# Vision problems! Do we all have them? Describe yours.



## rob35235 (Feb 21, 2009)

I think the worst feature of Derealization, to me, has definitely got to be the visual aspects. It's not with the eyes themselves, but certainly with how the brain processes the visual input. Light is not perceived correctly at all!

As for me, do you know how when you go inside to a darker house or building when it's a bright sunny day and your vision hasn't adjusted yet? Like, your vision is still faded and your 40% blind? Well that's how my vision is all the time, to a slightly lesser extent...and it's sooo disturbing. Changes in lighting levels and increased visual input aggravate my DR. I absolutely hate being outside during the day. HATE IT!!! Reflections off things look completely digital, too bright, and really screw with my efforts to ignore the symptoms and not to freak out.

Let the relating commence.


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## pancake (Nov 26, 2009)

When I was little tunnel vision was the most annoying visual aspect. I felt like my body was no more than a badly fitted suit and my vision reinforced this impression because it looked so much like I was peeking through a narrow visor.

As a teen my DP was at it's worst, visual snow made me feel as if I were seeing holes in reality and I expected the skies to rip open any minute. Also, my hands looked overlarge as did people's heads. I remember how everybody seemed to have a lollipop head stuck onto comparatively tiny bodies.


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## Misia (Nov 1, 2009)

That's very interesting. When I had dp, everything looked pretty normal, except I was more aware of the 3-D-ness of objects. I felt like I was in a video game with really good graphics. Everything seemed to have more intense texture. When I'm nervous, walls seem to extend forever, rooms seem larger. But that makes sense, it's the fight-or-flight reaction preparing me for battle.


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## Guest (Feb 6, 2010)

Misia said:


> That's very interesting. When I had dp, everything looked pretty normal, except I was more aware of the 3-D-ness of objects. I felt like I was in a video game with really good graphics. Everything seemed to have more intense texture. When I'm nervous, walls seem to extend forever, rooms seem larger. But that makes sense, it's the fight-or-flight reaction preparing me for battle.


My sister had that with her dp. I personally have 2-d vision since getting dp. Everything looks like I am looking at a movie screen. It is flat and dull. Color are dull, there is little depth, etc.


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## Katezorz (Jan 10, 2010)

With derealization, sometimes it looks like the world shifts a little. Bright lights are too bright, dim lights are way too dim. And then everything looks either too foggy, or too shiny. It's so weird.


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## rob35235 (Feb 21, 2009)

"Too shiny" --- That's a good description. Very good description. Definitely know what you mean there. Reflections are very bothersome...I do much better going out at night. Don't really feel better, but I cope better because reflections aren't everywhere.


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## Homers_child (Apr 13, 2008)

Wow.. I still find it amazing that there are others out there that experience exactly what I experience. For so long, I thought it was just me, going insane. I tend to get more bothered by my DR than my DP, I guess because I notice it more, while at nighttime I tend to focus on my DP aspects.

But yeah, I feel as though there is some sort of problem with how my brain interprets my vision. I have chronic dp/dr, so I always feel like this. The whole world appears flat and 2d to me. Like a painting. It's also dull. Some places can alter my experience, like going in the doctors office or a wal-mart, the bright lights tend to make everything very refined and aggravated, it makes it seem more dream-like and shifting, rather than dull and flat like a painting which I experience most of the time.

God.. I can't believe other people know how this feels.


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## Katezorz (Jan 10, 2010)

Homers_child said:


> Wow.. I still find it amazing that there are others out there that experience exactly what I experience. For so long, I thought it was just me, going insane. I tend to get more bothered by my DR than my DP, I guess because I notice it more, while at nighttime I tend to focus on my DP aspects.
> 
> But yeah, I feel as though there is some sort of problem with how my brain interprets my vision. I have chronic dp/dr, so I always feel like this. The whole world appears flat and 2d to me. Like a painting. It's also dull. Some places can alter my experience, like going in the doctors office or a wal-mart, the bright lights tend to make everything very refined and aggravated, it makes it seem more dream-like and shifting, rather than dull and flat like a painting which I experience most of the time.
> 
> God.. I can't believe other people know how this feels.


Unfortunately (lol), I know exactly what you're talking about. Bright lights do tend to make everything look more refined and aggravated, but sometimes bright lights make me see halos, which can make everything look foggy. It really just depends I guess. But dim lights scare me the most, I think. Really makes me feel like I'm dreaming and I don't know why.


