Visual Snow and Tinnitus

Hi,

Is anyone else experiencing "visual snow" in addition of tinnitus? Tinnitus is one of the related symptoms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_snow

I've been experiencing visual snow as long as I can remember but now I feel it's getting worse. This may be due to the fact that I've been really stressed since tinnitus onset (last 9 months). Additionally I'm feeling like my eye floater count is going up slowly. I have also suffered from migraines occasionally in my youth. These are considered as visual snow related symptoms.

Quote from Wikipedia: In May 2014 the results from the first major research trial into visual snow were reported.[2] The study described strong evidence from positron emission tomography scans (PET) that the disease is caused by hypermetabolism in the right lingual gyrus and left cerebellar anterior lobe of the brain.​

I'm just thinking that could this all be related to each other more or less. After all tinnitus is a neurological condition half of the time.

 

Hey @Tenna, I have had floaters and visual snow syndrome for as long as I can remember. But until recently I didn't know what they were and it never bothered me. Until I found out that it was not normal.

 

I developed visual problems very shortly before noticing the tinnitus; the visual stuff was actually a lot more problematic than the audio stuff for the first year or so until I basically habituated to it.

The internet diagnosis I came up with at onset was "HPPD" because I'd taken hallucinogenic drugs a handful of times in the prior year. However, at this point I've talked to a good number of people who ran into the same visual/audio feedback loop problems around the same age (17-19) with no drug use at all, so who knows! It's also worth noting that I probably had my first ever cold sore in the months before this started, and since HSV is at least suspected to be a factor in some tinnitus and neurological issues, I have long wondered if that was part of the puzzle.

Whatever the case, the visual stuff hasn't fazed me even slightly in ~15 years at this point... nor has it gotten any worse, or even changed in any way that I'm aware of. Honestly, that right there is a reasonable indicator that it might be connected to something other than drugs, just because I dabbled with psychedellics a number of times subsequently in my late teens / early 20s. If those drugs had really been a casual factor, it seems odd that further use wouldn't have gradually exacerbated it.

Just like the tinnitus, the snow/etc it becomes more noticeable if I am overtired, stoned or stressed out.

I've read some good things about both Lion's Mane mushrooms, and the drug Keppra, in this regard -- but I have not tried either.

 

I'm secretly hoping that the medicine which solves the tinnitus will solve visual snow as well. After all these both are caused by the hyperactivity of the neurons.

On the other hand I could be a good candidate for Retigabine/Keppra/Flupirtine since my brain seems to kind of hyperactive in many ways. All these drugs balance neurons in their own way.

 

If you're anything like me, benzos will significantly reduce both sets of problems -- unfortunately, it's not a long term solution.

At this point I might be willing to take a specific drug for the tinnitus, if it was actually effective and didn't make me a robot. I think I'm done with seizure drugs, though.

My brain is also hyperactive in many ways; meditation is about the only thing I trust to tip that balance anymore.

 

Very interesting indeed guys, *happy* to know I'm not the only one experiencing this.
I've never done any drugs and the symptoms seem equal. Going to be interesting to see in future how a line of disorders will be proven connected :]

 

Snowy Vision (Visual Snow)

This is pretty accurate I'd say.

 

A very slight fuzzy image over most of my vision.

 

Just FYI--

I have had some success over the past week taking twice daily fish oil supplements for my eyes. For background, I have chronic blepharitis in my eyes, which among other things creates a chronic dry eye condition. I am on Restasis eye drops which are a prescription and have done a good job controlling dry eye to keep my eyes from becoming inflamed. I recently learned that there was a randomized trial that has shown some efficacy with regard to dry eye and fish oil pills:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3874521/

For what it's worth--my vision has been noticeably sharper and the visual snow I usually see on bright screens (like the one I am looking at right now for example) is much less detectable.

 

I seem to be having mild success with lion's mane mushroom, though it's too early to really say.

 

I also have visual snow and ghosting (don't know what a solid color surface looks like anymore). I had it for many years but just noticed it the other week. I think T makes you more sensitive to your sensory inputs.

Wanted to shed light on this thread again as there has been a study that confirms where visual snow originates from: "The hypermetabolic lingual gyrus confirms a brain dysfunction in patients with "visual snow." Read more: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24816400

 

I have some floaters like a good majority of people in this world. a small cobweb of little clear bubbles and some thin dark lines that wisk very quickly with my eyes. I've had tinnitus for so long I can't tell you which came first. The blue field entopic phenonamon I've experienced since I was a child. I remember being a little kid staring at the empty blue sky watching all the little lights and thinking it was pretty neat. Eventually learned what it was in school.

