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becausejust	New here		Lead	[-]
Registered User Posts: 10 01/07/08 11:18 AM	Remove this ad Hi guys, I was looking for sth describing my visual status and via the wiki visual snow I found this forum. Let me describe my visual status: (I think) I have visual snow. I always see very tiny flickering dots all over my vision. I tried the visual simulator, but I can't get it right since it does not really match what I am seeing. I can barely see the snow dots itself (I am more aware of the flickering). Mostly, when looking at bright colored walls or when it's very dark it looks very "grainy". However, I have problems perceiving edges and contours of things. They seem to flicker/oscillate. When reading a book I think that the white area flickers a little bit and the black letters also seem to shimmer/oscillate (maybe because of the overlayed snow). When I close my eyes in the dark, I also see the visual snow. However, I think I didn't have visual snow until a couple of weeks before now. But, it also may be that I just haven't been that "aware" until recently. EDIT: I thought about how long the symptoms have been there. Now I think for a couple of years. Hoever, at the moment they seem to be worse, maybe because I have a flulike illness for almost 2 months now... I have classic migraine with aura with about one incident per year. Usually, flicker scotoms with headaches. First one when I was 14. My sister and brohter both have migraine, but with different symptoms. I also feel depersonalized a little bit since I can remeber, as I am only 90% awake all the time. I am a little bit forgetful, too. I don't see ghosts, trails, increased positive/negative afterimages. I see those little shooting stars when looking in the bright sky, but I think they are blood cells, aren't they? I have a little persistent scotom on the right eye, a little bit below and to the left of the center. I can see it when I am watching static on the TV or when reading. When concentrating on this text, it's about two words to the left, two lines below the focus. Doesn't bother me. I have some of these mosqutio-like strings/waves in my vision. Not too bad. All over, symptoms are not tooo bad, just being depersonalized and that snow makes me crazy a little bit. I have an intact family, a good and highly intellectual job. No problems in the job. Last year I had a incident which results in visiting the ER. In the night I woke up and had very bad headaches at one point in my head, like someone hitting with a knife in my head. I felt asleep again, but the next day I had big problems reading. Everything was oscillating very bad, couldn't look at windows blinds, they made me crazy. I couldn't keep the focus on something, my focus was always slowly drifiting, making it hard to read. I crawled the Internet for diseases I could have and felt more and more the panic kreeping in. The symptoms persist for one week and finally, I panicked and went to the ER. The made a CATscan of my brain, checked my eyes, and made various short neuro tests. Nothing. The doctor said it might be a prolonged migraine aura. The panic was away, and the next day, the symptoms were almost completly away. (Maybe the panic fueled the MAS?). Couple of weeks later I was at a neuro doctor. They made a VEP (oscilatting chess board test) and ??? (electric shock at the hand and meausring the time the current flows up the arm). Everything was alright. Regards bj Last Edited By: becausejust 01/07/08 5:05 PM. Edited 2 times.
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YoungMale		#1	[url]	[-]
Regular Visitor Posts: 465 01/07/08 11:30 AM	Your VS and DP/DR sounds exactly like mine. The whole contours/edge thing is spot on as well. Like edges are blurred with the snow.
