yay hallucination!

[TheSHAD0W]

So, was browsing the net, reading the news, checking out the new GoPro cameras, and... okay, what the *hell* is that I'm seeing?

There was a circle of flashing lines and shapes in my lower left visual field; getting a good look at it was very difficult, as if I tried to focus on it it'd skitter away from view. It wasn't an afterimage of anything I'd looked at on the net, and it was expanding...

It was a very good thing I'd heard of this before and have a friend who's had them, or I would've freaked. the. fuck. out.

It's called a "visual migraine", possibly a "scintillating scotoma"; technically it's a "cortical spreading depression". A chemical cascade made its way through my visual cortex, leaving a very strange light show for the person experiencing it. It looked rather similar to this video, though more complex and random. It seems to be related to high potassium levels; I'd eaten some canned octopus (yes, really) an hour earlier; I suspect it either had high potassium levels or some kind of chemical trigger.

But yeah, it was a bit scary, and had I not some idea of what was happening I would've panicked and called 911... "HELP! THEY PUT LSD IN MY OCTOPUS!"

Dispatcher: "...I'm sure they did, sir! Don't worry, I'm sending a rubber truck for you!"

[Kaylyn]

I get those, except they're part of an actual migraine for me. If it happens again, here's a way to tell the difference: close each eye separately. If it's in one eye, it's an ocular migraine, if it's in both eyes it's a classic migraine.

First time it happened to me several years ago while driving, I freaked out as well. I thought I had managed to catch the reflection of sunlight off of someone's car or mirror in such a way as it burned my retinas and rendered me partially blind. Then I realized it was slowly moving out of my field of vision. The first time I had a minor headache afterwards, and every time after that the headache has gotten increasingly worse until it hit what I would call full-blown migraine pain.

Haven't had a migraine in almost a year now, but I get the feeling one is just around the corner. The advantage to the aura (as the flashy bits are called) is that I have a 30-minute or so warning before the pain hits. And guess how long it takes for medicine to start working after you take it...30 minutes or so!

[Gravekeeper]

I have visual snow myself. It's just always there. Super prone to afterimages and what not as well. Have had it for a good 15 years or so I guess. It slowly started after a round of Accutane when I was a teenager. Then never went away. Much like a lot of Accutane's side effects ;p This was back before they knew all of them, much less that it had permanent ones.

[Android Kaeli]

I get similar things like that and it only happens when I am about to get a migraine -- both of these happen maybe a couple of times a year at the most, if not a year and a half. However it has happened enough that I know I need three things before I get said migraine: food, caffeine, and some pain reliever; if none of them work, I go straight home to bed.

[DeltaSierra]

I get them as well, but mine are more like this example, except mine are multicolored. When I first described them to my Doctor, I said they looked like aurora borealis - he said that's a very good description. I also occasionally see halos, where everything but the center of my field of vision goes blurry/fuzzy.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I have visual snow myself. It's just always there.

I have this too; it mostly doesn't bother me too much but I did go through a period of high anxiety with it a year or two ago. I think I've had it since I was a kid (I vaguely remember seeing it when looking at the open doorway in the dark and seeing "static" in the darker spot) but for some reason I started really noticing it and obsessing over it a couple years ago. There's not a lot of info out there that I could find. Thanks for the video.

[Luna Baby]

DeltaSierra-that is almost identical to the auras I get! I've always thought it was a weird thing to see and I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my symptoms.

I've suffered with migraines for 30+ years. It has only been within the last 5-6 years that I was able to get a medication that works and it's only been within the last 4 years that I started being able to really pinpoint my triggers. If I miss a trigger, but see that silver aura, I head straight for the purse to grab a pill. It's a shame that the pills are so expensive ($3+ each!) but if they work, they're worth every penny!

[TheSHAD0W]

And now I've had the second one in two days, after never having had one before, ever.

Somehow I don't think it's a good sign.

[hinakiba777]

Shadow, I think maybe you should see a doctor if you the symptom reappears for a third day.

I personally get pretty bad migraines. The worst was July 1, 2008 where I had to actually be hospitalized. I was on a drip all night of some sort of neurological drug. Eventually it turned out that my birth control was worsening the issue. I still get them, though not as frequently now. However, when I do get them, I need to go into almost total sense deprivation. After the "oil in a puddle" images start, I begin really sensitive to sound, smell, and especially light. I can never tell how long the migraines last because I always fall asleep in the middle of them.

