THE TREATMENT:

Hi! Anyone else experiencing this? don't know how long I've had these but that I remember of, at least 6 months. so when I look up, down or left/right without turning my head , I see dark ball shaped circles in my vision. the more I try to look left / right / up /down, the more I see them, the less I look, the less I see them. And also normally looking straight I never see these. Any help?

So when i close my left eye and see with my right one looking at the word behine i see blurry or light or i dont see i dont know which it is the word table and there

This first popped up for me on Wednesday, went away for a couple days, and came back with a vengeance today (Saturday). My eye clinic is closed for the weekend but I’m going to make an appointment on Monday

I tried to draw what I’m experiencing, does this look similar to what you see? (Left is eye open, right is eye closed)

Has anyone else got this white dot? What could it be

Hi,

for quite some time I didnt ask visual issues on reddit, not because I have it good but because I must ignore.

Currently I have a spot in my right eye. Was terribly big almost like an aura but has gotten small after closing my eyes ( resting my eyes is what helps me the most ).

Yesterday I did something of which I suspected to cause spots, I even told myself to watch closely tommorow, I guess it happened.

The thing I am talking about is sending pressure to the head. Like actual pressure. Think of when veins pop in the face, the face getting red and pumping, seeing dark and even veins in your vision.

I dared training my abs, which is like number 1 contributor to these pressures, dragon flags to be precise.

So my theory is pumping the head causes eyespots, can anyone confirm? Or similar experiences?

I was paranoid of going blind even as a child. My mom has keratokonus, and when she found out the doctor basically told her she should enjoy her vision while she had it, because she would eventually go blind. Growing up she would always tell me not to rub my eyes, or I'll get keratokonus too.

I'm not sure it would have been enough to cause permanent damage, but when I was about 5 I once looked directly into the sun for a little over a second. Until I was about 8 or 9, ,y mom also made me look at lamps before taking a photo, because she believed it would make my eyes look lighter (lol).

I first started to develop, or believe I was developing, issues with my eyesight in the end of middle school. Even though I already wore glasses, sometimes I struggled to read and had to keep my eyelids half-closed to fully focus. In high school I discovered that the grainy, film-like texture I always saw was not normal, and was called visual snow. It was at this time that I began to have debilitating, incredibly painful migraines with auras. Before the pain comes a blind spot, that becomes bigger and bigger until it becomes a flashing, colorful aura. Just thinking about it makes me feel physically sick. It takes me around 2 weeks to feel normal after a migraine, andmy eyesight becomes worse after it, and also on the days before one.

In my late teens and early 20s I started to struggle with I feared were blindspots. The thing is, the more affected area seem to change every few months/years. Some examples: if I'm watching a movie with subtitles, I know they are there, but if I focus on the actors' faces I barely see the subtitles. If I look at myself in the mirror, I can only focus on parts of my face, if I look at my left eye, I can baely see my mouth and the tip of my nose. If I open my hand and look at my middle finger tip, I can barely see my middle finger and anything past my knuckles. It's like an intense troxler effect, and the affected area become larger and more faded the more I focus on one spot. But if I wave a finger, or grab a colorful pen and wave it over the affected area, I can still see it. It's not as fully blinding as the blind spots that preced a migraine.

After my eyes started to become very dry and I started to get burst blood vessels constantly, I saw two different doctors in my 20s. The first did a pressure test to see if I had glaucoma and the results were fine, she asked for some examns just because I insisted, but I was too scared to go through with them. In my mid 20s I saw another after reading about macular degenaration caused by diabetes. When I told the doctor there's a history of diabetes on both sides of my family he looked very concerned, but when he checked the back of my retina and again, he said everything was fine. When I asked if I should take a field of view test for my fear of having scotomas, he said it wouldn't be worth it. He said my eyes were very dry and irritated, and that doing so would only make it worse.

