Question
Hello
I have been having problems with my vision for the last 6 weeks. it initially began in a cinema when the bright lights were on the screen i could see like a strobe light effect in my peripheral vision. Not much else happened for a couple of weeks and then I noticed it again. Since then I have had flickering in my eyes often, when I have gone from a bright environment to a dark one. In the dark at night time my vision is awful, I can see greyish/white like snow and it gets worse the more I look at it. Today I was out in the bright sunshine for a long time and when I came back inside my eyes flickered for a while but I could see a whirling effect in my eyes if I looked at a plain wall. I am 28 years old and long sighted. I started an English degree in September and have been reading at least 3 hours a day. I went to my optician 2 weeks ago and had my eyes tested. He couldnt see anything wrong and said the backs of my eyes etc all looked good. He said he thought the visual disturbances were like 'sound' in my head and where my eyes were over worked the brain could no longer dampen everything out and it was coming through like this. I dont have any pain or anything like that just these visual disturbances, do you think I should get another test or I am seeing these things because I am looking for them. Apologies for the long question, I am just very paranoid about my eyes. Thank you for your time.
Answer
With light flashes, floaters, and a veil-like cloud ("snow") visual perception, the peripheral retinal needs to be carefully evaluated with and without pressure through a dilated pupil, preferably by a retina specialist to rule out retinal breaks, tears, ruptures, or detachment.
If the retina is indeed intact other reasons for these symptoms can be stress, arteriolar spasms, systemic hyptertention, ocular hypertension, lack of sleep, anxiety, food or drugs reactions, smoking, caffeine, etc. . Hope this helps
Dr. Ken
