Visual snow and its "related" symptoms.

[etardnow]

I was just googling around and decided to search up lyme again since it is so similar to hppd.

I found this post about co-existing symptoms with those that have visual snow.

 

 

VIRTUAL SNOW of the eyes

 

Many people are often confused about the symptoms that present with visual snow. Of course, the hallmark symptom is visual snow itself.

However, in addition to this, sufferers of visual snow also often have a cluster of other physical signs and symptoms.

 

Visual Snow Symptoms

Visual snow – Seeing snow or television-like static in parts of or the whole of your visual field.Visual snow can be any color but it usually consists of small, translucent dots whose flicker intensity varies from person to person.

Palinopsia – A visual disturbance that causes images to persist to some extent even after their corresponding stimulus has left.

Tinnitus – Characterized by a noise or ringing in the ears.

Floaters – Spots or specks that wander indiscriminately around in your visual field.

Light sensitivity - Also known as photosensitivity, light sensitivity is identified by an increased sensitivity to light. This includes artificial light as well as natural sunlight.

Phosphenes – A phenomenon characterized by seeing light without light actually entering the eye.

Blue field entoptic phenomenon – Commonly known as Scheerer's phenomenon, it is the appearance of tiny bright dots which move quickly along squiggly lines in the visual field, when looking into bright blue light (most often the sky).

Halos/rays – Also commonly referred to as starbursting, consists of seeing halos or rays around sources of light. This also includes reflected sunlight off a car, for instance.

Benign fasciculation syndrome – Characterized by twitching of various voluntary muscles in the body.

Haidinger's brush – An entoptic phenomenon in which people are able to perceive polarization of light.

Purkinje's tree – A visual phenomenon characterized by seeing the retinal blood vessels in one's own eye.

Eustachian tube problems – In addition to tinnitus, sufferers of visual snow often experience ear fullness as well as a clicking sound when swallowing.

Red eye - Characterized by abnormal redness of the eye or eyes.

 

 

I have everything except purkinje's tree(i dont know what its referring too).

 

My most recent developed symptom is the eustachian tube problem(1month+ now) and benign fasciculation syndrome(about 2-3weeks now). 

 

Anyone else have these cluster of symptoms? the eustachian tube problem has become even more bothersome as of recent and its really lame that im progressively getting new symptoms (7month in now). 

 

More googling led me to this post: 

 

 

Long, long, long story short (Ok, as short as possible  ).......The root cause of my problems is low serotonin. This caused many symptoms, including middle ear problems (I know this sounds strange at first). For months, my eustachian tubes did not work properly and I had dizziness and tinnitus. 2 ENTs (and a host of other doctors) failed to figure out the problem. Luckily, a trip to the dentist provided the big clue. She said that I've been grinding my teeth at night. I ignored this at first, but within the next few weeks I ran across info that bruxisim (night time teeth grinding or jaw clenching) can cause eustachian tube dysfunction. Digging deeper, I found that bruxism has been proven to be caused by an underlying sleep disorder (specifically sleep micro arousals).

This started to make sense for me. I have a history of sleeping problems. I thought I was sleeping OK since I was falling asleep and staying asleep, but I always woke up unrefreshed and tired. I honestly had no clue that it was poor quality of sleep that was making me feel horrible every day. I thought it was some unexplained illness that was causing my fatigue.

The bruxism (for me, jaw clenching) was causing my facial muscles to spasm, which was transferring to the muscles that control the eustachian tubes. I never had any pain, so I had no clue this was happening. It wasn't until I started trying to relax my jaw muscles that I realized how tense they were. Tense was the normal state for me and I somehow had no clue about this. I also went to an acupuncturist and she was pretty surprised when she tried to put a needle in my right jaw. The muscle was hard as a rock. But I never had one ounce of pain.

 

(as far as tinnitus goes, i dont think its related to the eustachian problem as a cause[at least for me])

It doesnt help that i have braces and it kind of forces me to provide tension to my jaws. Ever since hppd, i did become aware of how tense my face can be due to me trying to focus eye muscle and the like but after reading this post and actually trying to relax my face did i realize I'm a lot tense. 

