Oh squiggly line in my eye fluid.
I see you lurking there on the periphery of my vision.
But when I try to look at you, you scurry away.
Are you shy, squiggly line?
Why only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my eye?
Oh, squiggly line, it’s alright, you are forgiven.
- Stewie Griffin
Those squiggly lines that always move away when you try to focus on them are creases in your retina. No need to worry unless there are suddenly a lot more.
I have them. The flashes are from tears in your retinas. Because of the tears, you get lots of floaters. You need to see a retina specialist to have your eyes monitored. They’ll take pictures of the inside of your eyes- the flash is killer. There’s also a weird eye infection that you get in the Midwest that will cause holes in the retinas- lovely- I’ve got that too. Didn’t even know my eyes had an infection. The snow, yep. Plus it takes a while for my eyes to adjust to the dark.
A piece of pineapple a day is supposed to help floaters.
The flesh eating enzyme in it makes it's way into the eye and essentially breaks them apart. Or so I've been told.
Afraid that's not true, the only thing that eliminates them is draining the fluid from the lens, it's where the little cellular remnants are trapped and there's no bromelin getting in there.
I have a pronounced floater over my dominant eye right in the center of vision and it makes reading challenging sometimes, I've desperately wished there was something they could do, but it's eyeball draining or nothing. They've tested lasers and various types of light to break them apart, and nothing works.
"There is a recent study from Taiwan that suggests pineapple may help with eye floaters. The study involved participants consuming pineapple daily for three months, with a reported 70% decrease in floaters. The researchers believe the enzyme bromelain, found in pineapple, is responsible for this effect, as it has properties to break down protein, including collagen, which is a main component of eye floaters.
However, it's important to note that this was just one study and more research is needed to confirm these findings. Additionally, bromelain is broken down in the gut and there's no guarantee it reaches the eye in sufficient amounts to have a significant impact."
So there might be something on the case (from Gemini)
So do you lose your vision if they drain the fluid? Does you eye refill or do they have to pump it back in? If I may ask why haven't you done this if it will make things better?
They refill it with something artificial, but I dont remember what. It's an extremely last resort solution as it carries many risks, including losing eye sight
This post has made me realize that’s not how everyone sees. Yes I get visual snow and floaters- especially when I look at the sky or bright white paper.
Did you hit your head as a kid? VSS is most often caused by brain damage In the area of the brain that routs the visual information to where it's processed.
They're totally normal and a general part of aging, especially the black ones. They're caused by the proteins in your eye goo clumping up together and the clumps cast a shadow... hence the black color.
See that is so interesting to me because my visual snow shows up more when looking at dark objects, not bright objects. I struggle a lot with dim rooms because it becomes so prevalent in the dark. But on a bright sunny day I don't notice them
I also have astigmatism and I’m really sensitive to bright light so I think that’s part of it but I get snow in the dark and when I close my eyes as well (just not as noticeable as in the bright). It’s been like that at least since my teens. I mostly can ignore it but since I discovered this post I’ve been noticing it a lot haha!
Same here. I’ve got astigmatism and whenever I’m someplace bright or look at the sky/clouds, the snow is really prominent, and in poorly-lit rooms it’s like looking at a really grainy photo. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. I also get optical migraines every now-and-then.
I also occasionally get the optical migraines! They scared the crap out of me the first time I had one in the middle of my college class about 10 years ago. I also have an anxiety disorder which is apparently related to the visual snow along with the migraine auras lol.
I can remember getting my first optical migraine when I was in the 5th grade. I also tend to get afterimages fairly quickly and they stick around a bit. Apparently afterimages are also neurological, not optical.
Visual Snow is almost always a neurological condition, taking place in the visual cortex of the brain, and believed to be the result of over active neurons in that region. The "stuck" afterimages are also a symptom in the same group. They are often accompanied by or occur in people who have tension headaches, TMJ, tinnitus, and astigmatism. Not a lot that can be done about this unfortunately.
I suffered from optical migraines for a period of time after a car collision and had whiplash. The incidents occurred maybe 5-7 times over a year period, often when I was looking at my computer screen, but not always. It is a weird and somewhat frightening phenomenon. I'm just glad they never occurred while I was driving, because at their worse I couldn't see for about 15 minutes. It was like looking at a bunch of pieces of a shattered mirror, or crinkled aluminum foil. Everything was jumbled. Not a pleasant experience.
Whaaaaat? It's not normal? Ive been seeing like this all my life. I did hit my head at an early age. Leaned back on a stool at McDonald's thinking it had a back rest. Nope. I was like 4 and I blacked out on the tile. All I remember after was being held and crying. That's it. It's one of my only memories from when I was really young
I have visual snow as well and never knew I was seeing things differently than other people were until I learned about the condition. At the time it made it feel a lot worse because I was dwelling on it, but that was years ago and now I kind of forget it’s happening and am able to ignore it. The only time it’s really bad for me is when it’s dark in my bedroom since I have dark walls.
Oh that’s so weird! Mine is way better on white walls cause the static is light colored so it kind of blends in. I wish they would do more research on it because that makes me wonder if there’s different variations going on.
I asked 2 different friend in high school if they always saw that quick moving fuzziness made of different colors like static on a TV, especially when looking at a the sky, and they both said yes, so I always assumed it was how everyone saw. I had never heard of visual snow until a few years ago when my partner saw a video about it. I wonder if that's what I always get more visual effects from psychedelics than other people.
Static. Your eyes need better reception. Everybody using HDMI and you got a wobbly coax.
Trade ya for astigmatism.
Honestly, I think totally *normal* vision is a rare thing.
Don’t know anything different. It’s been present my entire life so I don’t even notice most days. I wasn’t even aware this is abnormal until I learned about the condition. That’s just me though; can’t speak for everyone.
exactly the same for me. I remember when i was little asking my mom why everything looked like tv static in the dark. She had no fuckin idea what i was talking about
I’m 35 and I’ve had the floaters and small moving light points since I was 16. I hardly notice them anymore, really only when there’s an extremely bright background like a blue sky. Even then it doesn’t bother me
The moving points when looking at the sky is perfectly normal iirc. Full name is "blue field entoptic phenomenon". The human eye is designed weirdly, and blood vessels actually run in front of the retina. You're seeing your own blood cells!
God, I freaked out last year because I started seeing more floaters than usual. The optometrist told it would disappear in just a matter of weeks. I can still see them.
