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Visual Snow Syndrome

By Anonymous

Visual Snow Syndrome. What is it? Well, no one is really 100% confident what causes this syndrome, but there are a host of common symptoms that most people with VSS share, many of which are shown in the above video. I've lived with this my entire life, so I actually don’t know how much of what I experience isn't considered neurotypical. I’m still finding out there are things I see that not everyone does, and it still surprises me every time. Some symptoms are as follows, ones I experience will be shown in bold: 
Visual snow
After-images
Entopic phenomenon
Glare
Halos
Starbursts
Palinopsia
Double vision
“Odd colors and shapes”
Tinnitus
Depersonalization/Derealization


Up until very recently in my life I thought that everything I was seeing was just normal. I've taken these perceptions for granted my whole life, not realizing that I was seeing the world differently than most. I also experience other things which may be related to my VSS but also may be related to other neurodivergencies such as synethsesia. For example, I experience every person as having their own, distinct color. I show an example of this in the video above, listed as "auras." It may or may not be associated with VSS, but that is my best guess at the moment. Additionally, if I’m listening to music with closed eyes I see very distinct and complex visual imagery accompanying the song, moving and altering to the beat. This is likely related to synesthesia, however I do not know for certain. What I've gained most from living with this has been the realization of just how drastically varied people's perceptions of the world can be, it seems to me that my perceptions have certain features that stand out as perceptual differences between myself and neurotypical individuals, however, I wonder just how much of what others experience may be strange to myself or others if we were to really try to talk about them, Because of how close to ourselves our perceptions are, and how we internalize and normalize what, to others, may be strange, it is thoroughly possible that someone else I know may experience radically different visual perceptions of the world and not realize it. It is like asking the question "do you see the same red that I see?"

Sources for symptom information:
http://eyeonvision.org/visual-snow.html

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

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