Request for information: "visual migranes"

[peeplj]

Note: this isn't meant to be a medical post, just looking for some information on a subject I ran into while reading a book. If Dale or a mod considers this post to be over the line, please just remove it, no harm no foul.

Can anyone point me to written or online sources of information regarding visual hallucinations in the sane, and particularly the moving or swirling gridlike patterns that some refer to as a "visual migraine"?

I have googled and checked out wikipedia, but not really found much information, although I did find an interesting flash demonstration.

Thanks.

--James

[Nanohedron]

Good question, but I'm thinking just to keep it clean re: policy, let's try to limit correspondences in this to PMs or email especially if recommending treatment. Thanks.

[rh]

Oliver Sacks wrote a book on this subject, IIRC. If you google his book you may come up with some interesting stuff, like this.

[Nanohedron]

Fascinating info in that link, rh. I was unaware of that.

[anniemcu]

Hubby gets them, with the lights, bells and whistles.

Thanks for that link, rh!

[peeplj]

Just a clarification: I am not interested in treatment recommendations or physician recommendations or the like; they would do me no good, as I don't have the condition in question.

Thanks.

--James

[hyldemoer]

I have googled and checked out wikipedia, but not really found much information, although I did find an interesting flash demonstration.

Sorry, I don't know of anyplace on the internet that explains it but I've experienced the phenomena since childhood and I've discussed it with my doctors.

In my case its a particular shape that grows (a backwards letter G). It flashes/throbs but isn't in colors like in the demonstration you found.
It would still there when I close my eyes so I can't tell if its in one eye or the other.

Since becoming an adult it usually isn't accompanied with physical pain as much as the annoyance that its happening and its making it difficult for me to see things. Sometimes its nauseating because of the visuals.

Sometimes I'm unaware that its happening until it becomes fairly big and I need to see something (like when I'm reading or driving). I'll look at a book and not see the writing on the page then look up and not be able to see peoples' faces.

It starts out small and grows bigger and bigger until it either takes over my whole field of vision then goes away
or I get away from what ever is triggering it.

Yes, I've been able to figure out what seems to be triggering it. Its not always triggered by what I suspect but it's happened often enough that I try to avoid being triggered.

[djm]

Wow, man! Acid flashback! Cool!

djm

[Daniel_Bingamon]

It's probably related in some way to synesthesia.

In my case, sound is converted to vision.
For me it happens at night when a sudden noise makes a nice interesting color flash. Anyone with partial blindness is more likely can have synesthesia, I'm blind in the left eye.

Some believe that natural synesthesia is what bore terminology like blue notes, loud clothes, etc.

[hyldemoer]

Wow, man! Acid flashback! Cool!

djm

Not the same for me. If there's no accompanying pain its just visual. I can still think logically while its happening.

It once happened during a class and knowing I couldn't see well enough to get myself away from the trigger I had to tell the teacher and class. The teacher and all the other students were younger than me.
They were all pretty freaked out that I was so suddenly blinded.
I'm pretty sure they thought I was describing a stoke in process.

I had a student guide me down the hall, down the stairs, and outside while they sent for a school nurse to meet us outside. By the time the nurse found us the whole episode was over and I was fine.

[izzarina]

My eldest daughter gets the auras WITH the pain, unfortunately. As does my 9 year old daughter. My mother in law just gets the visual with no pain. I never knew this existed, but it seems to be fairly common. I do get migraines as well, but I don't remember ever having the visual stuff with it. I can't tolerate light, and sometimes I'll see flashes of light, but nothing really big like what is being talked about here.

[Lambchop]

That flash example was pretty close to what I experience, only without the colors. It starts as a kind of circular area about the size of your hand at arm's length and ends up about twice that size. It's not concrete, like an object, but more of a transparent unfocused area. Looking through it is like looking through transparent cobwebs--you'd rather it was gone.

If I'm alone, I usually do not react to it. If I'm talking to someone -- especially medical professionals, who enjoy observing these things -- it interferes with my seeing them clearly. Even before I'm aware it is there, they will notice I'm trying to look around something, might repeatedly brush my hair and eyelashes on the left side as if trying to get stray hair from in front of my face, occasionally actually try to scoop something away in the air, close my left eye, and eventually turn my head so that the person is entirely in the field of vision of my right eye.

I notice I'm doing this when they begin to look around behind them as if someone is there. They wonder if someone has joined us, since I appear to be looking at someone else, not just at them.

[Innocent Bystander]

http://www.migraine-aura.org/content/e2 ... ex_en.html

I've heard people describe Migraine Zigzags. The link above has representations of it, and may help. It has a section on "Migraine and the visual arts".

Edited to say: There are a bunch of animations on this site, including your own example.

[mukade]

It's probably related in some way to synesthesia.

In my case, sound is converted to vision.
For me it happens at night when a sudden noise makes a nice interesting color flash. Anyone with partial blindness is more likely can have synesthesia, I'm blind in the left eye.

Some believe that natural synesthesia is what bore terminology like blue notes, loud clothes, etc.

I have had visual migraines for a long time. A line of flashing colours passes across my vision. When I first realised it was happening back in my teens, I consulted a doctor. They said many people have the same experience and it is nothing to worry about. As other people have said, it isn't painful. It is just inconvenient when I am reading or using a computer.

Interestingly enough, I recently found out I have synesthesia - I see numbers and dates in 3D.

Mukade

[MandoMark]

Count me in on the "aura" experience. I have not had one in about 15 years, but in college and grad school I got several. Thankfully, the aura did not always develop into a migraine. The first time it happened I was at the mall and started feeling odd. I determined that I had a blind spot to the effect that if I looked at someone, their face appeared "blank." Not black, but a flat smear. I honestly thought that someone dosed me at the food court.

I also got the "shimmers" which were in my peripheral vision.