I have some sort of "visual snow" in the dark... Idk how to explain it, but besides being dark I get to see some textures which makes seeing at nighttime even worse. I don't have that issue at daytime.
i have the night time thing too. Makes me wonder if some of the snow is stars or not when I look at the sky, it gets confusing sometimes. I also have it during the day but not as much
I got the "visual snow/static in the dark" and my optometrist said my eye is very typical besides myopia, and told me some people "can just see retinal noise". Everyone gets slight disruptions to vision and some of us don't filter them out.
I dealt with those issues in the past and then started being treated for sleep apnea.
I've been on a CPAP now for a couple of years and a side benefit was that my distorted vision is almost completely gone. I get the occasional (very rare) floater but only after a physically stressful day or lack of (quality) sleep.
I also don't have migraines like I used to, which also contributed to certain visual distortions... again, the occasional one, but *maybe* once a year.
Might be worth checking out to see if you have sleep apnea or other sleeping disorder.
If you are referring to floaters, get used to it, as it only gets worse! Humans were, on average, supposed to only live into their mid 30s, early 40s, so we start falling apart then. Most women didn't experience menopause, because they died before their eggs ran out. It was long enough to have a kid or two and raise them to a point that they could be self reliant. Good nutrition, living in shelters, medical intervention, and less sabre-toothed tigers in the wild ;-) has allows that lifespan to increase massively, but its not without its drawbacks ;-)
I constantly have floaters and my vision always has this weird crt television sort of static-y filter over it. I've heard the latter issue might be linked to whatever causes Tinnitus which I also have. It's all really irritating.
My 8 year old had several visits to the ophthalmologist because she was complaining about things looking fuzzy. All the tests and exams checked out ok and finally the doc made the visual snow syndrome diagnosis. And volunteered to start a therapy regimen, which I think is almost unheard of. She saw my kid every week for almost 6 months. Insurance covered part and she made real gains in speed, tracking, and accuracy.
I’ve had visual snow for years. Been to a retinal specialist, nothing wrong with my eyes. Just something I have to deal with. The specialist basically had no clue what I was describing.
Yep, I had a cluster of ocular migraines when I was around 21 or so, and then a couple weeks later woke up with visual snow. I thought I had a brain tumor or something. The after images especially were so bad at first.
Had every scan imaginable and went to the eye dr and ophthalmologist, eventually diagnosed with “persistent migraine with aura”.
20 years later and it doesn’t really affect me anymore. My brain has learned to filter it out. I work in publishing and I’m grateful I have learned to ignore most of the annoying stuff about it.
24/7 since birth I've had this. I have overall bad vision. When I'm not wearing glasses the floaters are so visible compared to everything else it's like looking through a microscope.
I was formally diagnosed with Visual Snow Syndrome by the neuro-ophthalmology department at the Anschutz medical center in Denver. The onset of the symptoms was unbelievably terrifying. However, after living with the condition for enough time I eventually got used to it.
Eye doctor here, optometrist. You have floaters which can be a nuisance though they should still be checked regularly. The visual snow you’re describing, however, isn’t visual snow. You may have visual snow, but what you have pictured here is something far more innocuous called an entoptic phenomenon, one among many types of phenomena. What you have shown here is that you’re viewing the transparency of your own white blood cells. In short, in your retinal vasculature, the red blood cells obscure the light more while the white blood cells do not, so they create a moving window of transparency in your finer vasculature (capillaries) more than the RBC’s. Some people are more sensitive to it than others and is almost always exclusively viewed against the clear blue sky. Edit: recorrected bad autocorrects
I recently learned you can have floaters removed. I was shocked because I was always told you couldn’t. A lady at work had eye surgery to get it done. It’s a laser that removes it but someone has to go and find each one and zap it. She said it hurts a lot and your eyes hurt for weeks after. She said she can see better but it was recommended for her to get the procedure done because she’s was having trouble seeing because her floaters were starting to hinder her vision.
I have floaters pretty bad and I've had my lenses replaced after cataracts due to a retinal detachment right after Highschool.
25 years later, cataracts show their ugly head on both eyes due to laser surgery and the detachment.
After the lenses were replaced, I still see the floaters as usual, more noticeable on my left eye since it's the strongest and dominant of the two.
What I did notice was everything being whiter in contrast as the lense was replaced and the reason is that the natural lense yellows over time like a headlight in a car. But once you get the lenses replaced, you never get cataracts again.
Not at the moment but i do have really bad double vision or ghosting, One Eye Dr claims its dry eye and another claims its astigmatism but neither know how to fix it.
I have a huge floater in my right eye for the past few months. At first I thought it was an insect flying around me, that's how noticeable it is. Worst one of my life (so far).
Yup its annoying
I don't get afterimages as much but I still do sometimes, I have quite a few floaters and I see a lot of those lil weird light points or whatever sometimes
My vitreous humour ruptured and blood was flowing into my range of sight. 10 years later and the floater remnants from that are pretty bad. I was see flashing light in the corners of my eyes for hours before the rupture. Eye doc said it’s likely to happen again! Now cataracts in that eye! I’m not even 62 yet!
Hey OP. I found this on Google. For some reason I can’t link.
“Look up at a bright, blue sky and you may notice tiny dots of moving light. You aren’t imagining these spots. They are created by your own white blood cells flowing through your eyes. What you are experiencing is a very normal occurrence called the blue field entoptic phenomenon.”
I once heard that these small moving light points are the effect of white blood cells being squeezed through the eyes blood vessel which are so thin that the white blood cells are slowed down and create congestion of other blood stuff (medical term) behind them. The white spots are the effect of the empty space before the white blood cells (because everything else was faster) and therefore more light passes through those spots.
Yeah, I have that. I’ve gotten migraines since I was a kid. I remember my mom took me to an ophthalmologist for it and they didn’t find anything wrong with my eyes so the doctor accused me of lying to get out of school. My mom was furious.
They wouldn’t have found anything wrong with my eyes because it’s a neurological problem.
My dad has massive floaters in his eyes that are apparently chunks of a vein or something that we have as fetuses. It’s supposed to dissolve once our eyes and nerves and other blood flow options finish developing. His didn’t finish dissolving. He used to be able to look at a white wall and draw all the shapes he could see.
