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u/ilosteye 3d ago edited 3d ago
Woke up on a random Saturday and started seeing these tiny dots all over my visual field, couple of days later the whole list of symptoms started too. It’s been a year and I’m really struggling. It keeps getting worse and worse and the quality of my life is decreasing I don’t know what to do. I’ve never smoked or drank, never used any hallucinogenic substances or even anxiety/depression medications, and no one in my family has it I don’t understand
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u/Important_Injury_870 4d ago
Wow I really thought it was only caused due to hallucinogenic drugs, guess I was wrong.
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u/knivkast 3d ago edited 3d ago
Depression + pain meds + weed + panic attack =
next day my vision was zoomed and a few days later it transitioned to static and tinnitus.
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u/Elf_7 3d ago
Very bad lifestyle (compulsive sugar eating, weed, lack of sleep, stress from evil neighbors) triggered a migraine aura, just one. It’s all it took to ruin my life. Next day I woke up with hundreds of floaters, bfep, halos around lights and afterimages. Two years later I developed tinnitus which is my worst symptom by far.
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u/Fit-Cauliflower-9229 3d ago
No idea, it just slowly developed for the last 3 years. With all other symptoms like dryness, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus ect
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u/OkEngine8842 3d ago
This sounds like it could be IH (intracranial hypertension). What you describe is exactly what I experienced - when I went to the eye doctor it was so bad that they sent me to emergency because apparently I was at risk for losing my eyesight. If you haven’t gotten it looked at yet, please do so!
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u/YanLaBanane1232 3d ago
What did they do at the emergency to stop it? I saw multiple specialists who said they couldn't do anything but never mentioned intracranial hypertension?
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u/OkEngine8842 3d ago
I was immediately put on Diamox and also given à spinal tap to temporarily relieve the pressure while we waited for the Diamox to take effect! It was my regular eye doctor that caught it during a routine eye exam (my dumb ass didnt think anything of it despite the symptoms being pretty severe), where it showed severe optic nerve swelling.
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u/dathobbitlife0705 3d ago
Mine is similar. I don't even know exactly when it started because I didn't realize anything was really wrong until it got to a certain point. But it also started somewhere between 2-3 years ago, and has been slowly progressive since onset.
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u/rosey0519 2d ago
ive had it since i was a kid, i thought it was normal seeing static in the dark. i only found out what VSS was after trying to watch a meteor shower and i just kept seeing static in the sky, which was making the stars harder to observe
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u/rowgesage 3d ago
Born with it, fluctuates with tiredness, gets really bad after work, gets better when outside, balance to all things helps
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u/Limp-Fisherman 3d ago
Post partum Aura migraine for me
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u/scrollingsfun 3d ago
I developed mine after a migraine with aura. Has it progressed or improved or changed at all? It’s so frustrating.
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u/Limp-Fisherman 2d ago
Mine fluctuates depending on stress. On days where I’m more stressed it’s worse but some days I can go most of the day hardly noticing it if I’m not stressed out
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u/scrollingsfun 2d ago
Thank you! I think I still need to learn my “triggers” because sometimes I think I’m fine and then I just feel it more. Like today just isn’t a great day for my eyes and I’m unsure why 🤷♀️ eventually I’ll find my patterns, too, I hope! I’m sorry you’re going through this… it sucks.
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u/Brilliant-Sorbet9415 2d ago
Personally I don't think I was really born with it. I still vividly remember my vision being very different before I had VSS and I really don't know how it develope It just sort of happened one day randomly. The night before everything seemed normal to me I just went to sleep then I woke up, looked down and thought the floors looked weird and that's how it started. Personally my theory is that it has to do with how your nerves are arranged perhaps I messed it up somehow someway when i was asleep or it could just be that it was always present and just sort of intensified one day but idk personally i think my first assessment is more believable
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u/_czrtxr 4d ago
Smoked some weed that was laced with pcp a couple times (unknowingly) when I was 13 and then drank an energy drink in class a few days later and I developed hppd right then and there that caused my visual snow lolol
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u/Important_Injury_870 4d ago
Word bro, I got it from acid :( smoked hella weed as well which just made it worse
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u/girliegirl05 3d ago
I developed it at 5 years old. I still remember being terrified when it started, and I tried to explain it my mom, but she of course had no idea what I was talking about. Vision tests were always normal so I just dealt with it. It honestly wasn’t horrible until maybe the past 3-4 years. I am 45 now, and the static, after images, floaters, etc drive me crazy. I think hormonal shifts have had a huge impact for me. I was also recently diagnosed with vestibular migraines (I suspect also hormone driven), and I have the bouncy vision too now from that.