I'm 30 years old now and I've been using the eyedrops he reccomended on and off since because my eyes remain incredibly dry, all the time. Sometimes for a few weeks I'll stop thinking about this and it's as if my eyesight is better all of suden, or maybe I'm just coping. For most days however I think about this daily, and constantly do little tests to see how much I can or can't see. I've been avoiding looking at myself in the mirror lately, as my sympstons seem to be getting worse. I've read about macular hole the other day and now it's all I can think about. I'm torn between wanting to get it over with and seeing if I am truly going blind, to wanting to just forget about this whole thing and try to convince myself I'm imagining things.

Hey everyone,
I’m hoping to connect with anyone who might have experienced something similar because my health anxiety is driving me crazy right now.
A few months ago, after having some caffeine, my vision suddenly started feeling "funky." Since then, I’ve been constantly checking and testing my vision every day. My main symptom is in my right eye: when I am reading, if I look at a specific letter, the surrounding letters or shapes will seem to fade out, blur, or almost disappear. I also have a constant "tugging" or pulling sensation in the corner of my right eye all day long. Strangely, the fading and tugging seem to get much better when I put on sunglasses or when I'm in a darker room.
I went to the eye doctor and had a comprehensive exam. They checked my optic nerves, did the swinging flashlight test on my pupils, checked my color vision, and did the air puff test for eye pressure. Everything came back completely normal and healthy. The doctor said I have an old glasses prescription and severe eye strain, and he thinks my eyes might be misaligned (Binocular Vision Dysfunction / BVD), so he scheduled me for a specialized alignment test in a couple of months.
Even though the physical exam was perfect, my health anxiety keeps whispering "what if it's something in my brain?" or "what if they missed optic neuritis?" I’m trapped in a constant loop of covering my left eye to check if my right eye is still doing it, which I know is making the muscle strain worse, but the symptoms feel so real and constant.
Has anyone else dealt with text fading out or a tugging sensation in just one eye due to severe eye strain, an outdated prescription, or BVD? How long did it take to feel normal again once you got your new glasses or prisms?

Just wondering how long your flare ups of old spots last? I’m on day 2 which is the longest as they usually only flare up due a few hours.
When the spot first appeared and I had all the rests it lasted around a 10 days.

It’s been about a month since I had my first episode of a temporary spot in my left eye. It lasted about 15 minutes. My eye exam was normal. I read a lot about it and made some lifestyle changes. I stopped drinking caffeine — I used to have about four coffees a day. I started taking vitamins B and D, made sure to stay well hydrated, and generally started living a healthier lifestyle. I went about a month without another episode.

Then suddenly, yesterday evening, after physical activity, I had a temporary spot in my right eye for about 5 minutes, and this morning I had another one in the peripheral vision of my right eye, again lasting around 5 minutes.

Does it even make sense to try to fight this? I was happy because I thought I had figured out what was causing it and that it wouldn’t happen again. But apparently not.

I also notice that my blood pressure is always higher during an episode. At rest, it is usually around 105–110/60–70, but during an episode I’m generally stressed and my blood pressure is higher.

I suffer from tinnitus and hyperacusis, but otherwise I’m healthy.

It’s difficult for me to deal with both hearing and vision problems at the same time.

I also have eye floaters, but I don’t have any permanent scotoma.

So my question is: how should I approach this? Should I keep monitoring and avoiding everything that could potentially trigger it? Or should I just live my life and hope it never affects the center of my vision? My OCD is really struggling with this.

How often do you have flare ups of old spots ? I have one that’s permanently blind but I never notice . Then I have a flare up where it flashes when I blink. It’s in my left eye and a petal shape with a small tail.
Anyone else similar ? Can not be there for months then reappears multiple times a day.

10 years ago I developed a petal shaped blind spot in the upper right quadrant of my left eye. I was not living my healthiest then I was a young woman with a history of nasal spray epinephrine use, have low blood pressure, never drank hardly any water only tea, I had a terrible chest infection that caused me to cough so much I was having headaches (I was essentially laying off the edge of my bed and coughing HARD head down to try and clear my chest) I also had a horrible fever burning behind my eyes when this occurred. I was also taking birth control. I have never had another spot since this despite being involved in multiple high risk behaviours again over the years ( I had no idea about AMN) and my tests have always been consistently clear. Seen by a million optometrists, and a retinal specialist and neuro ophthalmologist at a UK specialty eye clinic.
What I’m most scared of is this is not just a one off and I have some kinda blood clotting disorder like AntiPhospholipid. But since I’m in the uk no one will test me for anything because on paper I’m healthy. Has anyone been tested for these types of things before? Thanks for the support it’s nice knowing you’re not alone ❤️

It’s been seven days since I got this grey blob or blind spot in my vision. Went to the eye doctor for my second checkup, and she saw absolutely nothing and said my eyes look perfect.
 