I just went into my bathroom and shut off the lights and observed. In complete darkness, there's a hint of red, blue, green to the blackness and a slight static. If I stare at a darker area in my lit room, I see a light static over the darkness. Completely normal.

I have had an ocular migraine before (terrifying.) and sometimes I have had an after image of a bright light get stuck in my eyes for a while. I tripped on psychedlics when I was in my late teens had had tracers and starbursts for a long time (HPPD) but it went away.

 

Hi, I haven't posted here much as my tinnitus seems to have actually been getting better over time to the point where it is not impacting me too much these days. However I have recently been experiencing some visual problems and I'm wondering if I am developing visual snow.

I looked at the sky yesterday, a normal overcast cloudy day here in England so the sky was very white/light grey and noticed hundreds of tiny dots moving around - I've never experienced anything like this before and my mind instantly went to visual snow as I had dreaded developing it since reading about it on here. Since then I think I might be seeing these little dots on white backgrounds on my laptop screen too, though that might just be my imagination.

Does anybody know if this is visual snow or something normal? Thanks!

 

The Visual Snow Initiative is releasing a new treatment late January/early February that might reduce visual snow symptoms in some. Best part: it's free! Hoping it'll give some relief.

 

Yes what you are describing sounds like visual snow, I have it too.

 

Prevalence of visual snow syndrome in the UK

Abstract

Background
Visual snow syndrome is a recently described condition of unknown prevalence. We investigated the prevalence in a representative population sample from the UK and tested the hypothesis that visual snow syndrome is associated with young age, headache, tinnitus and mood impairment.

Methods
Using a crowdsourcing platform, we recruited a representative sample of 1015 adult laypeople from the UK, matched for age, gender and ethnicity according to national census data. Participants were unprimed, i.e. were inquired about the “frequency of certain medical conditions” but not “visual snow syndrome”.

Results
Thirty‐eight of 1015 participants reported symptoms compatible with visual snow (3.7%, 95% CI 2.7‐5.2), and 22/1015 met criteria for visual snow syndrome (2.2%, 95% CI 1.4‐3.3). Female‐to–male ratio for visual snow syndrome was 1.6:1. Subjects with visual snow syndrome were older (50.6 ±14 years) than the population mean (44.8 ±15 years), albeit not statistically different (p=0.06). Of 22 participants with visual snow syndrome, 16 had mood symptoms (72.7%; p=0.01), 13 had headache (54.5%, p=0.06), including 5 with visual migraine aura (22.7%, p=0.15), and 13 had tinnitus (59.1%, p<0.001). No participant had diabetes or a cleft lip (control questions). Following a multivariable regression analysis to adjust for age and gender, only the association between visual snow syndrome and tinnitus remained significant (OR 3.93, 95% CI 1.63‐9.9; p=0.003).

Conclusions
The UK prevalence of visual snow syndrome is around 2%. We confirmed an association with tinnitus, but unprimed laypeople with visual snow syndrome are on average older than those seeking medical attention.

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ene.14150

 

That just sounds like blue field entoptic phenomena, I think everybody has that. I think that once something like tinnitus makes you feel "wrong", it makes you more likely to notice things like this.

 

I’ve shared my opinion and insights on visual snow syndrome in the following threads:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/difficulty-dealing-with-visual-snow-worsening.36221/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/will-a-hearing-loss-cure-also-cure-visual-snow-syndrome.38341/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...nical-implications-and-pathophysiology.39203/

 

Okay. I have BEP too and I’m also freaking out that I might have VS. Please tell me the two are not linked and that BEP is normal....

 

I have the SAME THING? Has it stayed the same?

 

BEP is normal, and some amount of visual snow is very common

 

Oh, I’ve had BFEP for years but it’s never bothered me until I read this thread so really really freaked myself out a lot. I do not want to get VS on top of tinnitus. I can barely handle my tinnitus, ear pain, and constant fullness right now. I just can’t handle anymore weird health issues.