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janey		#2	[url]	[-]
Regular Visitor Posts: 1008 01/07/08 12:34 PM	welcome to the board, sorry for your problems
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ohCRICKETS		#3	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 383 01/07/08 3:42 PM	Welcome to the board, becausejust! Please fill out the Sofia Green survey. 1. Name or screen name (optional): 2. Email (optional): 3. Location (optional): 4. Age: 5. Sex: 6. Nationality and Race (optional): 7. Do you have classic migraine (migraine with aura) or common migraine (migraine without aura)? When did it begin? 8. What do you take for your classic or common migraine and does it help? 9. Have you been diagnosed with persistent aura (prolonged migraine aura status)? 10. What is your visual problem and how long does it last? 11. Any other problems that you think might be related? 12. What do you take or do for your vision problem and does it help? 13. Have you found a trigger for your vision problem? 14. What tests have you had and the results? 15. Drug history (pre VS) 16. Drug history (post VS - effect on VS - negative, positive, not at all) 17. Do you have a positive family history for migraine? If yes, who is affected? 18. Other information you want to provide? Eins - Hier kommt die Sonne Zwei - Hier kommt die Sonne Drei - Sie ist der hellste Stern von allen Vier - Und wird nie vom Himmel fallen Fünf - Hier kommt die Sonne Sechs - Hier kommt die Sonne Sieben - Sie ist der hellste Stern von allen Acht, Neun - Hier kommt die Sonne
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becausejust		#4	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 10 01/07/08 5:11 PM	Guys, nice meeting you. Does anybody know how many people in 1000 have visual snow? @YoungMale: Did anything help you? @janey: It does not ruin my life... @ohCRICKETS: I will do the survey. Regards bj
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ksomething		#5	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 5010 01/07/08 5:40 PM	Hi becausejust, welcome at the board! As ohCRICKETS already asked for, can you please fill out the above questionnaire about peristing perception problems (I am the doctor assessing these surveys). If you have described things already in your first post, you can simply write "see above", but there are a number of questions which you haven't addressed in your earlier post. In addition to the survey responses, I would like to ask you to have a look at the following questions. Can you check and complete the following time table: (can you add the year where .... is written) b. .... -Positive family history for migraine (sister and brother affected also) Very early childhood - Onset of persistent derealization .... (age 14) - Onset of recurring attacks of migraine with aura (flicker scotomas) ..... (age ..) - Onset of persistent paracentral scotoma left eye .... 2006 - Attack of nocturnal migraine; then, directly after awakening, onset of persistent reading difficulties (autokinesis) with full remission (duration 8 days) ca. December 24, 2006 - Onset of persistent visual disturbances (very tiny flickering dots, problems perceiving edges and contours of thingx, autokinesis) Can you make an illustration of your flicker scotomas which you see during your attacks of migraine with aura from the age of 14 on? Are the persistent very tiny flickering dots similar or identical to phenomena seen during your earlier attacks of short-lasting migraine auras with flicker scotomas? "However, I think I didn't have visual snow until a couple of weeks before now." PLease describe the onset (when you noticed it the first time) as detailed as possible? During which time of the day was it? Preceding stress? "I also feel depersonalized a little bit since I can remember" - Can you describe this a bit more, especially its manifestations in early childhood, as you say you have this for as long as you can remember. "I have a little persistent scotom on the right eye, a little bit below and to the left of the center." Do you see this only with the right eye (with the left eye covered) or also with the left eye (with the right eye covered)? Do you remember the onset of this persistent scotoma? From which year on did you have it? "I have some of these mosqutio-like strings/waves in my vision." - Is this a persistent symptom? Since when? "Last year I had a incident which results in visiting the ER." - In which month?
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YoungMale		#6	[url]	[-]
Regular Visitor Posts: 465 01/07/08 5:53 PM	becausejust: Not really buddy but anti-depressents have helped me. Trying to be more active and stuff just makes you notice it and forget about it more. It's very easy to get hung up on the VS which in my situation leads to the DP/DR. Here's just a few postings I've taken from a depersonalisation forum: "Just wanted to say that I continue making improvements with the combo of Luvox (fluvoxamine) and seroquel. Objects and people pop out at me saying they are real and I am real. Yesterday, forgot that I had dp for much of the day and was not obsessing about how unreal things were. The main problem is tiredness and sedation from the seroquel (100mg is better than 50mg as I've said before). I think I'm getting used to it but am not sure. Someone else on this site reported that an antidepressant with an antipysochotic helped their dp (effexor and zyprexa). This might be the magic bullet for many more. Any others out there found success with this combo?" "On Friday night I saw my doc. He said that not only is 100mg less sedating than 50mg but that 600mg is much less sedating than 50mg. As I had already tried 200mg (from my recollection less sedating than 100mg) he said to try 300mg. After two nights I can say I haven't needed as much sleep and I'm more alert. I also feel emotionally better and my dp still seems to be undercontrol (i.e. objects pop out more brightly and more 4 dimensionally). It's only been 2 days, so I'm making no pronouncements, but wanted everyone to kind of experience the ups and downs of trying out different dosages of medications. It's a tricky business and one has to be patient to find what works for them. I plan on trying an extended release to see if that brings additional improvement, and who knows, I may increase the dose further. The nice thing about seroquel is that besides it's sedating properties it really doesn't have any serious side-effects for most people."