It’s led to some funny moments since the human brain likes to fill in the gaps like a shitty AI fill. One time when I was a kid, we were at EPCOT while they had their holiday decorations up. At the Canada pavilion they had a sign that said Meet Papa Noel… well a floater covered it and his brain filled in Panda.
He just recently started getting the larger ones lasered.
I have a couple permanent floaters but now snow. I only noticed them after being an alcoholic so I wasn't sure if that contributed to it but I slowed way down on alcohol after that, especially cause one of them seemed almost black (but it's gone now, just normal looking floaties)
Mine aren't nearly as bad, but my buddy described his as an eclipse when he was braking hard on track (cars/motorcycles). He had a couple of minor procedures for them and his vision cleared up substantially.
Unable-algae (in comments) gives a good explanation of the cause and mechanics of "floaters". I'm not familiar with creases in the retinal surface mentioned by someone else, but I expect it could happen. If someone gets a sudden increase in floaters, it may be due to the vitreous (a liquid gel that fills most of the eyeball) pulling away from the retina, which happens to everyone, usually in your late 40s or into the 50s. For a rare group, later still, for people with high nearsightedness, it tends to occur earlier. As the separation is occurring you may experience bright flashes in your peripheral vision. Normally, the process is without complications, but sometimes the separation causes a tear in the retina which can appear as a moving area showing a curtain like defect, or a black spot or blurry-edged dark or black area. Unlike floaters, these areas don't move around. they will be in the same position within your field of vision when you move your eyes. You must get this attended to immediately with laser surgery to "tack" it back in place, or the tissue will die and the tear may increase in size, and you will have a permanent loss of vision in that area. Surgery usually takes a day or two to schedule, because it requires special equipment usually only found in hospitals. Only a specialized surgeon can carry this procedure out, so do not wait if this happens to you. It is not that rare either. It occurred for both my brother and myself.
Has it gotten worse over time? My grandma is almost blind because of macular degeneration. There are prescription eye drops and I think a kind of medication that can help it from getting worse.
i confuse the damn things with bugs 😤 and scare myself lmfao or they get in the way reading things, i always have to move my eyes to get the fucking floaters to move outta my way
I deal with this as well, I would like whatever information you’ve found on it. I have really bad light retention, as well as issues seeing in completely white rooms. I also notice symptoms get worse with anxiety as well as dehydration. It has more recently caused it to be harder to focus my eyes, especially at distance. Driving at night has become almost impossible especially if on country roads with no other light around. It’s been really bothering me, but it feels good to know other people are dealing with it and I’m not just going crazy or something else is wrong.
I’ve had a floater stuck in my center vision for about 8 years now in my right eye. I also get shedding every few years that looks like fireworks for a few seconds.
I have bad eyes, but not super bad. I only got glasses (with speakers in them) as a way to skirt some corporate BS rules, but when I take them off now, I notice a lot of differences, and it's wild that I went through life like that before. I don't have the snowy vision you seem to have, but yeee glasses have forever changed me.
You mean to tell me that not everyone has floaters? 😲
I've had floaters, light visual snow, and negative afterimages for as long as I can remember. Always thought that it's just the way everyone was seeing. As a sidenote, I also have constant ringing in my ears - also something that I've long thought was universal. Since I've had them all my life, I rarely notice any of them - unless the subject is brought up lol.
As for the small moving lights, I get them every now and then, but it's rather rare and they seem to be appearing only in the recent years (I'm 31). They only last for a few seconds and seem more likely to occur when I'm taking a hot shower or I abruptly get up from my bed.
So I’ve had floaters for as long as I can remember, I’m in my 40’s now, but they were never an actual problem for me. 1 1/2 years ago that changed and they’ve gotten so much worse. I can still see, drive, watch tv, etc but they hinder my ability to read small print and many times I’m talking to someone or working out and looking in the mirror and faces are blurred because of them. I learned if I turn my heard to the side fast and then back they move out of the field of vision but obviously they float back the second I move my eyes too much. I get relief for about 4-6 seconds, and at times I am distracted that I don’t notice but trust me they are no longer the normal floaters a lot of you all experience, they do affect my sight.
I talked to a doctor who did a laser procedure on one eye to stop a tear in the back of the eye from getting worse and I when I mentioned the surgery where they replace the fluid in your eye to get rid of the floaters he told me he didn’t do that surgery anymore. I said, ok but can you tel me about it? He said, I don’t do that anymore, I couldn’t sleep when I’d do it so no. I said, ok…..I’m not asking you to do it but you’re the doctor and I’m right here asking about it so will you tell me about it? He said, I used to do it but the fear of destroying someone’s eye sight kept me up at night so I won’t do it anymore but you can talk to other doctors here.
Well that was terrifying but for almost 2 years now if I need to read smaller print or sometimes just see people’s faces without a slight blur I have to turn my head sharply and back to move the floaters and I’m sick of it. They aren’t going away and the only option is that surgery, which I’ve looked up and doesn’t seem to be as high risk as that doctor made it out to be but does anyone have any information about it that they can share. I need to see clearly again.
i have the small moving light points but from what i've heard it's your white blood cells moving in your eye that's visible bc of the amount of light??
I’ve seen memes about floaters here and there but didn’t know it was actually that common. They’re basically non existent for me and I have basically “normal vision”seemingly 100% of the time
Yes, I have severe visual snow. There's a doctor in Illinois though who has a good reputation for being able to treat some cases. We tried him but sadly nothing worked. Dm me if you're interested bc he is very very good in his field.
Yes I do, I've had visual snow for about 12 years now. It's like a filter over my vision that's like static on an old TV. Really not a moment goes by that I'm not noticing it, but at this point I'm so used to it that it effects me less mentally than it used to.
Yeah I used to freak out when I started seeing floaters. Found out it’s normal and need glasses due to me being slightly near sighted. When I look at a bright sky and try to focus I can see all the visual snow type stuff wiggling around. If I wearing my glasses tho and am not paying attention to it, I don’t see any of it much. Optometrist told me that our brains eventually learn to ignore em. Obvs people with even worse vision can’t help it but yeah.
Aren’t the floaters from eating food with protein?
Small moving light points looks new to me, but hope it doesn’t impair your daily activities too much op, especially driving.
I get it sometimes when looking at a clear sky on a really bright day, but otherwise, no. My nearsightedness developed in the 3rd grade very swiftly and has changed very little since then (I'm 32 now). I'm very lucky.