 

I sometimes notice that im clenching a bit and i just shrugged it off to braces but now that i think of how clenching occurs from mdma use and this post about serotonin... i dont believe i brux but i did get a small tiny chip on my molar a few month back, maybe ive been clenching during sleep? hmmmmm

 

so i guess i should give 5 htp a try. I dont really take anything to battle hppd since i havent felt any benefits from it (b-complex, omega3, mag). although i am on a probiotic, cal-mag, liver cleanse supplement from my naturodoctor to boost my overall bodily functions... dont know how effective it has been if any lol.

 

Anyways, any experience with 5htp? is it safe for prolonged use? anyone have any hint of worsening symptoms from it?

 

Anyone else have these clustered symptoms? throughout the day, i also get eye pain, it feels like my eye muscles contract/squeeze once and the pain is only existent for that 0.5second squeeze. Also noticing dry skin all over my body and shedding quite a bit. I know this is new because i am noticing dead skin when i am dusting my place. also my hair loss/shedding hasnt stopped. hair loss i can blame it on the emotional shock and stress of hppd but im not sure about dry skin since its a new symptom and as far as i feel, i feel less stressed then before so.... 

 

apologies if it has been a useless long read.

[Marioushuaia]

I have them all. 8 months living with this shit. Thanks for the information. I also listen voices but i got used to it.

[disguyhere]

everyone but tinitus

[andrewcb]

I have them all. 8 months living with this shit. Thanks for the information. I also listen voices but i got used to it.

If you are hearing voices I would consider having a different condition. Schizophrenia to be exact. I do clinch my jaw and grind my teeth, I get migraines and it is either from my jaw clinching or my migraines could be causing me to clinch? But regardless I know my face is really tense I have to every night remind myself to relax my face and jaw muscles to sleep; it also doesn't help since I have been grinding.clinching my teeth so much for years now it feels like my teeth have shifted so my tongue automatically messes with my teeth and I clinch without knowing like if I am trying to shift my teeth back without knowing lol. I get about half of these symptoms and a few more not on here but I have never gotten visual snow. I have stuff close to visual stuff like a pixelated view on foggy days when my anxiety gets real bad, I guess my light sensitivity mixed with my view of the world looking so real it doesn't look real and anxiety it gives me a pixelated view usually on foggy days with the right kind of lighting or after a relapse, usually cocaine.

[Marioushuaia]

If you are hearing voices I would consider having a different condition. Schizophrenia to be exact. I do clinch my jaw and grind my teeth, I get migraines and it is either from my jaw clinching or my migraines could be causing me to clinch? But regardless I know my face is really tense I have to every night remind myself to relax my face and jaw muscles to sleep; it also doesn't help since I have been grinding.clinching my teeth so much for years now it feels like my teeth have shifted so my tongue automatically messes with my teeth and I clinch without knowing like if I am trying to shift my teeth back without knowing lol. I get about half of these symptoms and a few more not on here but I have never gotten visual snow. I have stuff close to visual stuff like a pixelated view on foggy days when my anxiety gets real bad, I guess my light sensitivity mixed with my view of the world looking so real it doesn't look real and anxiety it gives me a pixelated view usually on foggy days with the right kind of lighting or after a relapse, usually cocaine.

Hi andrew, i don't think i have schizophrenia, i didn't lose connection with reality and most of my symptoms appear to be hppd ( visuals and anxiety). Everyone has a particular expierence with this disorder.

[andrewcb]

You don't lose your sense of reality with schizophrenia, I think people over think what schizophrenia is and make it the worse thing ever when in fact you can watch t.v. shows with kids who have it and they seem normal for the most part. I am just saying this because I haven't heard anyone say they heard voices because of HPPD. I have heard this with people with schizophrenia. Anxiety and visuals are a part of schizophrenia too. By no means am I a doctor but schizophrenia is really the only disorder I really know of where people can hear voices, usually the voices are speaking to you, also you can see stuff and at the same time miss the obvious. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia. I don't know where people get this whole idea that schizophrenia must mean the person must be looney and out of touch with this world, those are the extreme cases. In most cases it is more of a nusense and most people find it very liveable. This is just my 2 cents.