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becausejust		#7	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 10 01/08/08 5:30 AM	Thanks for your answers. 29 years, male, German, white. For relieving pain I just take Ibuprofen. Drugs: some pot when I was 15-18, not much. some pot when I was 24-27. but only on rare occasions. alcohol here and there, but not much, not frequently. I wanna come back to DP/DR at first. I am not really shure whether it is DP or DR. I read the wiki articles about DP or DR. There are symptoms of both disorders that match, but now, I think it's more DR than DP. I never think that someone is controlling me or that I have no control over my thoughts or my body, it's more like I am visiting reality thru an emotional fog. E.g. the symptoms worsen when I am in a great shopping mall with lots of people, noise, visual stimuli. Then I feel like being detached from reality, sounds become unreal and so on... However, alcohol is definitely increasing the DP/DR symptoms. I can remember that I had two head-knocks when I was about 12. One was falling on the head, resulting in nausea and tunnel view after about 1 hour. The second one was about when I was 13. My head hit a wall and I had a blackout for about 1 minute. It could really be that DR started after that traumas, but I am not sure. However, when I was 14 or 15, I realized that something is wrong with my perception of reality. However, I cannot rule out that this might have already been like that before. My flicker scotoms are very classical I think. Starting at one point in the middle of the vision. Then becoming bigger. The inner is very blurred, the edge flickers. Then the scotom moves to the border of my vision and disappers. All together for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, strong headaches begin. It's hard to find the trigger, but let me remember some incidents: 1. First one at 14, after eating duck. From 15 to 20 I can hardly remember any incidents, maybe there have not been any? 2. Age of 20, reason unknown. 3. Age of 23, after eating chicken. 4. Age of 28, reason unkown. The scotom suddenly appeared while working at computer. I think there could be about 10 incidents at most during my lifetime. So not that money. However, sometimes I have headaches, esp. when wheather changes. I think eating lots of fat/grease could trigger it because, almost always after eating duck, I feel a little bit like migraine could start soon, you know, this pre-migraine-feeling, but flimmer scotom/migraine seldomly manifests. My persistent scotom is barely to see, it's about one letter big (when looking at this text). It's only visible with the right eye. I think I firtly recognized it when I was Normally, I can see it when watching static noise (ant war) on TV. But, I think the intensity and size changes from time to time. I don't know. I remember that once I thought that it is very big. But, just now, it seems to be very small. Could it change from to time to time, but still being persistent??? Is the persistent scotom sth. I should worry about? The visual snow: I think I have it for a couple of years now... I can't really remember because its bugging me only for a couple of weeks now. However, I remember that I already asked myself a couple of times why speed limits look so grainy at night. I also have another strange thing. Sometimes, when I fastly close/open/close/open... my eyes, there are a couple of small spots which look darker for a second, just as if they are lagging behind the "normal" areas picking up light. However, these position and number of spots change from time to time. At the moment, everything is alright. Visiting ER: Was about April 06. The visual snow I experienced then was very strong. Everything looked so grainy. One evening I was lying in bed, dark around, I concentrated on the snow. It was like an alternating white/black, very very fine grid. Black was turing to white and white to black (the grid was inverting) with a frequency of about 0.5 Hertz (kind of slowly). My current snow is more fastly alternating, more faint, more noisy. Tinnitus: I have persistent tinnitus left ear (high freq ringing) and noise both ears (low freq). I hear it only when its silent around me. The tinnitus could come from a gunshot next to my left ear (Don't think I am living in the Bronx, it was just a sports accident.) I was almost deaf for a day after that shot on that ear. Mosquitos: A curled one I realized when I was 16 because it's almost central in my left eye. I have two or three more strings. However, it does not seem that they are increasing over time. I am sorry that I can't be that precise about onset dates and reasons. One day you "recognize" something, but you really can't tell how long it already lasted before. bj
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YoungMale		#8	[url]	[-]
Regular Visitor Posts: 465 01/08/08 5:44 AM	That's very true not knowing about onsets as its one day you are just aware and you are unsure of how long it's been there. I think it's a slow transition personally rather than it suddenly happening. I don't get tinnitus. My main gripes are my visual snow, blurred vision, anxiety & DP/DR. I've started on my anti-depressants again but always takes maybe 10-14 days for it to take full effect. Unfortunately I jumped straight on to 20mg but I'm going to take only half tomorrow as I think the full 20mg maybe having a slightly negative effect. My doctor did say take half for about 4-6 days the last time I had it prescribed.