Nothing seems static to me unless I’m in a darker room but I’ve always had that. Thought that was normal. Now BEP happened out of the blue or slowly one year a long time ago. I freaked out then just calmed down about it a few months later. Because I read online it’s just blood vessels or cells in your eyes that most people can see when they look at the sky/anything white. It’s like a thousand clear/greyish dots to me whenever I look at a very white area or sky. I just don’t look at the sky ever unless it’s night.

Sorry didn’t mean to rant but it genuinely freaked me out.

 

I completely understand. I didn't freak out about my visual symptoms until I got tinnitus, and I have mild/moderate visual snow probably from drug use. I think about it maybe once a week and I'm not bothered by it anymore. Tinnitus and chronic pain is much harder to handle for me.

To me, it seems you don't have any abnormal visual issues! Some visual snow in darkness is probably something everyone experiences. Try not to worry about it, and you will most likely learn to forget about it.

Something I see with many people that take psychedelics is that they notice things like BFEP and then zone in on it even though it's already been present their whole life. I think anxiety over health in general can lead to a similar situation

 

I'm 15 and 3 months into tinnitus. I've only started noticing my visual snow 2 months ago and I also often feel light headed and dizzy for periods of time. Is this meant to happen?

 

I developed BFEP when I became aware of my floaters. Which I know are normal (floaters), I’ve had them since high school.

 

Did they ever come out with treatment?

 

Seems like i’m experiencing the same horrible/terrifying moments that some of us are living. Tinnitus started 10 months ago due to an acoustic trauma, i had to deal with it and with the horrible feeling of being trapped, forever, knowing that I’m just 21.

I remember seeing floaters at a very young age, in very bright conditions and not many times, nothing alarming. 5-6 monts ago I remember seeing some floaters when I go out during the day, nothing serious, but since I’m much more stressed and anxious after my acoustic trauma and developping tinnitus, I searched for it on the web, I read that it’s a normal phenomenon that can happen in early adulthood without other complications. I continued my life, dealing with hearing loss and tinnitus, and thinking that It’s my biggest problem in life. A month ago, I remember going out in a sunny day, then seeing more floaters than I used to do. Like always, did a research on internet, and that was the beginning of a new episode of horror in my life added to my chronic tinnitus. As you wonder, i became stressed about my vision, floaters, etc. I started doing researches about visual snow syndrome, and I was wondering myself more and more if I had already experienced all of the listed symptoms. Went to the ophtalmologist, nothing to declare beside a really small hole in my retina, that doesn’t even need to be treated with laser, the doctor told me that it’s probably not even the cause of the floaters.

Today i’m seeing more and more floaters, it’s horrible when it’s a sunny day, more bearable at night but still clearly noticeable. Like someone here said, I thought that I was experiencing normal visual snow only in poor lighting conditions, but yesterday at night, I looked to a white wall, then started noticing some movement, when I tried to focus on it, it seemed like some black static moving rapidly. Here I am again, after convincing myself in the last few weeks that I’m just experiencing two health conditions (tinnitus and eye floaters) that came at very bad moments, and there’s no neurological link between them, I start reconsidering that, and thinking maybe I’m living a visual snow onset. (Until now, I see mild static at night, huge floaters that I was not even noticing a month ago, impressions of flashes and lights).

After reading some studies and testimonials about the subject, I’m starting wondering if developing tinnitus modify your brain in a certain way, which lead to experiencing visual snow syndrome symptoms. In fact, it’s the theory that seems to me the most logical.
I’m really living bad weeks, staying at home just increase the fear and anxiety, but knowing that there is people living the same thing makes me feel less alone, that’s why I wrote this.

 

You should stop researching visual snow. You're doing the same thing as me and I think the researching was actually part of the trigger. Tinnitus + anxiety of getting VS seems like a good way to get it, especially if you're the type to constantly check for new symptoms (that's like training your brain to look for things it's supposed to filter out). I recently had a worsening in tinnitus and my VS has not followed suit because I keep my anxiety away from checking for new symptoms.

 

I tried Lorazepam, it did nothing for me. I want to try Clonazepam since it helped you.

I also have horrible jaw issues and my tinnitus is somatic in nature (e.g., clenching teeth).

I heard about a study from Optometrists (Dr. Charles Shidlofsky and Dr. Terry Tsang) for VSS with the potential effect of reducing/eliminating tinnitus (still waiting for the papers to come out).

Dr. Terry Tsang

Dr. Charles Shidlofsky

 

I've had visual snow my entire life. It never bothered me besides a period in high school when I thought it meant something was wrong with my eyes.