 

Thank you

Andrew

[disguyhere]

when i was younger i dated a girl who swore she saw a purple talking toucan after being institutionalized for being a problem teen who took a lot of psychedelics... this is before i found out she was schizophrenic and had multiple personality disorder.... i found that out the hard way when she flipped to the personality of an 8 yr old girl mid coitus. now that was an experience i wont ever forget :| ..

 

point being as far as im aware hearing voices is not something related to hppd. i've known many people with schizophrenia and my sister works with many schizophrenics and it's nothing to be ashamed of. if you're hearing voices, seek help. There is treatment to help manage it, and left unmanaged it can and likely will get worse.

[Marioushuaia]

You don't lose your sense of reality with schizophrenia, I think people over think what schizophrenia is and make it the worse thing ever when in fact you can watch t.v. shows with kids who have it and they seem normal for the most part. I am just saying this because I haven't heard anyone say they heard voices because of HPPD. I have heard this with people with schizophrenia. Anxiety and visuals are a part of schizophrenia too. By no means am I a doctor but schizophrenia is really the only disorder I really know of where people can hear voices, usually the voices are speaking to you, also you can see stuff and at the same time miss the obvious. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia. I don't know where people get this whole idea that schizophrenia must mean the person must be looney and out of touch with this world, those are the extreme cases. In most cases it is more of a nusense and most people find it very liveable. This is just my 2 cents.

 

Thank you

Andrew

Answering that I found this case for example. "Report of a 15-year-old boy with a possible case of PHPD is provided by Kaminer and Hrecznyj (1991). The subject used LSD on a daily basis for 6 months before admission to an inpatient treatment facility. He admitted constant perceptual disturbances over the previous 6 months, including colored-dot patterns, white trails behind moving objects, halos around objects, "like a television screen with multiple transmission disturbances" (p. 173), and occasional auditory hallucinations consisting of unintelligible whispers. "

[andrewcb]

I don't know, it is one person, it says "possible" and they are overreacting big time by saying he did it on a daily basis. You can hardly trip 2 days in a row, 3 days is

just about out of the question and a daily thing is just not possible. I mean you can't put all your chips in on one person saying this one kid who did LSD everyday 

heard whispers once in a while. I just don't see it, I could understand someone with HPPD thinking talking to themselves in their head could be schizophrenia but really it is just you thinking, people with HPPD tend to over think stuff, we are all guilty lol. But actually hearing voices, to me idk. I mean LSD can trigger schizophrenia. Maybe it is possible it can trigger schizophrenia and HPPD. If I got that right, I am sure LSD can't cause schizophrenia but if you have it in you it can trigger it, I could be wrong though. So I don't see why you can't trigger schizophrenia and HPPD at the same time. But my thought still is HPPD is generally visual and if you hear voices it is schizophrenia.

 

Thank you

Andrew

[etardnow]

Eh, i dont think people with hppd overthink stuff, rather we are portrayed as so since only those with hppd know what hppd is like. the symptoms are real. 

 

one thing i forgot to mention is my visual snow is my mildest symptom, i rarely notice it in in light or darkness because the visual snow/noise is (i think) the same colour of whatever im looking at so i like a lcd screen where i can see that 'extra noise' but its still a perfectly good image.

 

today i also found another post that has become the closest to my experience with hppd. It even matched my sudden development of moles/cherry angiomas (rarest one i have seen to date amongst hppders). However, the post was from a regular medical forum, not hppd/visual snow. Its led me to believe, irregardless of our past drug use, hppd is much more related to an abnormal CNS or whatever... also supported by the fact that hppd has similar symptoms to neuro/cns lyme. I might be throwing shit out there but i was extremely surprised to find a symptom list, as unique as it is, pretty much same as mine.

 

as for the voice phenomenon, i had that often during the development of hppd and when i had anxiety for a few weeks. it was mostly when i was trying to sleep but was wide awake. i dont randomly hear voices throughout the day though. majority of my day has audio stimulation anyways though. even silence has a sound (tinnitus). 

[hppd24years]

Hey guys I'm 24 years in on this disorder and still buzz in on this 24/7 magical ride of audio, visual, perpetual, emotional, escalation, ratification, Hallucinations, tinnitusation, clusteration and the list of profound progression goes on and on ladies and gentlemen!!! H.p.p.d. is a total mind fuck.. Trust..