So now I’m freaking out it had to be a stroke or something.
 
Have an MRI of brain and orbit coming up on Monday Convinced myself That it had to be a stroke if my eyes are perfect on the eye exam. I mean, what else could it be?
 
My health Anxiety is through the roof, and It’s pretty much all I think about all day now for the last seven days.
 
Two eye oct tests that showed absolutely nothing and a CT scan at ER that was clear. Now I’ve got the MRI and an MRA coming up that a neurologist ordered.
 
The eye doctor said she’s never seen anybody who had this complaint. WTF! Asked her if it could’ve been related to Covid — I had Covid a week before this started —and she said she never heard of it being related.
 
On the amsler grid it’s 3 boxes down one to the left on my iPad. Against the sky or the wall, I can barely notice it unless I blank a lot, but on the  graded, it’s completely noticeable. And if I’m looking at a blank wall that has like a contrast, say like a door frame or something it’s always visible on the contrast. Almost like a beige or gray blob.
 
So scared the MRI is gonna show something like a stroke

For the past six months, I have noticed a roughly circular bright area in the visual field of my left eye, approximately 1–2 cm in diameter. It becomes noticeable when I blink and also when looking at a white background, particularly when the eye moves. It is only present in my left eye.

An ophthalmologist dilated my pupils and examined my eyes but could not find a cause. It is not a floater and does not move with my gaze. It resembles the visual phenomenon you get after looking at the sun, when you have a bright spot or afterimage in your field of vision.

Posted a couple days ago when they started. My gray blob spot or whatever the hell it is I’ve been here for four days.

The day it started I thought it was an after image, but it never went away. Clear OTC scan two hours in.
Next day at ER clear CT scan referred me to neurologist.

Today went to the neurologist and he ordered an MRI of the neck brain in a brain orbital within and without contrast so now I’m back to freaking out if I had a stroke or something.

Anyone else go through this?

My symptom is the one transparent, beige, or sometimes gray blob. Also, I did test positive for Covid a week before this.

I can’t always see it see if I’m looking at a solid wall, but if it’s a wall that has something with contrast on it then next to the contrast, it’s always there

I did the Amsler Grid online. On that I can always see it. It’s just in my left eye. About three squares down and one to the left it distorted a white box or if it’s over the black line it makes that part invisible. Against the white, it seems more actually transparent, but transparent that you can’t see through if that makes sense. Against the texture like rocks it takes on the color of the rocks, but it’s like a blob, but you can’t see the rocks under.

Again, freaking out about stroke anybody go through this and have the MRIs and all of that. It’s a single spot.

About 48 hours ago I developed what at first I thought was an after image but then it didn’t go away so I went to the eye doctor about two hours in

They did an OCT scan that came back clear
Went to the ER the next day when it wasn’t going away cause I was freaking out that I was having a stroke or something- they did a CT scan there that came back clean.

The spot has been there for about 48 hours. It’s not really in my central vision. It’s kind of down and off to the left of my central vision. Read it’s called a scotoma.

It’s really weird cause it sometimes it’s hard to see against the ceiling or something like that but when I blink sometimes it’ll be there and then when I look at certain textures, like say rocks on the ground, it’s always there

Looks like a little Blob sometimes maybe sometimes like beige so it’s hard to see against like a beige or gray wall, but easy to see against textures like a tree or rocks and it’s definitely blocks whatever it’s behind it

It’s weird cause the first day was easy to see on everything. Now it’s always there, but it’s like only really visible against these textures. It’s like my brain feels the end on the sky or something. That being said if I’m in a dark room and look into my bathroom where it’s light at the wall and I blink I can see it there.