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## DiscoStick (Dec 13, 2009)

I actually can't hold my head up when I'm in the sun. I don't get how people can actually walk in a straight line with their heads up and see things when they're facing the sun. I'm vitamin D deficient. Go figure.
It feels like I've lost depth perception sometimes. When I'm looking onto the road, the cars seem like they're made from paper. I always really want to go and push one over or see it blow away and leave a car shaped void on the Earth paper.


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## marko (Sep 15, 2009)

I too get the whole object seemig digital and such, worst for me is if I'm concentrating on an object or person everything else is blurry. Example of this is when talking to shrink even her chair is pretty much gone. Really pisses me off.

Oh, regarding changes in light level and brightness, try pairing dp with a condition that means eyes can't respond fast or enough, my pupils will not go small so bright light fucks me righ up, sun glasses are a must!


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## abovetherim (Dec 18, 2009)

tinyfairypeople said:


> My sister had that with her dp. I personally have 2-d vision since getting dp. Everything looks like I am looking at a movie screen. It is flat and dull. Color are dull, there is little depth, etc.


I have this to an extent, I just dont feel like im in my body so it makes everything visually look slightly weird.


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## curseofconstantsight (Feb 8, 2010)

I can begin to feel soooo much better now that I've read these posts... I really thought that I was going mad and started magnifying these visual distortions to delusional levels...

Thanks pancake for referring me here...

My best descriptions for what I perceive visually are:

Curse of Constant Sight
A bad acid trip that never stops
Lucid dreaming but I'm awake
Objects that are in reality for everyone else but I don't see until minutes/hours later... "hey how did that 
fire hydrant get here?"
A sunny day can produce sunlight reflecting off of everything so irritating that sunglasses are necessary
Sounds are way too loud and intensified: One chopper ripping by can make for a bad day.


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## man63 (Jan 26, 2010)

What if you are in a dream right now and your just making everything up including this forum with your imagination? I heard of a man who claimed he lived an entire lifetime in one night of lucid dreaming, and when he woke up he discovered that the whole thing was just a dream. Maybe that is what you are experiencing? =D freeeeeaky =D


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## curseofconstantsight (Feb 8, 2010)

EsotericMotion said:


> What if you are in a dream right now and your just making everything up including this forum with your imagination? I heard of a man who claimed he lived an entire lifetime in one night of lucid dreaming, and when he woke up he discovered that the whole thing was just a dream. Maybe that is what you are experiencing? =D freeeeeaky =D


HA HA HA!

YES!

I HAVE entertained this thought... and YES I have pinched myself...literally!

I just have to keep the delusions at bay... thanks to Symbyax! Anyone else currently taking this wonder drug? I still have the visual distortions/anomalies and irritating hyperarousal but am able to cope with it.

Someone has described their DP as Deja Vu constantly! This used to happen to me as well but now I don't obesses about it!

"Someone stop this trip I want to get off!"


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## man63 (Jan 26, 2010)

All I know, is that ignoring it is not going to make it go away. You should welcome it.


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## coeus (Jan 11, 2010)

Floaters, slightly foggy vision and light sensitivity. I acknowledge them and usually when moments pass, I'm doing something else that distracts me from observing any visual oddities.


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## curseofconstantsight (Feb 8, 2010)

All very good advice to follow!









I just am curious how you can work full-time and not notice/be affected by the visuals?

The last job I could only keep down for 4 months until I threw my arms up in the air. My visual distortions make working effectively very difficult.

Any recommendations?



> ...and light sensitivity...


Yes coeus... very affected by light sensitivity (hence my namesake curseof constantsight )... some days I put on sunglasses because it's too much


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## WANTTOBEBETTER (May 4, 2009)

curseofconstantsight said:


> All very good advice to follow!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## curseofconstantsight (Feb 8, 2010)

> How old are you,


Early 40s



> how long have you had DP/DR,


I have yet to be diagnosed by a neuropsychologist. I am cureently waiting patiently for an appointment. My primary physician/GP has diagnosed me with dpression and put me on Symbyax



> what caused your DP/DR


unknown at this time



> Can you specifically say what you are seeing and how it affects you?