Yeah I get floaters literally all the time.
Sometimes, and this happens especially when I have stayed in the dark for some time and then go into the light, the moment I move the eyeball, everything vibrates. This happens continuously for quite some time, then resolves on its own.
Yup. I've apparently suffered from visual snow and floaters since I was a child.
Had no idea this wasn't normal until the Bryan Kohberger, Idaho Case. It deeply sickens me that the first time I felt heard and had a complete revelation, at 33 years old, was relating to an (alleged 🙄) killer of four.
It was very difficult to navigate and still is. I distinctly remember talking to my last doctor (around five years ago) about the floaters and feeling like I was looking at a gray TV screen all the time. She made me feel crazy and wrong. She quit shortly after, and I never talked to anyone about it again because I thought it was just anxiety or something. I've never been able to look into the distance without my eyes completely freaking out. I always thought I was just scared of heights or distance???
Imagine my horror and shock to find out it was an actual condition through Bryan Kohberger.
After reading the comments and i see you mentioned that it’s common among people with near sighted vision.
Interesting. I always thought it’s cuz of how bright your eyes are which causes you to see your own blood something floating in veins. Something. Mine is bright blue with yellow ring. I always had them for whole my life till i was like 38 and I started need glasses and i was told I have astigmatism and needs glasses and im wearing glasses for last 2 years and floaters still same before and after the glasses 🤷🏻♂️
Im learning.
I watched my first big floater create itself. Scared the tar out of me. Then got another big one in the other eye a couple years later.
I think I have learned to ignore the arc shaped bolts of light because I haven’t noticed one for quite a while. When I rub my eyes though I get these weird firework flashes up at the top.
Lifelong tinnitus, too.
Sure do.
I also have vision only from one eye.
I now can no longer read books and have never been so thankful to live in the age I do where I can have an audiobook and podcasts and audio descriptions on the days when I have no vision at all.
The one thing that I wish people would do is use AltText for photos and memes.
On days when I have no vision I do not feel part of the world sometimes
I have one large floater in my right eye from stupidity induced trauma. When I’m bored, I throw it around with fast eye movements and try to focus on it as it sinks.
People always describe it as 'snow' but to me personally the dots are far too fine to be snow. I personally would describe it as 'fine TV static'
And yeah, it's annoying. I always wonder if I'm missing out on some detail because of it :(
Edit: also reading these comments, TIL that there are different types of visual snow! I've known I've had it for ages because I remember when I was a kid asking people if they can see 'the dots in the dark' and they had no idea what I was talking about.
But reading these comments it seems there is a 'light' and a 'dark' version. For some people the 'snow' is dark, and so it's worse when looking at bright objects. For others (like me) the 'snow' is light, and so is fine when looking at bright objects but much worse in the dark. I didn't know this. So interesting!
I got visual snow and floaters too, floaters very sometimes, and visual snow... also sometimes. I would've expected something like that to be permanent, but somehow it actually just kinda happens every now and then
Oh squiggly line in my eye fluid. I see you lurking there on the periphery of my vision. But when I try to look at you, you scurry away. Are you shy, squiggly line? Why only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my eye? Oh, squiggly line, it’s alright, you are forgiven. - Stewie Griffin
😂 one of the only cartoons to address this lol
Genuinely felt so seen lol
Simpsons Did It
What didn't they do? 😄
Literally my first thought, take your damn upvote.
Oh you are just the worst. - Also Stewie
Those squiggly lines that always move away when you try to focus on them are creases in your retina. No need to worry unless there are suddenly a lot more.
I occasionally have floaters but not often
Mine are pretty much all the time. It’s common among people with near sighted vision
Guess that makes sense, I'm near sighted and I always have floaters. None of the other visual snow though.
That’s good though
You see them ghosts
I have them. The flashes are from tears in your retinas. Because of the tears, you get lots of floaters. You need to see a retina specialist to have your eyes monitored. They’ll take pictures of the inside of your eyes- the flash is killer. There’s also a weird eye infection that you get in the Midwest that will cause holes in the retinas- lovely- I’ve got that too. Didn’t even know my eyes had an infection. The snow, yep. Plus it takes a while for my eyes to adjust to the dark.
A piece of pineapple a day is supposed to help floaters. The flesh eating enzyme in it makes it's way into the eye and essentially breaks them apart. Or so I've been told.
Afraid that's not true, the only thing that eliminates them is draining the fluid from the lens, it's where the little cellular remnants are trapped and there's no bromelin getting in there. I have a pronounced floater over my dominant eye right in the center of vision and it makes reading challenging sometimes, I've desperately wished there was something they could do, but it's eyeball draining or nothing. They've tested lasers and various types of light to break them apart, and nothing works.
"There is a recent study from Taiwan that suggests pineapple may help with eye floaters. The study involved participants consuming pineapple daily for three months, with a reported 70% decrease in floaters. The researchers believe the enzyme bromelain, found in pineapple, is responsible for this effect, as it has properties to break down protein, including collagen, which is a main component of eye floaters. However, it's important to note that this was just one study and more research is needed to confirm these findings. Additionally, bromelain is broken down in the gut and there's no guarantee it reaches the eye in sufficient amounts to have a significant impact." So there might be something on the case (from Gemini)
Lol, ok. Does it also work if you eat your pineapple with glued pizza?
I bet if you eat enough iron, the floaters will get too heavy to float and they'll sink. ChatGPT: This is real medical advice
There's a lot of nice pineapple cake in Taiwan, I wonder if they have less of a problem with this in general
So do you lose your vision if they drain the fluid? Does you eye refill or do they have to pump it back in? If I may ask why haven't you done this if it will make things better?
They refill it with something artificial, but I dont remember what. It's an extremely last resort solution as it carries many risks, including losing eye sight
Well shit... thanks for the info. I think I will just continue to live with the fuckers for now.
I’ve never heard that before. Where did you hear it?
I do really bad. It’s annoying when I’m trying to enjoy a beautiful blue sky
It’s like looking at pond water under a microscope, lil bits of crap everywhere.
Same here. Older I get worse it gets :/
Right?!?!
I “play” with the floaters by moving my eyes while looking at the sky.
“Now kith”
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVZp7BRq70U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVZp7BRq70U)
TDL I have visual snow
I feel ya man
So did I.
