I have a lot of these because I’ve had numerous eye surgeries and they’re ultimately just gunk in the vitreous fluid of the eye. I wish there was a way that they could drain, filter, and replace your vitreous fluid when it gets like mine. Like an eyeball oil change. There’s not though, as far as I know.
A tip: if you suddenly see a ton more of these get it checked out asap, especially if you are very near sighted
Someone in my family had a double retinal detachment and the surgeon asked if he wanted his floaters removed while they were in there putting things back together. It’s apparently possible because he has no more floaters.
This but for tinnitus too please
Nope but I see these when I’m getting a optical/ocular migraine.
Yikes, you’re actually seeing that?
It doesn’t do what I see justice. They are often beautiful. When they first occur it causes a blind spot. The zigzags are a rainbow of shimmering color. They go away after a hour or so and I feel lousy if I don’t have a headache. If I do get the headache with it I have to find a dark room and try to sleep.
Sorry to hear that, it sucks
Well at least you get pretty rainbows
Its a pretty rainbow that is forever at the edge of your vision. You can’t look directly at it.
Wait, there are people who get migraines without the headache‽ I just get the agonizing ocular pressure and occasionally nausea
Yes, my migraines are mostly “silent” these days. As a teenager, I just had the headaches without aura, but that changed with age. Nowadays I get all kinds of weird and uncomfortable pro- and postdrome effects, like ocular aura, but rarely pain. I have a family member whose only migraine symptom is a crippling stomach ache. Migraines are super weird.
Yusssss
That’s the shape. But it’s constantly oscillating and the colors shifting rapidly.
Vision gets obscured but for me my visual processing/reasoning gets cloudy too. I can still navigate the world but finding a door handle is difficult.
I get sore behind my eyes after and real tired. Happened a few times in the last couple years, anxiety I think.
Youtube mostly has classix migraine aura but this is close enough if you imagine the zigzag image.
Yeah and it has the best name, Scintillating Scotoma. The first time I experienced one it was terrifying.
Yeah, that names sounds about right for what you’re describing
Well, yes and no. It’s kind of an area you can’t see, but it’s there. Also, it starts as a small dot and them starts expanding/moving. It’s also flashing, kind of like static noise on an old TV. Luckily those things usually last like 15 minutes or so. Still, not a fun experience.
YO that’s a gnarly aura!
I don’t get ocular migraines so I have never seen something like this. I can see subtle multicolour flashes if I close my eyes and do things like looking around quickly or apply pressure to my eyes. This image reminds me of the flashes I see, but 1000x more intense. Would you describe it like that?
It is called a scintillating scotoma or ocular migraine. Scintillating is accurate; this clear crescent shows up in your vision and It is rippling with rainbow fringes. It starts off as a point somewhere in your vision, slowly expanding into a visible crescent that continues to expand. After about half an hour the crescent expands beyond your field of vision (FOV). For me it is paired with a loopy slightly lightheaded feeling that goes away with a whoosh once it leaves my FOV.
They are often triggered by bright light and may be correlated with migraines. I’ve had three of these happen but never had a migraine headache afaik.
Edit: clear might be the wrong word? My mind blends it in other than the rainbow fringes, but I think I can’t actually see what is behind the crescent.
No I’ve seen what you describe. What I see when I’m having one is most often a shimmering electric zigzag. Sometimes it take different shapes and the colors vary. Its always at the edge of my vision and moves when I move my eye. Its better to close your eyes when they are happening. At least for me. I have had them in both eyes at once and its really freaky since normally I only get them in one eye at a time. They don’t merge well and the combined blind spots have rendered me almost completely unable to navigate. I’ve pulled over while driving more than once and waited it out.
First time I had one of these I was so stressed out. I thought I was about to have a stroke.
Same! I was on a road trip in Ireland and it came out of nowhere. Freaked me out. I’d never had one until a few months after my first bout with COVID. Now I get them but usually only if I’ve not been drinking enough water for a few days, and ONLY when I stand up. It’s preceded by a weird sort of throbbing where it feels like sound is turned down in time with my heartbeat.
Do you happen to have astigmatism or relatively poor vision, by chance?
I used to get these every month or so since I was like 10 until a few years ago, when I finally pulled the trigger and got LASIK. Have not experienced one since, which is a Godsend given that they would usually last for an hour or two and be accompanied by a gnarly headache which would otherwise render me useless.
I’m a little far sighted with perhaps a slight stigmatism. Mine are triggered by the seasons as far as I can tell. I get them mainly when the pollen drops in the spring and when the mold comes in the fall. They were particularly bad last year but some years they are just a minor annoyance.
Ah, I found that mine were largely caused by prolonged squinting to try to account for the astigmatism; along with some combination of dehydration, lack of sleep and/or excess caffeine consumption.
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Real life needs better writing
I had some since childhood and as a child trying to explain these to people lead nowhere, and I just thought I had something nobody else had. Then, years later, the internet came, and some random post like this came, and I went holy shit! It was amazing to finally know what it was and that they really aren’t a big deal.
