# Fluorescent Lighting



## WANTTOBEBETTER (May 4, 2009)

I know from my experience that fluorescent lighting really aggrivates my DR. I go into stores like WalMart and I go into an instant dreamlike trance. Visually it looks hazy, dark, dreamy, weird, alien, different. People will look flat or 2 dimensional. Other objects appear flat or will stick out at me. Vertical or horizontal lines will vibrate or jumb around (like an optical illusion). Everything just becomes weird and bizarre.

Incandescent light sometimes bother me somtimes. It gives off a yellow like haze over the entire room, also too dark appearing. With my DR, it causes things to look visually weird, dreamlike, scary anyways, but certain lighting makes it alot worse. Why?

Does anyone else get affected by certain lighting like this. I have read it drives people like us batty. But I want to know how does it affect you specifically. What happens to you. (puts you in a trance?, Visually bothers you? , make you feel like nothing is real, your in a dream?)


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## Tommygunz (Sep 7, 2009)

FUCK FLUORESCENT LIGHTS!!!!!!! i know exactly what you're talking about, they are my arch enemy. i have fully recovered accept when i am in a place with fluorescent lighting. ironically, i work in a drug store with fluorescent lighting. i have searched endlessly for an answer for how to overcome this and keep coming up short, about the only suggestion out their is to avoid them. however, one option i have found is that stress retention at the base of the skull and neck can strain the visual cortex and put stress on the optic nerve and cause distorted perception and hyper-sensitivity. i have plans to see a chiropractor to have a few stress related kinks worked out of my neck and shoulders to see if that helps.


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## pancake (Nov 26, 2009)

WANTTOBEBETTER said:


> Does anyone else get affected by certain lighting like this. I have read it drives people like us batty. But I want to know how does it affect you specifically. What happens to you. (puts you in a trance?, Visually bothers you? , make you feel like nothing is real, your in a dream?)


Public buildings under the cold pulsating light of fluorescent tubing. Oh joy. 
In the superstore for instance. Who can help a moment of 'deja vu' when you're standing in what is essentially a big fuck off quonset hut: Shiny consumerism on the bottom two meters and glaring white warehouse anywhere above head height. It 's hilarious. I'll stand there searching for crackers and wonder who if anyone has the glorious job of removing cobwebs from the walls and ceiling with a really, really, really long stick.

I am no fan of fluorescent light but it doesn't affect me as much as certain sounds will. When it 's flickering at mains frequency though, the clicking, tinkling sound of a lose connection with intermittent garish light in varying colour temperatures.. I just have to close my eyes and hope I don't lose my balance.

As for other lighting, golden and blue hour never fail. That light is just too beautiful to be real. Greetings from Mr. Stendhal








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome


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## York (Feb 26, 2008)

Flouresnbdfh.. fuck that word, really makes me angry. What was wrong with candles and oil-lamps? So, the store would burn to the ground once in a while, big deal, we could all tell ourselves it was God's way of saying fuck consumerism.

Bright lights, noise, it's like a knife cutting through my head. My stress-levels will shoot through the roof, I get cranky, dizzy, it just.. Hurts.


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2010)

Fluorescent lighting as well as any artificial lighting especially like street lamps for night. I hate those lights.


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## Minerva8979 (Jan 30, 2010)

Yea, sittin in class lecture is always interesting. The lights shoot hazy beams in different directions and patterns morph in sublte ways. It really heightens the disconnect. I think... we all should just live off the grid. I wonder if we would recover being away from this synthetic environment. Has anyone noticed the difference?


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2010)

Minerva8979 said:


> Yea, sittin in class lecture is always interesting. The lights shoot hazy beams in different directions and patterns morph in sublte ways. It really heightens the disconnect. I think... we all should just live off the grid. I wonder if we would recover being away from this synthetic environment. Has anyone noticed the difference?


That's a good thought! I always feel wayyyyy better in Nature.


