A question to you all, do any of you have Visual Snow?

Given it's rarity and the fact that not many people have heard of it, I don't think any of you will have it but I'm still curious.

The basis of this disorder is that sufferers see constant static in their vision, it can either be transient due to a migraine, or the persistent 'syndrome' version where suffers see static all the time along with at least one of the following symptoms:

- Palinopsia (visual trailing and afterimages)
- Enhanced entoptic phenomena (floaters, photopsia, blue field entoptic phenomenon, self-light of the eye)
- Photophobia
- Impaired night vision

Out of these I have mild, but quick moving static in my vision along with mild afterimages, floaters, blue field entoptic phenomenon and photophobia. It's hard to say how long I've had it for really. A part of me thinks I've had it my whole life but somehow never questioned it, or more likely it appears within the last few/several years. Most sufferers can pinpoint it back to some event like a head injury, infection, medication etc. but my memory is bunk so I really don't recall. I only started to truly question/look into it after I was put on a course of antibiotics a little while ago, but I'm pretty sure I've had it longer than that, I mean I've had floaters and photophobia my whole life as evidenced by squinting in photos when I was a kid.

It tends to be worse at night or when I'm looking at a blue sky. Non-visual symptoms include: tinnitus (check), depersonalization-derealization (yep), fatigue (mild but it's there), speech difficulties (yeah) and cognitive dysfunction -- brain fog (this too).

According to a study done in May 2014, it's likely caused by hypermetabolism in the right lingual gyrus and left cerebellar anterior lobe of the brain. Why certain parts of the brain would hypermetabolize is another question in itself and that's what researchers are trying to figure out. It can be caused by hallucinogen use in the case of HPPD where the chemicals from the drugs leak into the spinal fluid. This is a true persistent hallucination but I've never done them so I know it's not that. Other causes include vitamin deficiency, lyme disease, ' persistent aura without infarction' or certain autoimmune conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis. It isn't harmful in itself but it really sucks having it.

It's barely recognized by any doctors and they supposedly think your making it up. Sometime I need to get a PET scan, and MRI scan and also some blood work done too. But having the issues I have makes even seeing my GP difficult nevermind going from hospital to hospital surrounded by technicians and doctors doing tests on me. I suspected hypothyroidism but it came back okay, nevertheless I hear this issue is underdiagnosed :/.

So I was just curious if anyone else has experienced it, or even heard of it for that matter.

http://www.migraine-aura.com/site/conte ... tic_en.gif

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... -noise.gif

I haven't really paid attention to it, but as I do have photophobia, the next time it occurs, I'll try to note if I see any. I'm not going to try to invoke it - the migraine just isn't worth it. I've only had photophobia for a few years now, so it's a comparatively new thing for me; I haven't quite got the nuances of it down, yet.

I've recently begun experiencing many symptoms associated with visual snow, except for the actual snow. The worst is the palinopsia. I've read over the research on visual snow and am wondering if my lingual gyrus would show hypermetabolism even if I'm not seeing static. Wondering if palinopsia is that closely related. It's so dammed annoying. i usually only see negative afterimages throughout the day, but see positive ones upon waking.

My afterimages are pretty mild thankfully, the photophobia/derealization is what sucks the most for me. I go out on a summers day, and I can't appreciate the scenery because A. I feel distant from it and B. The damn light is straining my eyes.

YES!I have had it for years.

good to know i'm not the only one on this sub-board

There is a support group on Facebook for VS sufferers. Lots of information.

Yeah there's a group called "thosewithvisualsnow" online also. To me it seems like I've had VS for as long as I can remember, maybe I've had it almost all of my life and somehow thought everyone else was the same, so I never really questioned it until I found out it was abnormal online? It's like thinking it's as regular as "why do I have hair on my head?" you just don't really think about it. I dunno for sure though. If I got it after some head injury it would bother me more, but I didn't so for the most part it's just 'there'.