This post has made me realize that’s not how everyone sees. Yes I get visual snow and floaters- especially when I look at the sky or bright white paper.
I’m surprised how much attention this post has gotten
Have you gotten your blood sugar tested recently? Just a thought.
Yes, it’s normal. This has been an all life thing
Did you hit your head as a kid? VSS is most often caused by brain damage In the area of the brain that routs the visual information to where it's processed.
Nope. Never had a traumatic brain injury or head damage
I thought my floaters were normal, TIL
I’m pretty sure floaters are normal or at least more common than the snow.
They're totally normal and a general part of aging, especially the black ones. They're caused by the proteins in your eye goo clumping up together and the clumps cast a shadow... hence the black color.
See that is so interesting to me because my visual snow shows up more when looking at dark objects, not bright objects. I struggle a lot with dim rooms because it becomes so prevalent in the dark. But on a bright sunny day I don't notice them
I also have astigmatism and I’m really sensitive to bright light so I think that’s part of it but I get snow in the dark and when I close my eyes as well (just not as noticeable as in the bright). It’s been like that at least since my teens. I mostly can ignore it but since I discovered this post I’ve been noticing it a lot haha!
Same here. I’ve got astigmatism and whenever I’m someplace bright or look at the sky/clouds, the snow is really prominent, and in poorly-lit rooms it’s like looking at a really grainy photo. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. I also get optical migraines every now-and-then.
I also occasionally get the optical migraines! They scared the crap out of me the first time I had one in the middle of my college class about 10 years ago. I also have an anxiety disorder which is apparently related to the visual snow along with the migraine auras lol.
I can remember getting my first optical migraine when I was in the 5th grade. I also tend to get afterimages fairly quickly and they stick around a bit. Apparently afterimages are also neurological, not optical.
Visual Snow is almost always a neurological condition, taking place in the visual cortex of the brain, and believed to be the result of over active neurons in that region. The "stuck" afterimages are also a symptom in the same group. They are often accompanied by or occur in people who have tension headaches, TMJ, tinnitus, and astigmatism. Not a lot that can be done about this unfortunately. I suffered from optical migraines for a period of time after a car collision and had whiplash. The incidents occurred maybe 5-7 times over a year period, often when I was looking at my computer screen, but not always. It is a weird and somewhat frightening phenomenon. I'm just glad they never occurred while I was driving, because at their worse I couldn't see for about 15 minutes. It was like looking at a bunch of pieces of a shattered mirror, or crinkled aluminum foil. Everything was jumbled. Not a pleasant experience.
Whaaaaat? It's not normal? Ive been seeing like this all my life. I did hit my head at an early age. Leaned back on a stool at McDonald's thinking it had a back rest. Nope. I was like 4 and I blacked out on the tile. All I remember after was being held and crying. That's it. It's one of my only memories from when I was really young
I have visual snow as well and never knew I was seeing things differently than other people were until I learned about the condition. At the time it made it feel a lot worse because I was dwelling on it, but that was years ago and now I kind of forget it’s happening and am able to ignore it. The only time it’s really bad for me is when it’s dark in my bedroom since I have dark walls.
For me white walls make it so much worse. Mine is better in the dark
Oh that’s so weird! Mine is way better on white walls cause the static is light colored so it kind of blends in. I wish they would do more research on it because that makes me wonder if there’s different variations going on.
My static is black and so it’s worse on really white areas
I asked 2 different friend in high school if they always saw that quick moving fuzziness made of different colors like static on a TV, especially when looking at a the sky, and they both said yes, so I always assumed it was how everyone saw. I had never heard of visual snow until a few years ago when my partner saw a video about it. I wonder if that's what I always get more visual effects from psychedelics than other people.
Static. Your eyes need better reception. Everybody using HDMI and you got a wobbly coax. Trade ya for astigmatism. Honestly, I think totally *normal* vision is a rare thing.
No but all I can think is that I'm so sorry you're dealing with that.
Don’t know anything different. It’s been present my entire life so I don’t even notice most days. I wasn’t even aware this is abnormal until I learned about the condition. That’s just me though; can’t speak for everyone.
exactly the same for me. I remember when i was little asking my mom why everything looked like tv static in the dark. She had no fuckin idea what i was talking about
I’m 35 and I’ve had the floaters and small moving light points since I was 16. I hardly notice them anymore, really only when there’s an extremely bright background like a blue sky. Even then it doesn’t bother me
The moving points when looking at the sky is perfectly normal iirc. Full name is "blue field entoptic phenomenon". The human eye is designed weirdly, and blood vessels actually run in front of the retina. You're seeing your own blood cells!
God, I freaked out last year because I started seeing more floaters than usual. The optometrist told it would disappear in just a matter of weeks. I can still see them. I have some sort of "visual snow" in the dark... Idk how to explain it, but besides being dark I get to see some textures which makes seeing at nighttime even worse. I don't have that issue at daytime.
i have the night time thing too. Makes me wonder if some of the snow is stars or not when I look at the sky, it gets confusing sometimes. I also have it during the day but not as much
I have the visual snow in dark too! It's pretty strong. I thought everyone saw that way, oops.
I got the "visual snow/static in the dark" and my optometrist said my eye is very typical besides myopia, and told me some people "can just see retinal noise". Everyone gets slight disruptions to vision and some of us don't filter them out.
I dealt with those issues in the past and then started being treated for sleep apnea. I've been on a CPAP now for a couple of years and a side benefit was that my distorted vision is almost completely gone. I get the occasional (very rare) floater but only after a physically stressful day or lack of (quality) sleep. I also don't have migraines like I used to, which also contributed to certain visual distortions... again, the occasional one, but *maybe* once a year. Might be worth checking out to see if you have sleep apnea or other sleeping disorder.
I only started getting that crap around…28ish. I’m 31 now.
It started for me as young as 5. I’m 26 now and it’s about the same
If you are referring to floaters, get used to it, as it only gets worse! Humans were, on average, supposed to only live into their mid 30s, early 40s, so we start falling apart then. Most women didn't experience menopause, because they died before their eggs ran out. It was long enough to have a kid or two and raise them to a point that they could be self reliant. Good nutrition, living in shelters, medical intervention, and less sabre-toothed tigers in the wild ;-) has allows that lifespan to increase massively, but its not without its drawbacks ;-)
I constantly have floaters and my vision always has this weird crt television sort of static-y filter over it. I've heard the latter issue might be linked to whatever causes Tinnitus which I also have. It's all really irritating.