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## WANTTOBEBETTER (May 4, 2009)

Tommygunz said:


> FUCK FLUORESCENT LIGHTS!!!!!!! i know exactly what you're talking about, they are my arch enemy. i have fully recovered accept when i am in a place with fluorescent lighting. ironically, i work in a drug store with fluorescent lighting. i have searched endlessly for an answer for how to overcome this and keep coming up short, about the only suggestion out their is to avoid them. however, one option i have found is that stress retention at the base of the skull and neck can strain the visual cortex and put stress on the optic nerve and cause distorted perception and hyper-sensitivity. i have plans to see a chiropractor to have a few stress related kinks worked out of my neck and shoulders to see if that helps.


Thanks Tommy,
"stress retention at the base of the skull and neck can strain the visual cortex and put stress on the optic nerve and cause distorted perception and hyper-sensitivity" is a very interesting theory or thought. Where did you get this. Could be some of my issues. The more stress the worse it gets.

Thanks


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## Tommygunz (Sep 7, 2009)

i started looking into it after my dad went to a chiropractor for his neck and had some stress related kinks worked out. over the past ten years his vision had been getting bad and he described everything as looking hazy, like there was a fog over his eyes. the chiropractor did a couple things to his neck and his vision cleared up 100%. they told him that stress retention was probably distorting his perception via the visual cortex and optic nerve. after looking into it i found thats it's not that uncommon.


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## man63 (Jan 26, 2010)

Fluorescent lights contain mercury which obviously isn't good for humans. I would suggest LED lights. They are more efficient, and look better.


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## S O L A R I S (Dec 24, 2009)

I agree with everyone in this. But at the same time, there's something amazing standing in the middle of times square







Im an architect, so lighting/buildings fascinate me.

its funny cause I installed this awesome pendant light fixture in my room, but rarely open it cause its too bright, or i see it as too bright at least. I just switch on soft downlights..


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

Stress could affect your vision in only one way that I'm aware of. There are involuntary muscles that constrict or expand to alter your vision. If you're stressed, your eyes can become blurry because they're more constricted than they should be. (My apologies if I'm explaining this poorly.)

If your spine is anywhere close to your optic nerve, then you've got much bigger problems than a supposed interaction between the two. The base of your skull protects your optic nerve, optic tract, and occipital lobe from outside interference from your spinal cord or muscle pressure. If you're experiencing pressure on any of these bits, you can't get help from chiropractic because you need a brain surgeon.


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## coeus (Jan 11, 2010)

Fluorescent lighting used to bother me but it's inexplicable as to why. I feel nowadays, when it becomes dim - it bothers me more often than if I'm in an area with fluorescent lighting. Quite the realisation for me.


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## rob35235 (Feb 21, 2009)

coeus said:


> Fluorescent lighting used to bother me but it's inexplicable as to why. I feel nowadays, when it becomes dim - it bothers me more often than if I'm in an area with fluorescent lighting. Quite the realisation for me.


Fluorescent light does bother me, but really and truly.. ALL light bothers me. Especially reflections. Shiny reflections off metal objects are the worst. I think fluorescent lights make things almost look 'too real' if that makes any sense. Which in turn fux with out heads.


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## WANTTOBEBETTER (May 4, 2009)

rob35235 said:


> Fluorescent light does bother me, but really and truly.. ALL light bothers me. Especially reflections. Shiny reflections off metal objects are the worst. I think fluorescent lights make things almost look 'too real' if that makes any sense. Which in turn fux with out heads.


Hello Rob,
I have heard you state that reflections or shiny reflections off metal objects bother you. What does it specifically do to you (physically, emotinally?) Is it more pronounced than how others would perceive the light? Does it hurt your eyes. Does it reinforce the feeling of DR/DP? Does it scare you. What happens and why does it bother you?