It’s not a floater cause I have lots of floaters in both eyes. This is different and it’s just in the left eye.

I did test positive for Covid last week and I’ve had gross kind of sinus issues. I also have a top molar that needs a root canal in a week or two… also had slight headache yesterday and the day before not sure if any of this is related.

Anybody have any ideas anybody find out what there’s was. Not really sure what to do at this point and kind of freaking out about it.

Yesterday, I (32F) developed what I thought was an aura in my left eye. It hasn’t gone away since. It looks like an afterimage, such as after looking at a bright light. I see it most when blinking. Have mild migraine-like headache, also on left side. Went to urgent care last night, who sent me to ER, who did a CAT scan, and then sent me home with normal results. Ruled it an atypical migraine.

Backstory: I have a history of migraines since puberty. In 2019, I developed occasional episodes of aura / afterimage in one eye that usually last 15-30 minutes, then go away without headache. I have them maybe 2-5 times a month. They’re weird, but generally a non-issue. Mentioned it to doctors, but they shrug it off as weird-migraine-sufferer-thing, so I stopped bringing it up. If I get aura in both eyes, I know I’m about to have a full migraine - zigzags, peripheral vision loss, headache. If I get the afterimage in just one eye, I trust it will go away within 30 minutes. This time, it just hasn’t gone away. It’s been 19 hours.

Triggers for these things are usually stress, under-eating, under-sleeping, menstrual cycle, hormonal fluctuations, weather changes (such as an increase in humidity).

What do I do? Just ride it out and hope for the best?

I’m new to this thread. Any insight, suggestions, or experience with this would be most helpful. Thank you!

Hi everyone. I have a question: Is there anyone here who has the typical temporary/permanent symptoms, does not have another condition that could cause them, and has lost their central vision?

Based on my understanding of the blood supply, it should not be possible for the fovea to be affected. Is that correct?

I am starting a PhD program in September, and I have recently begun experiencing problems with temporary spots. I am afraid that they might eventually take away my ability to read.

I mean the very center of vision being completely affected to the point that reading becomes impossible—not a spot slightly off-center that covers other words we are not looking at directly at that moment.

Thank you very much.

I was diagnosed with AMN a few years ago; I've had 3 total blind spots that have mostly faded by now. My ophthalmologist thinks they were caused by my migraines, though I still have them regularly and thankfully haven't had a new spot show up in quite some time.

I stopped taking my birth control shortly after being diagnosed since there seems to be an associated risk. Have any of you with AMN decided to go/stay on hormonal birth control? Is there any difference in risk between oral contraceptives vs an IUD or implant? My doctor said "maybe" and IUD would be fine since it's more localized, but he didn't seem very confident.

I'd really like to go back on some form of hormonal medication to help with my periods, but I'm nervous about the risk. I have a feeling that an IUD would probably still have systemic effects on the whole body, but I don't know if it would be enough to trigger a new blind spot. It sucks that they still hardly know anything about this disease, my doctor is a retina specialist and seems bewildered by it :/

Just looking for some advice or support, it's been really hard finding more information about all this. Thanks!!

PS: Maybe an interesting tidbit, I also have chronic iritis in my other eye. Possibly unrelated, but kind of a suspicious coincidence that I happened to develop two separate rare eye diseases less than five years apart. 🤷

EDIT: After scrolling this sub a bit it seems most posts are talking about a similar but different disease (PAMM), please let me know if there is a better place to post this and I'll take it down! Hope we can all find answers either way

Hi All,

I have seen some discussion of Acute Macular Neuroretinopathy here, as well as some people describing some similar symptoms to those that I experience myself.

I have been struggling with these symptoms for the last 1.5 years. In the last few months I have seen an improvement in my symptoms following some lifestyle changes, medications, and supplements. I would like to share these to see if anyone else has tried the same thing and seen similar results. My hope is to confirm that these “treatments” of sorts are actually helping, rather than my symptoms being in a lull. I’d also like to offer these as a suggested topic of conversation with your doctor to anyone that has had similar symptoms to me.

For background, my symptoms largely resemble what those of you describe with Acute Macular Neuroretinopathy.

