.

Anyone experience something similar?

I have had visual snow my entire life and it has rarely if ever caused me anxiety. But this shadow is making me so scared! I cannot stop thinking about it, asking myself questions such as "What if it develops into a blind spot? Or what if it already is a blind spot? What if it grows?"

So yeah, I am curious to hear if one else experiences this phenomenon and if it has changed with time.

A bit of a long story but I hope you guys have the time. For starters, I'll say now that I (29M) have IIH, idiopathic intracranial hypertension and I've suffered infrequent ocular migraines for years. So this was back in August, I had an optometrist appointment for new glasses and a new updated prescription at target. I went and I got it done, I got new glasses, they're much better. But a week after getting my glasses, it's on a Friday, I suddenly got a headache, it was really tiring, maybe it was the fact I got drank almost 3 cups of coffee that morning or maybe just a random headache, so after getting home around noon, I wanted to stay home and my dad was pending on making two different trips to pick up two different family members. Suddenly my dad doesn't leaves and suddenly doesn't pick up anymore so I have to go with my headache. It was a ROUGH two drives and that night I random was playing video games when suddenly I saw a spot around the center of my vision like an after image but it wouldn't go away so I braces for impact thinking it was going to be an ocular migraine but nothing and this lasted like two hours so I obviously freaked and maybe in my little freak out I was becoming too hyperaware that I feel I started seeing more floaters or at least acknowledging the ones I always had but it was a horrible night mentally but they went away yet my eyes still felt like they were throbbing and shaking. That was August 24 and since then I've noticed my eyes have stayed feeling throbbing, shaking, vibrating, whatever the word is. My vision has this grainy aura around the bottom and top and sides. Not the type of aura that you get during ocular migraines mind you. That aura I personally feel you can't even see your hand in places under the aura. This is more like just film grain kind of. I've always been an anxious person so this has made my health anxiety sky rocket because I don't know if this started then or it's always been this way but hyperfixation has ruined me to see it always now. What I mostly notice is this flicker around the center. Things I stare at don't flicker in the light but the things around do. Like if there's a ceiling fan ruened on. That type of flicker. And when i close my eyes I feel I see twitches and faint flashes and lots of visual snow it's made ot harder to sleep. In general this has affected my mental health really bad and I feel so dissociated and depersonalizated at times. But there's moments where I'm so distracted that I don't notice it or remember it even when I'm driving I don't see it. Those moments make me realize it may not be serious. I did an MRI/MRV only because I had one scheduled from July since I had migraines all month and I'm seeing the results Nov 8 and a neurologist November 21. It's also been quite the year. Since March I've been with my mom since she was diagnosed with cancer and all the terrible changes and surgeries that come with it BUT she's cancer free as of now but going through a really rough chemo treatment which has taken a lot on us too so I'm stress and anxiety is definitely NOT off the table here. My shoulders and neck have been so stiff and painful. I freaked out a bit about my optometrist visit because she dilated my eyes and I left and I think she forgot to give me the visor because I never got one and that walk to the car and ride home made me feel so scared of eye damage from the sun but I kept my head down and eyes closed and covered the whole way but I stayed with the anxiety that it may have damaged me a bit but I know that can be silly to worry about so much. I just have terrible anxiety that I'll go blind or something. I just have a fear it's a tumor or I'm going blind but my opthalmologist saw me and didn't dilate my eyes but he didn't notice anything off except a bit of inflammation behind my eye which I've had and have been treated for with diamox a few years ago but he thinks it could maybe be IIH again but without the eye pains I had before when I first got diagnosed. Here's a photo to give you a more or less idea. When I look at the yellow, the blue flickers and when I look at the blue, the yellow flickers. When I look at the purple, the yellow flickers as well.

Does anyone else feel like sharp second long pains in your torso

Don’t know how else to explain it

I have been suffering VSS Since Late 2022, over time, I had to adjust for my VSS, as a Gamer, that required many changes, first of all, I had to lower brightness and rise Orange Color Filtering to filter out the bright colors, but is there more tips I should take, like lower my gaming time or any Glasses or Tints I should wear?

Anyone else still have progressive symptoms..? Ik its kinda early for me (only had it since april ) but it's like every time I get used to it something new and worse starts happening and its really starting to make me lose hope.. if it continues like this I'm worried I wont be able to work anymore.. afterimages are bad, trailing has been getting worse like every few days since I started seeing it a few weeks ago, I'm so at a loss for what to do.. I dont want to be disabled 😔

I have been trying (with moderate success) to lose weight, and I am hitting a plateau. The best way to lose weight is by eating in calorie deficit, but every time I don’t eat enough the ‘static’ gets worse and makes it difficult for me to function. My light sensitivity gets worse, and I wear FL-41 glasses daily. Additionally, when I don’t eat enough I’ll wake up in the middle of the night starving and I have to eat to go back to sleep. Any ideas?

Hey guys, I (m23) am fairly new to the game. I have a history of very strong health anxiety and while working in the summer i first started to notice that there Are many flys around my head. Those turned out to be floaters. Then I started noticing bfep that is currently pretty strong. Now while I was at a meeting at work I noticed something that freaked me out. The room we were in had those striped blinds and overall the lighting was weird. When I looked a bit longer at those blinds I got pretty strong afterimage of those stripes. They they were printed on the wall etc. even on my coworkers shirt. It lasted for about 30 seconds till it vanished. This already happened a few times so of course I think I have brain cancer. Did some of you notice similar things? Maybe its also normal I dont know.

Hello and Happy Halloween!

A bit of background information before I get into my request. I am a university student working with a group of other students to put together a research project on VSS. Our goal with this project is to raise awareness of this disorder so that we can encourage future researchers to explore further.

I, like many of you, was unaware I had VSS until much later in my life. After countless appointments looking for an answer to my problem, I finally made an off hand comment to my partner and he was fortunately educated enough to tell me what I was experiencing. I could have went several more years unsure of what was going on if I wasn't lucky enough to have all of the cards align in that specific moment.

Currently, I am in a course discussing sensation and perception in humans and we talk about the various errors that can occur in these processes. Despite discussing various disorders, such as tinnitus and prosopagnosia, we never discussed or touched on VSS. This project is our chance to educate the students in this course further on various issues and topics in the field and I wanted to take the opportunity to raise awareness on the daily experiences that those with VSS encounter. Additionally, I want to add a human element to research discussion of this disorder as the current literature can be... removed from the human experiences.

If you have a couple of minutes and don't mind answering a few brief questions I have, I would love to ask you some questions and learn about your unique daily experiences with VSS! I can provide more information about the study over DMs for those interested.

Thank you!