[Zaiida]

I used to get the 'standard' head splitting, temperature sensitive, eyes watering migraines until my Doc put me on effexor. I only lasted 3 days on it and my migraines from then on turned into aural ones. It's permanent. Nearly flipped out when I had my first one and I'm in the middle of a 1 week one at the moment. It's mild and it comes and goes and there is no pain but....to be honest, I'd rather have my standard migraines back. They, at the most, lasted 2 days and when it broke I was fine. These have no pain (it seems to have completely gone since effexor) but they last forfuckingever. It's like being visually stoned but trees are rather pretty when they have auras.

Problem is with my old migraines when I got a pain twinge I could preemptively get in there and fix it before it became full blown. I can't with these there are no warning signals at all.

Shadow, mine are cause because of my neck. The deep muscles go nuts triggering an episode. Might be worth looking into.

[Arcus]

In some ways I think I'm lucky with the type of migraines I get. They are the extreme light and sound sensitivity with the feeling of wanting to vomit all the time. Doesn't sound like luck, but they are only triggered by chlorine. As long as I stay away from pools treated with chlorine and avoid any clothing that requires chlorine bleach, I don't have problems. My brother isn't as lucky. Any strong chemical smell will set his off.

[Primer]

About 15 years ago, I started getting white fuzzy spots in my left eye. It happened only when I was on the computer at night. I thought it was a combination of being tired, and catching glare from the lamp I had beside my desk. About 2 weeks later, I was in the middle of teaching a class when the whole left eye whited out. Yeah, I freaked, but I outwardly kept my composure and finished the lecture, then hied myself to my optometrist who immediately sent me to an ophthalmologist. Diagnosed as optical migraines, and ended up having to get a brain MRI just to be sure there was nothing else contributing. Haven't noticed them since, but I sure do love my Imitrex for the headaches when I feel those coming on!

[TheSHAD0W]

Had it again, twice, with an hour-and-a-quarter gap between them yesterday. I also had a doctor's appointment yesterday, so I got a referral for a neurologist. Now I just have to find one that has an opening before June. :-P

I think I've found the trigger though; aged cheeses, which I hadn't been having in a long while. I haven't had another episode today, and am crossing my fingers.

Something interesting, though; using a bit of self-hypnosis, I was able to get some control over the display. I was able to slow the rotation (and yes, it was rotating), and stop it in place. And then something *very* interesting happened.

I saw vertical and horizontal lines, stretching entirely across my field of view, and not merely in the area of my vision where the scintillation was occurring. Basically, the parts of my brain which were handling those particular sections of vision were telling me they saw objects which extended outside their area. I suppose this is a normal part of visual processing; interpreting parts of larger objects and binding them together.

I can make a few theories from this observation:

* The pattern processing which focuses the mind on these objects is offset from the part of the visual cortex which discovers them. (If they were close together, they both would've been affected by the depression.)

* The pattern searching proceeds in rotation (causing the scintillation), and probably also accounting for the optical illusion of the sort found at the top of this page.

* the scintillation occurs because of a conflict between what different parts of the pattern processing portion of the visual cortex are reporting, which causes the interpretation to be rejected and the rotating pattern search to continue.

* There is conscious feedback to the system which performs the pattern processing, allowing for some selection; otherwise, I would never have been able to slow the rotation. This is reasonable, as a system for trying to discover subtle patterns which would otherwise be ignored. (Searching for a camouflaged predator, for instance.)

* The pattern recognition system strongly prefers horizontal and/or vertical lines. I was only able to stop it in the position, in the few times I was able to; should it happen more I will try it at other angles.

Anyone interested in fodder for a neuropsych paper please feel free to grab. ;-)

[malmalthekiller]

I have visual snow myself.

This is a...thing?

I generally see it at night. I didn't realize it had a name.

Wow.

[Food Lady]

I have visual snow myself. It's just always there. Super prone to afterimages and what not as well. Have had it for a good 15 years or so I guess. It slowly started after a round of Accutane when I was a teenager. Then never went away. Much like a lot of Accutane's side effects ;p This was back before they knew all of them, much less that it had permanent ones.

I took it, too, but never had that symptom. I did have the suicidal depression.