"Eye Tinnitus" aka Visual Snow, oh and Tinnitus

[Tim Hogan]

As my Tinnitus has started to move around my brain recently i seemed to have developed something called "visual snow", pretty much its like your field of view kind of looks like that of a movie screen, like thousands of tiny vibrating dots, after some research it seems that this little joy in life is linked to Tinnitus, as its another brain issue.

I'm far from any doctor figure but im guessing whatever Tinnitus is doing to my Brain, its also effected a part of it that now produces the phenomenon "Visual Snow".

Apparently 2/3 people with VS also have Tinnitus.

Just curious if anyone here has the same thing, or am i just reallllllllllllllllly unlucky.

 

[JasonP]

As my Tinnitus has started to move around my brain recently i seemed to have developed something called "visual snow", pretty much its like your field of view kind of looks like that of a movie screen, like thousands of tiny vibrating dots, after some research it seems that this little joy in life is linked to Tinnitus, as its another brain issue.

I'm far from any doctor figure but im guessing whatever Tinnitus is doing to my Brain, its also effected a part of it that now produces the phenomenon "Visual Snow".

Apparently 2/3 people with VS also have Tinnitus.

Just curious if anyone here has the same thing, or am i just reallllllllllllllllly unlucky.

Hey, please get to a doctor asap and tell him what you are experiencing, maybe an urgent care facility? Maybe he can tell you what's going on. Be sure you aren't dehydrated either. (Probably not the cause, I am just saying that for health reasons)

 

[linearb]

yeah, I've had this significantly for a long time. In my experience it was a lot easier to habituate to than tinnitus, also most people will experience this to some degree in dark environments, and the more attention you pay to it the more significant it is.

 

[Mario martz]

Yeah, right after onset VS appeared, i still see some, but not bothering.
for me of course.

 

[Jacob83]

Only looking at an empty snow covered field while it's snowing, otherwise I haven't.

I used to see my eye floaters quite a lot (small black specs and bubbly lines) in my vision, but I haven't seen those years.

 

[stacey]

omg I have the same thing but always ignored it sonce T is enough of a burden. but now I can see how it might be linked. this makes things worse I know

 

[Cityjohn]

It's not that the visual snow is caused by tinnitus, they are both essentially the same signal problem expressed in a different process. I tried to explain this to my internists, then they started asking me if I saw anything else. I told them about the blue field entoptic phenomenon, and then they offered me anti psychotics.

 

[Reinier]

I noticed this after I developed tinnitus. Never seen it before my tinnitus.
It occasionally happens when I doze off, watching TV and open my eyes again.
Not very often, but very recognisable.
I can only conclude there has to be a link inside the brain between the two.

 

[Kste Adams]

I recently found an article that talked about visual snow, which I'd never heard of, and the theory that it was caused by the brain's visual cortex when it did not receive the "correct" signals from the eyes. I was really struck by the similarity to tinnitus.

I found an interesting quote from an article on the Braincoder.com web site. It's from a recent, small study of people with visual snow, and the researchers noted the following:

"The majority of the patients also experienced more than one additional visual phenomenon such as persistent after-images or stars bursts and colored blobs. In addition, the researchers found that 63 percent of the patients experienced high-pitched tinnitus, 44 percent experienced migraine with or without aura, and some also had tremor and balance problems." (Full article here.)

I don't have visual snow, but I do experience high-pitched tinnitus, migraines with and without auras, migraine-associated-vertigo, occular migraines, and restless leg syndrome. I had suspected these were all symptoms of neurons "misbehaving" and were probably related.

I actually think this is encouraging news. If these various conditions are related, maybe findings in one area will help shine light on the others and get us to effective treatments more quickly. Tinnitus may not get much funding or research by itself, but if it's actually part of a condition affecting many more people, perhaps it will receive more attention.

 

[Brian meadows]

I've had visual snow as long as I can remember. At LEAST 20 years. In fact, I may have ALWAYS had it, but never really realized it until about 20 years ago. Either way, my tinnitus was caused by trauma 2 years ago. Completely unrelated phenomena for me.

