4 ms·

The image you linked is what I'm calling "flickering". My full-blown scintillating scotoma is much more vivid and fully-formed. In the incident I'm reporting, i

The image you linked is what I'm calling "flickering". My full-blown scintillating scotoma is much more vivid and fully-formed. In the incident I'm reporting, it was a 3D physical-looking structure of triangular prisms made of white light, with zebra stripes of utter blackness sweeping rapidly along them, surrounded by an aura that looked like a cross between the sun's corona and the aurora borealis. These links are closer to what mine look like: https://i.imgur.com/mbW2UZY.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mbW2UZY.jpg https://optometrui.tumblr.com/image/132973031235 https://optometrui.tumblr.com/image/132973031235

randlet 4y ago
Your first link is exactly what it looks like to me (except pulsing/shimmering). I can usually sense it before it starts then it starts as a small aberration and gradually grows to encompass almost my entire vision. Extremely unsettling the first time it happened.
- mikelevins 4y ago
  Yeah, mine are always pulsing, shimmering, whirling, or moving in some other way--most often more than one way at once. My earliest ones were like a black hole in the middle of my vision with an aurora borealis slowly radiating ouward while color changes whirled around it at high speed.
scruple 4y ago
Fascinating. The first image is exactly what mine look like but I was told (by a doc) that they are ocular migraines.
- mikelevins 4y ago
  I'm no expert; perhaps when I see those, I'm having an ocular migraine. If it's actually an ocular migraine (which takes place in the eye) rather than a scintillating scotoma (which takes place in the brain), that's a possible explanation for why I could continue reading. The UK's NHS says they tend to happen in just one eye, so if I was having an ocular migraine, it might have left my vision unobstructed in the other eye. On the other hand, if that's the explanation, then I would sort of expect to have consciously experienced seeing the book while I was reading it, and I didn't--or if I did, that's not the way I remember it. Of course, memory is untrustworthy, and it's also possible that the vividness of the ocular migraine might have persuaded my brain to tell me I couldn't see the book even though I could. So ocular migraine is a solid alternative candidate to explain my experience. If I have another scotoma, I'll see if I can figure out a way to determine which thing is going on. Maybe closing one eye and then the other.

randlet 4y ago

Your first link is exactly what it looks like to me (except pulsing/shimmering). I can usually sense it before it starts then it starts as a small aberration and gradually grows to encompass almost my entire vision. Extremely unsettling the first time it happened.

mikelevins 4y ago
Yeah, mine are always pulsing, shimmering, whirling, or moving in some other way--most often more than one way at once. My earliest ones were like a black hole in the middle of my vision with an aurora borealis slowly radiating ouward while color changes whirled around it at high speed.

scruple 4y ago

Fascinating. The first image is exactly what mine look like but I was told (by a doc) that they are ocular migraines.

mikelevins 4y ago
I'm no expert; perhaps when I see those, I'm having an ocular migraine. If it's actually an ocular migraine (which takes place in the eye) rather than a scintillating scotoma (which takes place in the brain), that's a possible explanation for why I could continue reading. The UK's NHS says they tend to happen in just one eye, so if I was having an ocular migraine, it might have left my vision unobstructed in the other eye. On the other hand, if that's the explanation, then I would sort of expect to have consciously experienced seeing the book while I was reading it, and I didn't--or if I did, that's not the way I remember it. Of course, memory is untrustworthy, and it's also possible that the vividness of the ocular migraine might have persuaded my brain to tell me I couldn't see the book even though I could. So ocular migraine is a solid alternative candidate to explain my experience. If I have another scotoma, I'll see if I can figure out a way to determine which thing is going on. Maybe closing one eye and then the other.