I wonder how that is connected to phenomena like visual snow. Many people including me see similar effects not only in dark environments but troughout the day. Some resembling swarms of color, some seeing snow or something that resembles television static. For me there is no evenly colored surface anymore because a very faint swarm of colors washes over them.
It affects my vision rather negatively and the darkness magnifies the effect immensely making it hard for me to be aware of the countours of objects.
There are forums on the net were people experiment with various drugs with bizarre effects, spontaneous healing or no improvement at all were others see immediate effects.
My doctor send me to the optometrist, his assistant wondered why he didn't send me to a neurologist, the optometrist dismissed it because there wasn't anything wrong with my eyes.
If you are having progressive vision problems that worsen your quality of life, consider being persistent in voicing your concerns and perhaps visit an ophthalmologist.
I have the exact same thing which started about half a year ago in a moment of panic. Since then i have seen countless doctors and nobody found anything. But it still impacting my vision and i had some anxiety issues from it in the beginning because in some moments where its worse (in the dark) i was getting some kind of panic from it. It was really freaking me out but i have learned to life with it like my tinnitus as nobody seems to have an explanation other than psychological issues.
For me its like constant tv-like static that is mostly transparent but makes the outlines of everything slightly blurry. Ranges from almost not visible in good natural lighting conditions to very visible flicker in dark enviroments or places with lots of artifical light sources.
Never did any illegal drugs, dont smoke, dont drink alot of alcohol and workout regularly. Brain scan and everything was OK.
It started after 2 years of psychologically very taxing situations like a failed startup, failed long-term relationship etc. Dont know if its related to that, but it could...i am fine now and its still there though.
Another reminder to not constanly overwork/overstress yourself, many people dont realize in what ways your soul and body might react that you might not be able to reverse.
from my experience the aspect of constantly worrying makes it more annoying than it is. I can often go weeks without noticing it (can't remember not having it, dunno when it started, might be related to anxiety/panic one way or the other). Looking at bright single colored things makes me uneasy because of it though, eg the sky or white walls.
I wonder if there's any reasonable way to tell how much interpersonal difference is psychological vs. physical. I feel like it has a large impact on my sense of the world, when you combine a high myopia, a quite large number of floaters always present, and a rather striking version of the "blue field entoptic phenomenon". But is that a feature of my eyes, brain, or both?
IANAD but that sounds serious to me. Visual field distortions are often brain issues. I would go to a neurologist to be sure. Could be a tumor applying pressure to your optic nerve or something.
From a terminology standpoint, usually when people talk about visual field deficits, they are referring to reductions in a visual field, rather than unusual visual phenomena within an otherwise functional visual field.
Anyway, visual field deficits can be brain-lesion-driven, as you say (e.g., the classic bitemporal hemianopsia in pituitary tumors).
No, not necessarily. I've met someone who had a benign brain tumor -- it caused them to have mood swings, but was not in any danger of spreading.
In their case the doctors didn't remove it because the operation would have been more dangerous than the tumor itself, and the symptoms were not too severe. But it's obviously better to be aware of such things.
My wife had a growth removed from her brain a few years ago. Apparently it had quietly sat around since she was a child, not doing anything, until it decided to get its shit together and try to kill her.
ElongatedTowel ought to go to the doctor and deal with a few weeks of feeling like an embarrassed jerk by demanding that they scan his/her brain.
I suffer from visual snow and also have floaters. You learn to ignore the static after a while but it is always there if you focus - looking at plain surfaces (e.g. blue sky) makes it very obvious. And as you said, it drastically affects my vision in darkness (think of grainy CCTV footage). I haven't done drugs and don't suffer from migraines which are thought to be correlated. Apparently it is also correlated with Tinnitus but I haven't been able to self-diagnose that.
For the longest time, I wondered if people saw a "static" overlay like I do. Talked to my optometrist about it last time and he wasn't aware of this condition. Googled it later and there is some research starting on the subject: http://www.eyeonvision.org/
Have the same thing (as detailed in my other post to this parent) and i also suffer from Tinnitus. Interesting that some people on HN seem to have the same issues, even if its just for the "i am not alone with this" feeling. You kind of loose faith in yourself if nobody around you, not even the doctors, has ever heard of what you try to explain.
Did you use any mind-altering substances(excluding alcohol/tabacco)? I guess the answer is no, because you probably would mention it in your original post. But some of them may produce such effects -- that's why I am asking
I've never had a migraine in my life, but have constant visual snow since I was a child (as I can remember having conversations with adults and being surprised they didn't see the same way I did).
I meant related to the processes behind migraines (specifically migraine aura). Not that migraines cause visual snow. IIRC, there is currently research being done on visual snow at the UCSF.
It affects my vision rather negatively and the darkness magnifies the effect immensely making it hard for me to be aware of the countours of objects.
There are forums on the net were people experiment with various drugs with bizarre effects, spontaneous healing or no improvement at all were others see immediate effects.
My doctor send me to the optometrist, his assistant wondered why he didn't send me to a neurologist, the optometrist dismissed it because there wasn't anything wrong with my eyes.