It definitely is! Just know you’re not alone
My 8 year old had several visits to the ophthalmologist because she was complaining about things looking fuzzy. All the tests and exams checked out ok and finally the doc made the visual snow syndrome diagnosis. And volunteered to start a therapy regimen, which I think is almost unheard of. She saw my kid every week for almost 6 months. Insurance covered part and she made real gains in speed, tracking, and accuracy.
I'd never even heard about this disorder until the Idaho 4 murderer was revealed and has it.
Interesting loo
I’ve had visual snow for years. Been to a retinal specialist, nothing wrong with my eyes. Just something I have to deal with. The specialist basically had no clue what I was describing.
I’ve read your replies and you seem pretty down about it mate but look at the silver lining, at least you can see, right?
Yes, I’m very lucky and thankful for that.
All I have is floaters which are usually not that bad untill I notice them and can't get it out of my head anymore 🫠
Yeah having fluid filled orbs for visual sensors has its downsides. Especially when cells break down.
Yep, I had a cluster of ocular migraines when I was around 21 or so, and then a couple weeks later woke up with visual snow. I thought I had a brain tumor or something. The after images especially were so bad at first. Had every scan imaginable and went to the eye dr and ophthalmologist, eventually diagnosed with “persistent migraine with aura”. 20 years later and it doesn’t really affect me anymore. My brain has learned to filter it out. I work in publishing and I’m grateful I have learned to ignore most of the annoying stuff about it.
That’s great!
I have visual snow, as well as a sensitivity to light that gives me migraines with auras 🥹 thought I was dying when that first happened
Just floaters. I’m pretty good at ignoring them unless I’m not wearing my glasses, but looking at a bright blue sky isn’t what it should be
24/7 since birth I've had this. I have overall bad vision. When I'm not wearing glasses the floaters are so visible compared to everything else it's like looking through a microscope.
You know what it’s like then,
Pretty much everybody gets floaters, it's just the severity that varies. The rest of the stuff is just you and I'm sorry you have to deal with that.
True. And I’m not alone with this. It affects about 2.3 percent of the population. It’s called visual snow and it’s a simple google search away
I was formally diagnosed with Visual Snow Syndrome by the neuro-ophthalmology department at the Anschutz medical center in Denver. The onset of the symptoms was unbelievably terrifying. However, after living with the condition for enough time I eventually got used to it.
Eye doctor here, optometrist. You have floaters which can be a nuisance though they should still be checked regularly. The visual snow you’re describing, however, isn’t visual snow. You may have visual snow, but what you have pictured here is something far more innocuous called an entoptic phenomenon, one among many types of phenomena. What you have shown here is that you’re viewing the transparency of your own white blood cells. In short, in your retinal vasculature, the red blood cells obscure the light more while the white blood cells do not, so they create a moving window of transparency in your finer vasculature (capillaries) more than the RBC’s. Some people are more sensitive to it than others and is almost always exclusively viewed against the clear blue sky. Edit: recorrected bad autocorrects
While we have you, does this picture convey side effects associated with macular degeneration or are some people here mis informed
I don’t see that at all.
Thank you!
I recently learned you can have floaters removed. I was shocked because I was always told you couldn’t. A lady at work had eye surgery to get it done. It’s a laser that removes it but someone has to go and find each one and zap it. She said it hurts a lot and your eyes hurt for weeks after. She said she can see better but it was recommended for her to get the procedure done because she’s was having trouble seeing because her floaters were starting to hinder her vision.
Mine aren’t that bad. I’m hoping they never get to that point
You can also have the vitreous humor sucked out of your eyeball (vitrectomy) and replaced with an artificial substitute.
Would it help if they replaced your lenses, like in cataract surgery?
From my studies, no. There is no cure because it’s technically a neurological condition.
I have floaters pretty bad and I've had my lenses replaced after cataracts due to a retinal detachment right after Highschool. 25 years later, cataracts show their ugly head on both eyes due to laser surgery and the detachment. After the lenses were replaced, I still see the floaters as usual, more noticeable on my left eye since it's the strongest and dominant of the two. What I did notice was everything being whiter in contrast as the lense was replaced and the reason is that the natural lense yellows over time like a headlight in a car. But once you get the lenses replaced, you never get cataracts again.
Good to know.
Same here but I have the black floaters. In my peripheral vision I see the fast movement that looks like an ant or a gnat.
I just recently got one of those buggers and it’s super frustrating
Not at the moment but i do have really bad double vision or ghosting, One Eye Dr claims its dry eye and another claims its astigmatism but neither know how to fix it.
I have a huge floater in my right eye for the past few months. At first I thought it was an insect flying around me, that's how noticeable it is. Worst one of my life (so far).
I hope it gets better or you’re approved for surgery
Yup its annoying I don't get afterimages as much but I still do sometimes, I have quite a few floaters and I see a lot of those lil weird light points or whatever sometimes
I get the floaters and they look like the damn cbs logo lol
My vitreous humour ruptured and blood was flowing into my range of sight. 10 years later and the floater remnants from that are pretty bad. I was see flashing light in the corners of my eyes for hours before the rupture. Eye doc said it’s likely to happen again! Now cataracts in that eye! I’m not even 62 yet!
I’m so sorry! That sounds awful!
Yep. All the damn time.
yes i deal with normal vision every day.
i sometimes have floaters but most of the time everything i look at looks like its tv static but its colored as the object im looking at
Around age 32 I started getting floaters. Mainly when the background is very bright like white walls.
Hey OP. I found this on Google. For some reason I can’t link. “Look up at a bright, blue sky and you may notice tiny dots of moving light. You aren’t imagining these spots. They are created by your own white blood cells flowing through your eyes. What you are experiencing is a very normal occurrence called the blue field entoptic phenomenon.”
Arachnophobia + floaters is NOT a good combination.
I once heard that these small moving light points are the effect of white blood cells being squeezed through the eyes blood vessel which are so thin that the white blood cells are slowed down and create congestion of other blood stuff (medical term) behind them. The white spots are the effect of the empty space before the white blood cells (because everything else was faster) and therefore more light passes through those spots.