The main problem that I encounter is hard to explain and when I attempt is difficult for those hearing it to understand. For lack of a better description, objects that are in reality for everyone else aren't reavealed to me until minutes/hours later... "hey how did that fire hydrant get here?" I'm assuming it's a neurological/cognitive deficit, so hence my need for a neuropsychological evaluation = serious $$$. I also experience what clinicians describe in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as hyperarousal. This would make sense because I experienced a very traumatic situation two years ago and my hyperarousal was existent 24 hours a day for 2 months then and is now active episodically daily.

I describe the hyperarousal as:

Curse of Constant Sight (hence my namesake)
A bad acid trip that never stops
Lucid dreaming but I'm awake
A sunny day can produce sunlight reflecting off of everything so irritating that sunglasses are necessary
Sounds are way too loud and intensified: One chopper ripping by can make for a bad day

Now that I'm on Symbyax the intesity of the hyperarousal is balanced but I still can recognize the intensity of it but not let it get me highly agitated like it used to.


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## WhatUpDoe (Jan 22, 2010)

i was supposed to get glasses before dp but i never wanted too, but when i got dp 15 months ago from weed i felt like i needed too, when i saw a lasic specialist i discovered that i have Keracotonus (its when ur corneas start getting weak or some bullshit) and i couldnt get lasic, keracatonus blows especially with dp, but oh well that's life.


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## CrypticUk (Sep 16, 2007)

With all these visual distortions does anybody feel like a pain in their eyes?
Things are so 2d that everyting feels sqaushed against my eyes or face and feel some sort of discomfort on the eyes


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## grues0me (Feb 12, 2010)

For me its worse in some situations, like at work with the neon lights. Or especially in supermarkets. The vision is for me like after a glass of whine, i turn my head and its like the world moves a little slower with my view, nearly some kind of motion blur. I often squeeze my eyes then, and when i am opening them, its like a hammer smashed in my face (kind of). Other than that its like a lucid dream. I am there, see, but just like through a camera.

I had my eyes examined, but except a "floater" (some kind of tissue that swims in my eyewater and is seen like a small black spot moving with my vision) i was perfectly ok.

Oh, and its like my eyes feel "swollen", like the eyeballs are double the size, sounds silly but its some kind of pressure all the time.


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## WANTTOBEBETTER (May 4, 2009)

CrypticUk said:


> With all these visual distortions does anybody feel like a pain in their eyes?
> Things are so 2d that everyting feels sqaushed against my eyes or face and feel some sort of discomfort on the eyes


CrypticUk,
My eyeballs always hurt. Feels like someone is squishing them in their hands. Pressure, sharp pain, etc... Some time one or the other side or both at once. I get alot of eye twitches also. My vision is also 2D and people look flat. Backgrounds seem superimpossed or people seem somehow seperated from it, or fake. Edges of objects seem odd or weird looking (maybe too sharp or too fuzzy against its background. I liken alot of this to paper cut outs or a pop up book.

Other visual disturbance I have are terribly affected by various types of lighting. Incandescent is too yellow, like a haze, unfocused. Flourescent is just totally freaking bizarre and weird. really makes me feel like everything is fake, I am in a dream, or just plain high on drugs. Even outside on a bright sunny day, it may seem like it's dark, like I am loosing my sight.

I am sorry I sound so weird.

Sometimes I see really brief afterimages of lights. (like you are talking on a cell phone in the dark and you move it, there appears to be a trail) (Or look at an LCD TV and look away and still see that image for a split second.)

I have always had floaters and static when looking at the sky or a white wall. Mostly blue screen entopic phenonemon. But every one has this or the ability to see this.

Sometimes I see pinpoint sparks in my vision.

I know it sounds alot like HPPD, but I had alot of this before any drug use. I have tried acid (1/2 hit when I was 16) and smoked weed 3-4 times at that age. That was the only and last time I ever touched drugs. This was over twenty years ago. I sure hope those experiments would not have caused these vision distortions. Most likely from my DP/DR and anxiety. Does anyone agree or disagree? This is a big fear for me that I have ruined myself forever.

Does this sound like Derealization and anxiety or something else altogether?

Greg


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## Rob345 (May 12, 2010)

Misia said:


> That's very interesting. When I had dp, everything looked pretty normal, except I was more aware of the 3-D-ness of objects. I felt like I was in a video game with really good graphics. Everything seemed to have more intense texture. When I'm nervous, walls seem to extend forever, rooms seem larger. But that makes sense, it's the fight-or-flight reaction preparing me for battle.