 

[Rasmus]

I was born with mild tinnitus and i remember i also had visual snow but after my T got worse i also think my visual snow got worse to because i never remember it being this bad. I could always ignore my T back in the days but when i got worse to year ago i could hardly ignore it i could hear it in every day life when i was driving and hearing music. I think T and VS can be linket together since mine got worse at around the same time. I just always thought that VS was a normal thing but it looks like it was not :/

Sorry bad english.

 

[lolkas]

I always had perfect vision and hearing. After getting T I have developed VS. I think because brain has static disturbance in auditory cortex - visual cortex has a great chance getting "trash" and affect processing of image (VS, trails of images and etc). So I kinda think that if we fix T - VS will gradually fade away with other disturbances. If we found way of "suppressing" T then VS symptoms might go away, however I think they will just become very mild some what

 

[Rasmus]

I always had perfect vision and hearing. After getting T I have developed VS. I think because brain has static disturbance in auditory cortex - visual cortex has a great chance getting "trash" and affect processing of image (VS, trails of images and etc). So I kinda think that if we fix T - VS will gradually fade away with other disturbances. If we found way of "suppressing" T then VS symptoms might go away, however I think they will just become very mild some what

You are most likely right. I have always had milt T and milt VS, but when my T got worse my VS also got worse or atleast i think my VS got worse because i dont remember it being this bad like i have it right now :/ i think its connected because 2 in 3 people who have VS also have T. I think this means there must be a connection.

 

[RandomAccess10]

I have this. Also poor contrast.... In addition to hearing loss and tinnitus.
Great isn't it

 

[linearb]

I have this. Also poor contrast.... In addition to hearing loss and tinnitus.
Great isn't it

It's bullshit and it sucks but I'm still thankful that my problems are "how do I enjoy music with all this racket in my head" and "how do I enjoy looking at stars at night when I can barely see them through the static"... instead of, you know, "how do I get myself to the grocery store and home given that I cannot see or hear anything at all". There are lots of people in that situation, and yet most of them find a way to plod forward... as shall we all.

CO poisoning caused all these symptoms, @RandomAccess10 ? If so that's pretty fascinating, if super unpleasant. Did you have any audio/visual problems before the CO incident?

 

[RandomAccess10]

None. I was perfectly healthy, loving life (apart from some bad life circumstances i could of resolved)...

I was taking (by force) benzos and all sorts at the time so I don't know where it all came from...

Either way I did oxygen therapy and that's what ruined my hearing must have been excess ROS. No one told me that tho

 

[lolkas]

Do you also get halos around lights ? Generally speaking i got: bfep, VS, random blue flashes when i am trying to fall asleep.

I can also say if/when my T spikes, VS us worse for that time also

 

[linearb]

Do you also get halos around lights ?

Not sure if you're talking to me, but, I do -- lots of starring, lots of static, halos, afterimages, etc.

I can also say if/when my T spikes, VS us worse for that time also

Huh, that's pretty interesting. As far as I can tell, my VS is just on a single setting, never really changes at all, and has been consistent as far as I know for the past two decades. The tinnitus goes up and down like a roller-coaster.

It's possible that the VS is more variable than I think; I'd say that even though it's messy and constantly there, I'm about 99% habituated to it and only think about it when I'm reading threads like these, or sometimes when I'm looking at stars at night.

 

[Jacob83]

"how do I enjoy looking at stars at night when I can barely see them through the static"..

No kidding, hey? Visual static gets that bad?

 

[linearb]

No kidding, hey? Visual static gets that bad?

Hmm, I don't know, I've never thought of this as especially bad, at least not after the first 6-12 months. I think nearly everyone can perceive some amount of static in darkness, it's only abnormal when it's really noisy/distracting... stargazing is the only time it actually seems like any sort of an impairment, other than that it's just "how my eyes work". But, I'm 20+ years in...