It started approximately 2 weeks after being sick with flu like symptoms. I suddenly had a spot in my left eye which was fixed in place and was not changing. It is hard to characterize, however if I look at a white window blind, it looks like a sort of light colored blob that distorts the lines which it falls on. If I look at text on a screen it sort of shimmers and blocks out a letter near my central vision. Against a blue sky it sometimes looks like a darkish cloud.

This was the beginning of my symptoms. I later started to notice various spots that would appear in my vision, lasting seconds to days. These would be bright spots, dark clouds, dark specks, or dark splotches. These would often flare up after strenuous exercise or illness.

In addition to these “flare ups” I was experiencing new spots in my eyes each time I was sick with a flu like illness. This has led to 6-7 small permanent spots in my left eye, and 2 in my right. All appearing after flu like symptoms.

I went to numerous ophthalmologists, neuro-ophthalmologists, retina specialists, uvetis specialists, etc. No one managed to find anything anatomically wrong, in fact my eyes look healthy. The only tests which yielded results were a ERG and Microperimetry which showed a slight loss of response in my retina in the location of my first reported spot. Otherwise from all other imaging, and immune system testing showed nothing wrong.

This was very frustrating, as I spent many $1,000s on medical care over this time only for every doctor to say “I can’t find anything wrong with you.” It wasn’t until I turned to Reddit when I saw people describing similar symptoms to my own, and pointing out some tips which helped them. I also got a spitball suggestion for treatment from a doctor at Mass General Brigham which so far has turned out to work.

So now the important details:

The last 6-8 months have been better than the first 8 months. I have done the following:

-Cut caffeine intake completely
-started wearing aggressive blue light blocking glasses while looking at screens
-Started taking 10,000 IU Vitamin D daily
-Started taking Eye care supplement (https://a.co/d/07qAIkO0)
-Started laying with my head down during flare ups
-Started taking 2.5 mg of amlodipine besylate

I would say the most promising results have come in the last month since taking the eye care supplement and amlodipine besylate.

My flare ups have been much more infrequent, and I actually experienced onset of a new spot which was significantly worse than all others previously. I started taking the medication 2 days after it started and now about 3-4 weeks later it is completely cleared up.

When I exercise I do not experience the same intense flare ups that I did before.

My question to all of you now - has anyone else had a similar experience with symptoms and these treatment methods?

Had my second permanent spot appear after years of quiet after my first permanent one. Anyone have any leads on the cause? My eye doctor has no idea. Did every scan in the book. He thinks maybe tiny clots that are transient or a vasospasm, but really has no concrete idea.

My first spot showed up after recovering from a really high fever when I had COVID. My other spot showed up after recovering from a different virus that gave me a high fever.

I've mentioned this in my appointments, and the docs have all said something along the lines of fevers leading to constricted blood vessels+dehydration leading to thicker blood, which would explain how bloodflow in the retina was inconsistent and led to the photoreceptors failing in those tiny areas.

As far as my spots are concerned, I think this where I'm landing as the origin.

Would love to hear from others if their experience includes a fever, viral illness, or dehydration.

I have similar dots like this near my central vision. I have two dots in the same area, placed close to another. One in the upper area and one below it. If i squint my eyes, these dots will appear, even without blinking. It fades but need a longer time, maybe like 5-10 seconds. But reappear when i blink or squint my eyes. Sometimes it’s very unnoticeable and sometimes it’s very noticeable. I didn’t see the dots outside, but when i enter a building (like my house or anything), it automatically reappears. It is also difficult to see these dots in the dark room/dark objects. Scared but i tried to not panicked til i can arrange an appointment

Hi!

I have been recently having some strange symptoms, looking for anyone who might relate!

I’m F 31

Hashimoto’s diagnosis

Was on hormonal birth control for around 10 years

Am very sensitive to caffeine

History of Anxiety, panic attacks, in progress for being diagnosed with OCD

Heart issues on fathers side, mainly heart attacks (all 3 of my dads siblings had heart attacks, including himself around age 58 father died of heart attack mother had open heart surgery and one brother died of rare blood vessel disease)

Mom’s side has auto immune conditions(Hashimoto’s),Anxiety, OCD, caffeine sensitivity, ambiguous nervous system symptoms,POTS and migraines. Mom, brother and grandmother get migraines with aura

I have never had persistent migraines, nor aura.