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ohCRICKETS		#9	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 383 01/08/08 5:44 AM	Remove this ad You mention alot of stuff I have too, especially the closing eyes and seeing dark spots. Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and every time you blink, everything still looks black for a microsecond, then the black recedes towards the edges of your vision like your vision was emerging from black water? Eins - Hier kommt die Sonne Zwei - Hier kommt die Sonne Drei - Sie ist der hellste Stern von allen Vier - Und wird nie vom Himmel fallen Fünf - Hier kommt die Sonne Sechs - Hier kommt die Sonne Sieben - Sie ist der hellste Stern von allen Acht, Neun - Hier kommt die Sonne
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YoungMale		#10	[url]	[-]
Regular Visitor Posts: 465 01/08/08 5:48 AM	I think that's normal ohCRICKETS.
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SopuliSusie		#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1496 01/08/08 11:32 AM Administrator	I really think that for us, the derealization in particular is a side effect of having wonky perception. People can apparently develop derealization with various balance disorders caused by the inner ear, and what I've read from there, they think the derealization is due to a mismatch of perceptual signals in the brain. I think we're suffering from the same sort of mismatch. The part of the brain that combines all the stimuli about the outside world is getting bad information about the vision (from where ever in the brain that comes for us), there's a mismatch in places, and the result is feelings of derealization. I remember when this first all started, I could see walls and floor but I wasn't convinced they were actually there until I could touch them and my hand wouldn't go straight through them like it seemed like it could. When I look at the walls and the floor now, it still seems like they're not real but I KNOW they are there because now I have lots of experience with my vision being an unreliable predictor of the actual physical world. Basically, I don't trust my vision like I used to, but it sure is an impossible sense to truly override. I think the reason for our derealization makes the drug treatment more difficult than it would be for people with derealization from other causes. Anyway, that's what I've been thinking. Need to cheer yourself up? Watch the Kitty Cat Dance!
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YoungMale		#12	[url]	[-]
Regular Visitor Posts: 465 01/08/08 11:43 AM	Sounds very accurate and eerily like how I feel.
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becausejust		#13	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 10 01/08/08 5:13 PM	I am on vacation for couple of days. Getting back afterwards. bj
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ksomething		#14	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 5010 01/08/08 5:16 PM	Good vacations (leaving Germany?)
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janey		#15	[url]	[-]
Regular Visitor Posts: 1008 01/08/08 5:19 PM	Yes my DP/DR is much worse when my hearing is blocked or when the tinnitus changes pitch......this causes me to think something inside my head is altering and I panic
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ohCRICKETS		#16	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 383 01/08/08 5:27 PM	My DP/DR is like feeling constantly between consciousness and unconsciousness. And it seems like my mind is having a hard enough time perceiving what is front of it, that everything else around and behind me almost feels non-existent. I feel like I'm no longer part of a living, breathing, vibrant and changing world. Eins - Hier kommt die Sonne Zwei - Hier kommt die Sonne Drei - Sie ist der hellste Stern von allen Vier - Und wird nie vom Himmel fallen Fünf - Hier kommt die Sonne Sechs - Hier kommt die Sonne Sieben - Sie ist der hellste Stern von allen Acht, Neun - Hier kommt die Sonne
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becausejust		#17	[url]	[-]
Registered User Posts: 10 01/31/08 1:07 PM	@ksomething: yeah, was good, caribbean. left germeny. bj
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shannon3fh		#18	[url]	[-]
Regular Visitor Posts: 449 02/01/08 6:51 PM	Remove this ad i have similar visual snow too.
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