They’re not a big deal unless you get a lot of them all of a sudden. Then it’s an emergency.
i got a floater in my eye
Beats “miodesopsia” from my language
I got few permanent ones.
When I was a kid I played geologist and crushed rocks with a large iron hammer. Few of the metal splinters that ended in my eyeballs left a mark that is still visible today when I look at the sky.
Not actually floaters, I know.
I got one or two from looking at the sun for no reason when I was a kid
god I was dumb
Slightly different but similar and related:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_entoptic_phenomenon
EDIT: If you’re on a mobile device, or in strong lighting conditions, view the image fullscreen or futz with your brightness/gamma.
Part of the whole point of this is that it is a subtle effect, only visible in certain lighting conditions.
Or maybe you need to clean your screen, lol.
I believe this is another related, simililar, yet technically different phenomenon, with different causal mechanisms, but yes, lets keep adding to the list, lol.
Also, brb, you’ll never believe this, apparently my pizza delivery guy’s name is ‘Hiro Protagonist’, he’s almost here, and I gotta ask him what is up with that name.
dude he has your pizza. he’s a fucking hero don’t you forget it
Visual snow is different, it’s constant and looks more like tv static or film grain, fun stuff, not.
I didn’t realise these were white blood cells. Thanks for the read.
You sure you don’t have high blood pressure?
I mean, now maybe, lol, but I noticed this as a middle schooler, and I was in pretty good shape back then… and I still have the exact same experience to this day, in the right lighting conditions, if I can just sit or stand still and look at a mostly cloudless sky.
I most commonly see these these when I have a migraine, really bad sneezes, or I flick my eyes or move my head quickly. I’ve heard it’s fine unless you see a bug chunk at the same time as that could be a sign the retina has broken or come loose?
The dots are white blood cells moving in the capillaries in front of the retina of the eye.
From the wiki page.
So, yeah, it makes sense that very similar or even just the same effect can be intensified by all those things you mention, they all alter the motion of blood in your eyes.
As to a big chunk moving?
I am not an eye expert, but I would intuitively think that yes, a big splotch moving could be the retina itself moving… but it could also potentially be something like a clot in one of those capillaries breaking loose… which is probably still bad, but maybe not necessarily as bad?
Always wondered what this was called. I get this often in winter, less during summer. It really puzzled me the first few times it happened, I just figured I was getting diabetes. I have a black tail that follows them so it’s even more noticeable then in the picture.
Basically, lighting conditions have to be just right to … basically, allow you to actually see your own white blood cells, in your own eyes, against the … background/everything you are seeing.
So my guess would be that in the summer, where you are, the … ambient light of the sky is too bright, it overwhelms this effect, but in the winter, maybe its mote generally humid, or the light is coming through more atmosphere , at more oblique angles, and is thus less intense.
Though if you are also seeing a… black tail, like… they’re followed by a black smear or a motion blur or something… that could be something else?
I have a permanent eye floater. When I get really bored I find suitable things in my field of vision to look back and forth between and play pong with.
That is some exemplary “silver linings” shit
You should be a motivational speaker or something
Hopefully you had your eyes checked just to be sure.
It’s likely just a glass body part which is normal sadly.
But also could be something with the nerves , no panic just a thing my wife got similiar stuff and gets checked yearly to be safe.
I’ve had it checked out and it’s fine, thanks. That’s good advice.
Awesome to hear ! , allways better to let stuff get checked out else you could miss something that could get treated before it gets bad. thanks for the update.
They are my little worm friends
They’re always with me :3
Eyeworms. Villagers get them from touching raw meat then rubbing their eyes. It’s only a matter of time before the worms burrow into your brain. Then you shit yourself and die in a most embarassing way.
That sounds right. No wonder I’ve been repeatedly shitting myself everywhere I go…
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wait does it mean my prescription needs changing? i dont know if i read that right
Huh … I never noticed that I stopped noticing my floaters after getting glasses. When you have something like that for decades, you stop actively seeing those things.
Seen them for decades, but thought it’s best to keep them a secret. Until Family Guy just casually mentioned them like they were no big deal! Not as crazy as I thought, after all …
Squiggly line in my eye, fluid.
I see you there, lurking 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.
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Lol, HPPD goes brrrrr.
I can’t tell you if this is what you’re experiencing, but worth a read if you haven’t come across the term before: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_perception_disorder
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I’d recommend seeking out a therapist if it causes you distress, specifically one with some clinical interest in psychedelics if possible (keywords include ‘integration therapy’). Know that while there’s still a lot to learn about HPPD, you are not alone, and in a lot of cases it can be managed. It’s mostly a question of recognizing your triggers and developing tools to work through them (so if stress is a trigger, stress reduction techniques; abstinence from cannabis or other drugs if that’s a trigger (pretty common), etc.)
Some folks just kinda roll with it, but there is stuff you can do to help manage.
Immediately made me think of Baldurs Gate
You’re turning into a mind flayer!
Honestly haven’t seen em in years…
They left.
