Floaters, flashes, and blurry vision
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hi everyone, I’m 24 with extremely bad anxiety. I’m learning to try and make it better but it’s not working very well yet.
My visual symptoms:
Floaters (stringy, dots, mostly the whites ones with some dark ones)
Flashes (a flash of light occasionally)
And blurry vision
I have at least a dozen others symptoms (digestive, cognitive, whole body)
I’m wondering if anyone else has this? I started having floaters a few years ago but I never paid attention to it much. Flashes happened a couple of times before. I have glasses/contacts so obviously my vision is blurry. But even when wearing my glasses, it’s still a little blurry. Well, I am in need of a new prescription anyways since last time I had my eyes properly checked was about...a year ago? The floaters, I almost never notice anymore. But suddenly this past 2 weeks or so, ive been paying closer attention to my vision after reading an article on Facebook about caring for your vision. And as for a person with anxiety like me, that means my kind of caring about my eyes is “obsessing” 24/7. When I squint or look at bright lights, bright screens, I can see them. But suddenly today, I see a bunch of tiny floaters in my after looking around or moving my eyes. A few minutes after that, the floaters calmed down. I’m pretty sure I remember these sudden onsets of floaters has happened a couple of time before, in the past..couple years? Not very often and when it does happen, they stay for a few minutes or a few seconds. I have floaters in both eyes, but my left eye has less floaters. Maybe around 3. My right eye has this long black floater that have been there for as long as I can remember and about 4-7 more super tiny ones. A small majority of those floaters are grayish in color but generally clear. I’m just curious if anyone else gets this. Should I worry about a retinal detachment or something like that? I am going to the eye doctor soon, for a new prescription. Been needing a new one.(Read a post about a kid worrying that they have a retinal detachment so I, of course, researched)
2 likes, 5 replies
Guest koalabear010101
Posted
You should see an eye doctor just to be safe. With that said, many folks suffer from visual effects and they can be caused by many things. I had a Scintillating scotoma (visual migraine) which occurred every few weeks for about a year. I spoke to my Opthamologist about it and she said preservatives in our food and non-caloric sweeteners could cause them-she is a big natural foods proponent. I follower her advice and ate only natural foods, avoided foods with preservatives and stopped drinking diet beverages. Lo and behold, the visual effect went away and I haven't had one in months.
Many things can cause 'floaters' and other visual effects. They are quite common, I used to experience them a lot when I was younger. But, see your Opthamologist if you have any concerns. It's probably nothing serious like a retinal detachment, but they can put your fears to rest.
Philly89 koalabear010101
Posted
I would say go to your eye Dr just to be safe. But vision problems can be common with anxiety sufferers. I have had the "its snowing" type vision issue before lol and the flash of light type thing also. My friend once had vision issues where she was seeing white spots everywhere, she couldn't even walk bc it was so bad, she rushed to the ER and it turned out to be an optical migraine - she couldn't believe thats all it was.
My eye stuff has luckily has been very minimal and doesn't last so it hasn't effected me much, but it is always a bit scary when all of sudden i feel like i see a flash of light n I'm like omg am i having a stroke whats going on, am i going blind?! lol.
I see a therapist for my anxiety and it helps a lot. I highly suggest seeing one if you haven't, I feel like therapy is much more effective than meds in the long term.
Guest Philly89
Posted
My optical migraine would come on and last for about 20 minutes-usually in my left eye. It would get progressively stronger until I had difficulty seeing out that eye-made it hard to drive on the few occasions when it him me then!
I saw a multi-colored arc of little triangles when it happened. Kind of scared me, as my brother died 2 years ago at 59 with a medial temporal brain lesion. But, I read up on it and the stuff I read on optical migraines ( Scintillating scotoma) were almost word for word what I was experiencing. Some of the depictions of what folks see were very similar to what I was seeing.
But, I didn't know what was bringing it on. Diet soda never hurt me in the past and I used to drink a lot of it when I was younger. But I had a diet Mountain Dew at work and the effect came on very strongly! Then I spoke with my Opthamologist about preservatives in our food and that was all I needed. I changed my diet to more natural foods, no more diet beverages and that was the end of it. I haven't seen one in 4-5 months.
Philly89 Guest
Posted
I believe my friend said her doctor told her to stay away from too much caffeine and also to drink lots of water to help prevent them.
jan34534 koalabear010101
Posted