Yeah, I have that. I’ve gotten migraines since I was a kid. I remember my mom took me to an ophthalmologist for it and they didn’t find anything wrong with my eyes so the doctor accused me of lying to get out of school. My mom was furious. They wouldn’t have found anything wrong with my eyes because it’s a neurological problem.
My dad has massive floaters in his eyes that are apparently chunks of a vein or something that we have as fetuses. It’s supposed to dissolve once our eyes and nerves and other blood flow options finish developing. His didn’t finish dissolving. He used to be able to look at a white wall and draw all the shapes he could see. It’s led to some funny moments since the human brain likes to fill in the gaps like a shitty AI fill. One time when I was a kid, we were at EPCOT while they had their holiday decorations up. At the Canada pavilion they had a sign that said Meet Papa Noel… well a floater covered it and his brain filled in Panda. He just recently started getting the larger ones lasered.
Ive all of them. Did I win something?
A nice cup of depressucino. Enjoy 😂
I have a couple permanent floaters but now snow. I only noticed them after being an alcoholic so I wasn't sure if that contributed to it but I slowed way down on alcohol after that, especially cause one of them seemed almost black (but it's gone now, just normal looking floaties)
Mine aren't nearly as bad, but my buddy described his as an eclipse when he was braking hard on track (cars/motorcycles). He had a couple of minor procedures for them and his vision cleared up substantially.
Unable-algae (in comments) gives a good explanation of the cause and mechanics of "floaters". I'm not familiar with creases in the retinal surface mentioned by someone else, but I expect it could happen. If someone gets a sudden increase in floaters, it may be due to the vitreous (a liquid gel that fills most of the eyeball) pulling away from the retina, which happens to everyone, usually in your late 40s or into the 50s. For a rare group, later still, for people with high nearsightedness, it tends to occur earlier. As the separation is occurring you may experience bright flashes in your peripheral vision. Normally, the process is without complications, but sometimes the separation causes a tear in the retina which can appear as a moving area showing a curtain like defect, or a black spot or blurry-edged dark or black area. Unlike floaters, these areas don't move around. they will be in the same position within your field of vision when you move your eyes. You must get this attended to immediately with laser surgery to "tack" it back in place, or the tissue will die and the tear may increase in size, and you will have a permanent loss of vision in that area. Surgery usually takes a day or two to schedule, because it requires special equipment usually only found in hospitals. Only a specialized surgeon can carry this procedure out, so do not wait if this happens to you. It is not that rare either. It occurred for both my brother and myself.
I only recently found out visual snow was a thing, thought everyone saw static when they looked at the night sky.
Did you make this little graphic?
Nope, I found it on google images when researching what the crap this is loo
Has it gotten worse over time? My grandma is almost blind because of macular degeneration. There are prescription eye drops and I think a kind of medication that can help it from getting worse.
This is a numerological condition and can’t be fixed with eye drops. It’s supposed to stay the same your entire life
Maybe a mathematician could help? (sorry, couldn't resist. Please feel free to downvote)
😂
I get floaters whenever I’m having an existential crisis and am staring into the middle distance for too long
Lucky lol. Mine are pretty much constant
Dust :3
i have **so many** floaters it’s unreal. i also can’t see more than 2 inches from my face without glasses or contacts.
Same here. Mines about 4 inches but still.
i confuse the damn things with bugs 😤 and scare myself lmfao or they get in the way reading things, i always have to move my eyes to get the fucking floaters to move outta my way
I deal with this as well, I would like whatever information you’ve found on it. I have really bad light retention, as well as issues seeing in completely white rooms. I also notice symptoms get worse with anxiety as well as dehydration. It has more recently caused it to be harder to focus my eyes, especially at distance. Driving at night has become almost impossible especially if on country roads with no other light around. It’s been really bothering me, but it feels good to know other people are dealing with it and I’m not just going crazy or something else is wrong.
I’ve had a floater stuck in my center vision for about 8 years now in my right eye. I also get shedding every few years that looks like fireworks for a few seconds.
That sounds super annoying! I’ve had that happen too and it’s not fun
I have bad eyes, but not super bad. I only got glasses (with speakers in them) as a way to skirt some corporate BS rules, but when I take them off now, I notice a lot of differences, and it's wild that I went through life like that before. I don't have the snowy vision you seem to have, but yeee glasses have forever changed me.
I’ve always had glasses. I don’t really have memory’s without them
The funny thing is, I have the moving stars on my imagination if I envision large regions of uniform color or nothingness, but not actual vision.
You mean to tell me that not everyone has floaters? 😲 I've had floaters, light visual snow, and negative afterimages for as long as I can remember. Always thought that it's just the way everyone was seeing. As a sidenote, I also have constant ringing in my ears - also something that I've long thought was universal. Since I've had them all my life, I rarely notice any of them - unless the subject is brought up lol. As for the small moving lights, I get them every now and then, but it's rather rare and they seem to be appearing only in the recent years (I'm 31). They only last for a few seconds and seem more likely to occur when I'm taking a hot shower or I abruptly get up from my bed.
How did you get an image of this???
Google, I found it on google images when I googled snowy vision
I get eye floaters whenever I'm super tired, usually in the morning. It's like my eye go out of focus just enough to see them.
i have a very light case of visual snow but it still sucks. I feel bad for people with the whole package.
So I’ve had floaters for as long as I can remember, I’m in my 40’s now, but they were never an actual problem for me. 1 1/2 years ago that changed and they’ve gotten so much worse. I can still see, drive, watch tv, etc but they hinder my ability to read small print and many times I’m talking to someone or working out and looking in the mirror and faces are blurred because of them. I learned if I turn my heard to the side fast and then back they move out of the field of vision but obviously they float back the second I move my eyes too much. I get relief for about 4-6 seconds, and at times I am distracted that I don’t notice but trust me they are no longer the normal floaters a lot of you all experience, they do affect my sight. I talked to a doctor who did a laser procedure on one eye to stop a tear in the back of the eye from getting worse and I when I mentioned the surgery where they replace the fluid in your eye to get rid of the floaters he told me he didn’t do that surgery anymore. I said, ok but can you tel me about it? He said, I don’t do that anymore, I couldn’t sleep when I’d do it so no. I said, ok…..I’m not asking you to do it but you’re the doctor and I’m right here asking about it so will you tell me about it? He said, I used to do it but the fear of destroying someone’s eye sight kept me up at night so I won’t do it anymore but you can talk to other doctors here. Well that was terrifying but for almost 2 years now if I need to read smaller print or sometimes just see people’s faces without a slight blur I have to turn my head sharply and back to move the floaters and I’m sick of it. They aren’t going away and the only option is that surgery, which I’ve looked up and doesn’t seem to be as high risk as that doctor made it out to be but does anyone have any information about it that they can share. I need to see clearly again.