YES YES YES!! This is the best description I have come across! This is what it's like for me at the moment. My depth perception is usually pretty good, but at the moment I'm hyper-aware of the '3-D-ness' of objects, just like you say. And the analogy of being in a video game with really good graphics is exactly right!

You have no idea how good it is to have someone else reiterate exactly the same thing I'm experiencing! Thanks!


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## Infinitevoid (Mar 25, 2010)

For me it's the opposite. My brain refuses to assign emotion to objects and all I get is a flat world. My brain doesn't really care about its surroundings, like I'm high or something. I operate okay but people just seem like walking pictures to me. They don't feel like people.


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## rob35235 (Feb 21, 2009)

Everyone,

Today, I have been experience episodes where it feels like my vision is trying to fade out into blackness on me, but at the same time the light seems more vivid. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? It is very disturbing, and is somewhat different from the norm for me.

RE: one of the above posters, 
I see tracers of light as well off my cell phone; street lights at night, and other light sources as well. I have had this for a long time.


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## rob35235 (Feb 21, 2009)

Damn, you guys know what? I just realized I posted 2 separate threads about vision problems. I had totally forgot about the other one. See what this DR bs does to your memory?


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## ElectricRelaxation (May 2, 2010)

This is ironic, but I've noticed low doses of DXM give me crystal clear vision for about 2 days. I don't know why this happens, but I was in a pretty good mood the first time it did. I wonder how DXM works to do this.


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## rob35235 (Feb 21, 2009)

Sometimes I feel like I'm looking through a fishbowl. Things will be slightly distorted or warped.


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## rocketteer (May 17, 2010)

I always feel a pressure in the back of my eyes, which either induces a head ache or is the result of one. My vision is very sketchy, I don't take anything in, I see it but I don't SEE it unless I can concentrate on one thing. Otherwise, heh, its that shifty dream vision. Sometimes it is so bad I just have to close my eyes as often as possible because of that sensation of being outside in the sun and moving inside where its darker.


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## insaticiable (Feb 23, 2010)

rocketteer said:


> My vision is very sketchy, I don't take anything in, I see it but I don't SEE it unless I can concentrate on one thing.


Exactly the same thing with me, especially when I'm looking at pictures. Its like I can't take it all in.


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## formerniq (Oct 11, 2009)

The biggest problem I have is all of the spot/floaters that are constantly drifting through my field of vision. Very annoying!
I am also very sensitive to light and seldom venture outside without my sunnies.

Sometimes when I am in busy places, like shopping centres, things can look a little surreal. Somewhat stylized, like in the movie 300! Not everthing looks strange, just certain things such as illuminated signs. This doesn't happen so much any more.

Patterns - particularly closely spaced horizontal stripes -often don't look right. They seem to 'capture' my field of vision, and drown out the other things I should be seeing. There is a guy at my work that often wears a black polo with white horizontal stripes and it always throws me.


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## rob35235 (Feb 21, 2009)

I saw a documentary tonight on "alice in wonderland syndrome" where people will suddenly see things as being much larger or smaller than they really are. They did studies and the nuclear scans of their brains showed improper blood flow in the region of the brain that controls such things. I feel like most likely the blood isn't flowing right or distributing right in certain parts of our brains.


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## lookinglass (Apr 11, 2010)

wow. i have so many of the same, distinct, visual/perception problems as other folks here!

-everything is 2-dimensional for me. it's as if I'm watching a movie. like i view the world through some kind of glass(?) screen, separating me from the world. and the glass screen has some kind of visual static (like on a tv screen) on it.

at night, the visual static is MUCH worse. It's like i can hardly see through static (that night time static actually started 5 or so years before the DR) and I will often avoid being outside at night (i.e. don't go for walks at night) because it is so distracting and unnerving. and scary actually.

EXTREMELY sensitive to light! have to wear sunglasses on bright days. Or, I almost can't open my eyes outside. fluorescent lighting is absolutely THE WORST. any kind of bright overhead lighting, i can hardly tolerate. it makes me SO spaced out. this may be when my DP/DR is the most terrible. feels like i'm viewing things from the end of a long tunnel. like i'm not actually there. always terrifying, because i know that i am, in fact, there. in college, with the brightly lit classrooms and bright white walls, i would have to wear hats and tinted glasses in class - otherwise i could not think straight at all.

floaters. definitely. have had those since i was a kid, i think (didn't get DP/DR until i was 16). i'm never sure if the floaters are actually what is creating that "tv static" phenomenon. i see them when my eyes are closed as well.


