Visual Snow Syndrome
I haven't been able to blog for a bit, but I would argue it is for good reason, so hear me out. I know I promised daily yap, which will happen soon, but for now, I will update you guys a bit and then talk about what the title means. I have been so busy because I visited my parents for Thanksgiving, which took up some time. I believe I posted my EAS blog after that, but I just wanted to chill and could not think of anything to post once I returned. 3 days later, I had some personal issues that came up, and I wanted to rest. I won't get into details; however, I feel much better now. And then lastly, I have finals coming up for Hebrew, Math, and my IT class. Considering how I did in my last IT test, I need to lock in.
Tomorrow, I will be updating you guys on the Discord AI bot, as it has been going really well, and I didn't want to flood the feed on the technology aspects because I bet some of the people who read this just want to learn a bit about my life.
In this blog, I will be explaining a bit about Visual Snow Syndrome and how it affects my life, solely because I think a lot more people in this world have it, but they aren't aware because they may be led to believe that it's normal and everyone has it. Visual Snow Syndrome is a neurological disorder that doctors don't know very well. Essentially, the main part of it is the snow. I can best describe it as a layer to your vision that looks static, especially when looking at something solid-colored. The intensity of the static can vary person by person, even if you are thinking about it. writing about it right now; I can barely see the keys on my keyboard! Good thing I am used to it because I would be having a panic attack right now.
If you're looking at this and saying to yourself that you sort of see that, please look more into Visual Snow Syndrome. For me, I found out that I had it after a bit of a mental health episode that was unrelated. I realized that I see static 24/7 and wondered if that was normal. I was confident that I had this static my entire life, but I never thought about it. I searched it up and came across the Visual Snow Syndrome Reddit. Here, I came across many relatable memes making fun of how annoying it is.
My journey of getting it diagnosed was slow, but it started with my pediatrician, who referred me to an optometrist. Well, as it turns out, the issue is not in the eyes but in the brain... so when I got there, the doctor dilated my eyes to do some examination, which, let me tell you, is a very strange feeling. He did all sorts of tests on my eyes, and it turned out that I was completely healthy. I talked to some other people about my experience with VSS, and they told me that the optometrist is essentially useless. You need an MRI to get officially diagnosed. I went back to school that day with the biggest pupils, and I decided to mess with my Sculpture teacher a bit, so I and my friends called him over, and I stared at him with my eyes while he spoke to me.
So far, there isn't any known treatment for Visual Snow Syndrome. There are some remedies you can do, like magnesium or even weed, which some people recommend. Nobody really knows why this happens, which makes it interesting. Since it's a neurological issue, there can be many theories about what other things it is linked to. I have noticed that a lot of people who have Visual Snow Syndrome also have POTS, which is a dysautonomia condition that I had the pleasure of learning a lot about. POTS is a lot more well-known, but still no cure, just like VSS.
If you want to know a bit more about the other types of symptoms that can occur with VSS, there are floaters which are like little proteins from your eyes that float around your visual space, and every time you try to look at them they move away. It's quite annoying if there are multiple in your vision. I haven't had one in a while, but they can be overwhelming if you are hyper-fixated on it.
This one is a lot more common for people, and if you have this by itself, you most likely don't have VSS. The next one is Palinopsia, which essentially means you see a duplicate of something as you move, like a trail of repeated images behind it. A lot of people hate this symptom, but I kind of find it mesmerizing. If the lighting conditions are correct, I can move my phone, and the screen will trail behind. It always reminds me of that anime scene in Hunter X Hunter where Killua uses his rhythm echo.
There are plenty more symptoms, but they are kind of boring, and I do not necessarily want to think about them right now. Visual Snow Syndrome is quite literally a mind game, the more you focus on it, the more it get's worse. People just dig a rabbit hole for themselves where it's all they think about.