I have the same issues on how things look or are perceived to look. Reflections of metal or snow sometimes bother me. I don't know why? I do know the difference between how I perceive my surroundings while at base DR/DP and how they look while heavily suffering from DR is vast. When things look a little off to me, I panic and say "here we go again" onto full blown DR. I am always checking for the symptoms. I am scared to shit of DR. Wish I never heard of it and the accompanying symptoms.

Greg


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## Tenebris In Lux (Dec 5, 2010)

I've been searching for an answer on this topic as well, but all I can find is the warnings about how fluorescent lighting can cause depression, anxiety, etc. Just .. avoiding it and being around natural light. And according to one article I read, it also affects blind people.

I have the misfortune of being a high school student. Well. The part in which I have to wake up and sit through a class with the evil fluorescent lights. I make good grades, but I can tell it affects me a lot. When I'm not as engaged, I'll space out and ..

All in all, I hate fluorescent lighting. Absolutely loath it. Not sure if this really helped ..


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## Sleepwalker (Dec 4, 2008)

..by me


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## Sleepwalker (Dec 4, 2008)

coeus said:


> Fluorescent lighting used to bother me but it's inexplicable as to why. I feel nowadays, when it becomes dim - it bothers me more often than if I'm in an area with fluorescent lighting. Quite the realisation for me.


Same here;

I LOVE BRIGHT FLUORESCENT LIGHTING, especially the 'blue' shade; lifts my mood and Dr.
I made a bright, reflective lamp some time ago and used to stare into it on a morning after awakening for several minutes. The whole exercise was rather enlightening








The only difference, I think, there is between sunlight and fluorescent light is the fact that the latter pulsates (at a rate of 100 or 120 times a second) which is really fast for the brain to pick up as non-continuous light AND that fluorescent lights can come in a shade of white that is different to the sun's.
It's a mystery to me.
Perhaps, depression and circadian rhythm play a great part in my DD and bright lighting therefore helps to reset my clock....
Any thoughts?......


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## Mythid (Apr 8, 2010)

Fluorescent lighting is horrible for me, I work at Best Buy and right when i work in it hits me like a tidal wave and I hate it. My eyes sometimes even start to water and I find it hard to keep them open. It is truly disorienting.


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## rob35235 (Feb 21, 2009)

It's one reason I really hate to go in stores...damned florescent light and shining bright white floors (walmart is worst). In fact, my first taste of real DR was standing inside just such an environment (a drug store). I dunno, it's like...you know that certain camera trick you see on TV sometimes when someone is hit in the head and they're showing the scene from that person's point of view? Kinda like how things look blurry when you move your eyes around as you travel past the objects? Well it's like reflections only add to this confusion for me. Something like that, it's hard to explain. It's like...my eyes take too long to send the new signals to my brain, and when the signal gets there it's too amplified or something.


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## Amelie (Jul 24, 2007)

Add me to the list. I've never known WHY fluorescent lighting makes my DP/DR worse, I just know that it does. I try to avoid places with extensive fluorescent lighting, such as WalMart, like the plague.


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## Opus131 (Mar 23, 2010)

Fluorescent lighting has no effect of me, one of the things that make me doubt whether i have DP/DR. In fact, i like lighting and light sources of any kind because they tend to relieve that feeling of emptiness and darkness that comes from being dead, or at least they help a bit. When i first got this i would turn the inside lights of my car when driving at night because the darkness would give me panic attacks. Could it be that i'm just suffering from DP? I thought in chronic cases the two always came together.


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## Amelie (Jul 24, 2007)

Opus, I don't think there are any hard and fast rules when it comes to dissociation. It's different for each person, so some may have DP without DR, or vice versa.


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## Visual (Oct 13, 2010)

Fluorescent Lighting used to always bug me (before DR). When they went from the older ballast to the newer electronic ones it seemed better. Now with DR it isn't as bothersome - probably because vision is sluggish. Still don't like it.

Incandescent light can also be bothersome because being so yellow.

Maybe I should just hibernate.


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