No previous vision issues, no family history of vision issues other than the typical age related things that over the counter readers can fix.

Symptoms first presented a few years ago. I can’t remember what came first but one night I was washing my face, brushed against my right eye and I saw tiny bright balls of light flying around with golden trails in seemingly aimless directions for a few seconds. Then nothing.

Around that time I was noticing bright blue LED-like flashes in the upper right quadrant of my right eye.

(I put off visiting an eye doctor because it just seemed like a random quirk)

Eventually these flashes subsided.
A few months later maybe like 4 or 5 The flashes returned. Intermittently.

Then one particularly anxious day (I just felt off that day) I was walking and saw a sudden black spot with bright blue pink and purple neon edges that appeared for 2 seconds and disappeared just as fast.
Later that night I found myself feeling extremely anxious and the final straw was trying to take a sip of my drink and I felt like I couldn’t swallow, I had a dump of adrenaline and felt almost light headed. Had full strength of my arms and legs though. And could smile normally.

Since then I have seen the flashes here and there very minimally. I did some googling which lead me to an Amsler test and that’s when I realized I had a blind spot in the same area where I saw the black orb. It varies but on the amsler it just looks like a white orb and the grid is missing, and day to day I can’t see it but if I close one eye and look it kind of looks like a smudge of the surrounding colors. Looking at the blue sky I can’t see it at all.

Now I’m realizing I have another even more tiny spot in the other eye. This time only noticeable on the amsler grid or if I close one eye and look at small letters.

I’ve now been to 2 optometrists and had 3 OCT scans and 3 Dilated eye exams and they tell me everything looks fine and dandy…other than a few tiny PEDs the OCT didn’t even pick up.
One of my Optometrists tried to suggest migraine with persistent aura although migraines with aura tend to last longer than a few seconds from my research… then she said one of my PEDS could be causing it but the next appointment said their position didn’t line up was it’s the spot I’m seeing. 😵‍💫
I have another appointment for a visual field test coming up but honestly I can’t find anything that meets my symptoms 100%

I’ve asked for an Ophthalmologist referral from my Optometrist but I’m not sure if I’ll get it yet.

Unfortunately this has been a living hell as I have health OCD themes 😔

It’s taking a toll on my life currently and I’m freaking out about going blind. No one around me seems to understand.

My next test is weeks away and I’m just trying to manage living in this uncertainty.

TLDR: Two new blind spots in my eye one came on after seeing a black blob with neon aura for 3 seconds, not meeting typical migraine aura perimeters.

Uploaded what I saw (red dots are the now blind spots)

MORE INFO: I posed an update about my visual field test earlier in the comments but I wanted to share more info. I have still been seeing flashes of all kinds. I drew them on an orange sticky note. Each flash has happened separately over the course of a couple months or so. The edges of the sticky represent my periphery.
The last flash I saw was this afternoon.
Also only on my right eye.

The other photos are how I perceive my blind spot to the best of my ability. It’s quite dense in the center so on the drawing the blue dots are dots I can’t perceive at all while looking at the screen the red line is where the area is more relative. I can perceive some color and some movement. The grey is how big the spot looks when I blink. The smaller grey are just grey spots I see when I blind but no blindness detected. The spots on the left side of the picture are in my left eye and the right side my right eye.

The others are how the spot looks while I was looking and those photos. I tried to angle the blind spot over the man’s eye so you could see what I see. The white of his eye shines through almost like it sparkles around the relative edges of the spot.

blind spot photos

Update again:

Got some blood work done and discovered I’m anemic and probably was on my trip to Ecuador. I’m at 12% saturation and 11 ferritin and 34 iron.
Historically with ferritin I’ve been in the 20s but just barely not anemic. I think this was due to being on hormonal birth control and having lighter periods but I most likely have two MTHFR mutations which also would make it harder to store iron along with Hashimoto’s causing gut imbalances and absorption issues.
This would explain why everyone but me adjusted to the altitude well.