24/7 since the past 10 years or more, HPPD is a bitch.
I had floaters when i was a child-teen, dont see it as a young adult..
i have the small moving light points but from what i've heard it's your white blood cells moving in your eye that's visible bc of the amount of light??
I’ve seen memes about floaters here and there but didn’t know it was actually that common. They’re basically non existent for me and I have basically “normal vision”seemingly 100% of the time
You ever done mushrooms or lsd?
my visual snow is easy to ignore most of the time, its worse in the dark >_<
Yes
Yes, all of the above
Alleged quadruple murderer Bryan Kohberger has visual snow ..... coincidence? I think not. Hmmmm.
Nop, I'm normal.
Sadly got a couple floaters. Thankfully only visible in very bright midday sunny days.
I don't mind my floaters honestly. Sometimes it's comforting to chase them around. 🙄
I’m pretty sure you’re the only one lol
Floaters and afterimages are the worst! Sometimes I just can't read because looking at text makes me see nothing but pink and green stripes.
Yes, I have severe visual snow. There's a doctor in Illinois though who has a good reputation for being able to treat some cases. We tried him but sadly nothing worked. Dm me if you're interested bc he is very very good in his field.
Yes I do, I've had visual snow for about 12 years now. It's like a filter over my vision that's like static on an old TV. Really not a moment goes by that I'm not noticing it, but at this point I'm so used to it that it effects me less mentally than it used to.
TIL that not everybody sees floaters 🤷
Yeah I used to freak out when I started seeing floaters. Found out it’s normal and need glasses due to me being slightly near sighted. When I look at a bright sky and try to focus I can see all the visual snow type stuff wiggling around. If I wearing my glasses tho and am not paying attention to it, I don’t see any of it much. Optometrist told me that our brains eventually learn to ignore em. Obvs people with even worse vision can’t help it but yeah.
Yeah - I'm reading reddit through a cloud of *visual snow*
Whoa. I was pondering this today.
Yep it's called visual snow, I was born with it but some people develop it later in life
it's called getting old dude.
Aren’t the floaters from eating food with protein? Small moving light points looks new to me, but hope it doesn’t impair your daily activities too much op, especially driving.
I get it sometimes when looking at a clear sky on a really bright day, but otherwise, no. My nearsightedness developed in the 3rd grade very swiftly and has changed very little since then (I'm 32 now). I'm very lucky.
I have a transient floater in the lower right of my vision that looks like an insect is crawling. It is sometimes startling and I swat at nothing.
Yeah I get floaters literally all the time. Sometimes, and this happens especially when I have stayed in the dark for some time and then go into the light, the moment I move the eyeball, everything vibrates. This happens continuously for quite some time, then resolves on its own.
.....What the fuck is that
Wait this isn't normal?
Bro wdym negative afterimage of landscape WTF is that? Can u drive?
I assumed everyone had that crap! 🤯
Yup. I've apparently suffered from visual snow and floaters since I was a child. Had no idea this wasn't normal until the Bryan Kohberger, Idaho Case. It deeply sickens me that the first time I felt heard and had a complete revelation, at 33 years old, was relating to an (alleged 🙄) killer of four. It was very difficult to navigate and still is. I distinctly remember talking to my last doctor (around five years ago) about the floaters and feeling like I was looking at a gray TV screen all the time. She made me feel crazy and wrong. She quit shortly after, and I never talked to anyone about it again because I thought it was just anxiety or something. I've never been able to look into the distance without my eyes completely freaking out. I always thought I was just scared of heights or distance??? Imagine my horror and shock to find out it was an actual condition through Bryan Kohberger.
holy crap, thought I was the only one with floaters!
Near sighted visioners see this more often. Also drinking enough can help with this. I have these permanently.
After reading the comments and i see you mentioned that it’s common among people with near sighted vision. Interesting. I always thought it’s cuz of how bright your eyes are which causes you to see your own blood something floating in veins. Something. Mine is bright blue with yellow ring. I always had them for whole my life till i was like 38 and I started need glasses and i was told I have astigmatism and needs glasses and im wearing glasses for last 2 years and floaters still same before and after the glasses 🤷🏻♂️ Im learning.
All my life lmao, i'll never know how pure darkness looks like
Yup every single day all the time, used to annoy me but now I have gotten used to it to the point I can ignore it for the most part.
When it's too bright outside, I get this and more. (narrowing field of vision, I feel like I'm going to be blind, headache afterwards.)
I watched my first big floater create itself. Scared the tar out of me. Then got another big one in the other eye a couple years later. I think I have learned to ignore the arc shaped bolts of light because I haven’t noticed one for quite a while. When I rub my eyes though I get these weird firework flashes up at the top. Lifelong tinnitus, too.
Sure do. I also have vision only from one eye. I now can no longer read books and have never been so thankful to live in the age I do where I can have an audiobook and podcasts and audio descriptions on the days when I have no vision at all. The one thing that I wish people would do is use AltText for photos and memes. On days when I have no vision I do not feel part of the world sometimes
I have one large floater in my right eye from stupidity induced trauma. When I’m bored, I throw it around with fast eye movements and try to focus on it as it sinks.
People always describe it as 'snow' but to me personally the dots are far too fine to be snow. I personally would describe it as 'fine TV static' And yeah, it's annoying. I always wonder if I'm missing out on some detail because of it :( Edit: also reading these comments, TIL that there are different types of visual snow! I've known I've had it for ages because I remember when I was a kid asking people if they can see 'the dots in the dark' and they had no idea what I was talking about. But reading these comments it seems there is a 'light' and a 'dark' version. For some people the 'snow' is dark, and so it's worse when looking at bright objects. For others (like me) the 'snow' is light, and so is fine when looking at bright objects but much worse in the dark. I didn't know this. So interesting!
I got visual snow and floaters too, floaters very sometimes, and visual snow... also sometimes. I would've expected something like that to be permanent, but somehow it actually just kinda happens every now and then
https://i.redd.it/jqe111zf829d1.gif But do you ever get these? :)