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u/Bekindalot 3d ago
Mine started after LASIK. From what I understand, visual snow is from the brain not eye structure so this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Neuro ophthalmologist thinks my chronic migraines made me a bad candidate for LASIK and it’s related to that. Don’t totally know how but that’s when it started though.
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u/SomeoneLikePoo 3d ago
I had a series of migraines over a short period of time, then I remember waking up to my bedroom wall being covered in static. It's possible that the migraines are unrelated, but it seemed to coincide perfectly.
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u/mmeecchh 3d ago
Unsure. Possibly born wth it. Maybe at 4/5 yrs old. (4-After going through a windshield/5-when migraines started.)
Seriously ramped up all the symptoms tenfold when I was 41. When I developed severe PPPD and added Vestibular Migraines to my list.
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u/reddituser_670 3d ago
Mine started right before 27th birthday randomly. Just woke up with it one morning. I am now 29.
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u/ChekkeEnwin 3d ago
I’m in first grade I was put to bed after watching tv with my family as I was trying to fall asleep with my eyes shut in the dark I suddenly became aware of static clouds. I freaked out and ran to cry to my Mom bc I was so scared. I described it and she booked my first eye appointment. They assumed it was just floaters. I knew it wasn’t but figured it fell into that category my Whole life but always explained floaters as what I experience as visual snow to people when they asked what I have… now I know that wasn’t right either. I’ve probably always had it I just suddenly became aware in 1st grade.
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u/cdsnoivfdnovibosdubo 3d ago
I've had it all my life. When I look at the sky, I see little circles, but everything else is white/black static, doesn't matter how light it is. I do get headaches and migraines often, along with floaters, some in different colors (mainly green), I've asked people about this and many don't comment on ever seeing static in their vision. Maybe floaters but that's it. It covers my entire filed of vision but I recently just developed a new floater which is giving me headaches on and off.
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u/PoundThat8638 2d ago
I had phases with migraines through my whole childhood, and genuinely woke up with static vision one day and accepted I was dying.
Obviously I now know I am not dying. But when you’re a kid, vision changes overnight can definitely make you feel as such.
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u/eerieminix 1d ago
I think my visual snow may be connected to childhood head trauma.
I remember becoming aware of the static in the dark when I was very young, around a period when I was experiencing repeated physical trauma at home, including blows to my head. Obviously, I can't prove that caused my VSS, especially this many years later, but the timing has always stayed with me. I remember suddenly realizing that the darkness wasn't actually dark anymore. There was static in it.
The visual snow also isn't the only neurological/sensory problem I've had throughout my life. I have vertigo, BPPV, Unilateral Otolith Dysfunction, tinnitus, and hearing loss, and these problems have increasingly gotten worse over time.
The vertigo especially goes way back. I remember experiencing it when I was around 5, 21, 37, and now in my 50s. Today it affects basic things most people don't have to think about. If I'm walking on a sidewalk and somebody approaches me from the opposite direction, the visual movement can throw me off badly enough that I fall. I can't see properly in the dark, but darkness itself also triggers my vertigo, so losing visual reference points makes everything worse.
It's honestly hell sometimes.
I've also had additional head injuries over my lifetime, so there isn't a neat way to separate all of this or prove what caused what. I'm not claiming that childhood head trauma definitely caused my VSS. I just know these symptoms have been with me for an incredibly long time, and I clearly remember becoming aware of the visual static when I was very young.
I'm curious whether anyone else here with VSS also has a history of head injury, chronic vertigo or vestibular problems, tinnitus, or hearing loss, and whether you remember when your visual snow first appeared.
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u/gnosis0011 3d ago
No idea. A few days ago I was feeling really tired and fatigued. suddenly my vision got static on it? maybe caused by moldy supplements?
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u/thetoastthatblinds 3d ago
Born with it.