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## stromo (Oct 28, 2010)

Hi everyone.

One day I started notice that I have problem to stay calm in environments like supermarkets, buses and streets. I realized that something changed in my perception of the world around me. I started to worry that something bad is happening to me. I went to visit my doctor for the routine exam. I fainted after the blood test. All tests come back ok and I was told I am perfectly healthy and I feinted probably just because I was too afraid of the blood test. It, of course, wasn't convenient to me because this strange perceptional feeling persists. It became worst because I started to feel stressed all the time, even experienced anxiety episodes. I constantly asked myself questions like: What is wrong? Is this some kind of phobia or am I going insane? Life started to be real nightmare for me. I started to analyse myself and aspects of my behaviour. I realized that there is no problem with my thinking and communication. I have been able to pass difficult exams, like it was nothing, I even felt like " It was too easy". I have been giving multiple presentations and consultations every day (I felt like it happening, but I am not 100% there). There was no problem with that, but that strange feeling was still there and, as result, I experienced stress with anxiety episodes every day, all day. I started to take food supplements like vitamin B, Omega 3, Magnesium&#8230; Nothing helped. One day I decided to pay a visit to Optometrist (my first visit ever). I was diagnosed with severe dry eye problem (Schirmer's test result 2mm). I have to supply my eyes with artificial tears regularly. But what is more important, stress and anxiety disappeared almost immediately, after I realized I have dry eye problem. I still notice that my perception of the world is different but it seems I'm not thinking about it 24/7, like I did. I'm not sure if I have DP, but I sure have episodes with visual perception explained here by many of you (too bright world, hyper-aware of the '3-D-ness', video game with really good graphics, like I am not able to accept all the visual information around me, like I can't take it all). I realized that vision problem can heavily affect your mental state and vice versa and you can easily end up in a body trap loop, helpless to find the way out.


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## FoXS (Nov 4, 2009)

ohhh, yesterday i had my first "visual snow" ! 
that was pretty scary, but at the same time i was having a strong headache, so i hope its only because of that. 
i have the 2d thing too and the sizes, sometimes i feel the things i see slide away. 
and the light sensivity. and the surreal thing. 
my vision is horrible, it gives me panic. i saw an optometrist who said my eyes worked perfect. thanks !


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## AJames (Oct 20, 2010)

I always have a hard time trying to explain my vision. I see everything clear but off. Almost like there is a layer of plastic between me and reality and if I could just peel that layer away everything would be normal again. It's like I'm always looking though a window or something. Almost like a dream but not nearly that intense.


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## cass75 (Apr 23, 2009)

If I could stop one thing about DP/DR it would be the visual disturbance-arghhhh. I hate it so much-for me it is the worst symptom, today in my new job we were doing some tests and the white papers on the desk were so hard to focus on and when I did, the rest of the room almost disappeared???????I don't understand it all.......and yes, snow, floaters and a distinct hatred of bright/tube lighting...


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## 39417 (Nov 18, 2011)

grues0me said:


> For me its worse in some situations, like at work with the neon lights. Or especially in supermarkets. The vision is for me like after a glass of whine, i turn my head and its like the world moves a little slower with my view, nearly some kind of motion blur. I often squeeze my eyes then, and when i am opening them, its like a hammer smashed in my face (kind of). Other than that its like a lucid dream. I am there, see, but just like through a camera.
> 
> I had my eyes examined, but except a "floater" (some kind of tissue that swims in my eyewater and is seen like a small black spot moving with my vision) i was perfectly ok.
> 
> Oh, and its like my eyes feel "swollen", like the eyeballs are double the size, sounds silly but its some kind of pressure all the time.


I CAN COMPLETELY RELATE TO THIS POST!!!. I remember in 2006 I would always get these migrane-like things.


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## 39417 (Nov 18, 2011)

rob35235 said:


> Everyone,
> 
> Today, I have been experience episodes where it feels like my vision is trying to fade out into blackness on me, but at the same time the light seems more vivid. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? It is very disturbing, and is somewhat different from the norm for me.
> 
> ...


Yeah I get get the same thing with street lights and cell phone traces off like you said.


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## dextobra (Jan 19, 2012)

- after images (patterns of things get stuck in my cornea so I can almost see my surroundings with my eyes closed
- visual snow
- floaters
- flashes of light, particularly when trying to sleep
- things appear closer or further


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## 39417 (Nov 18, 2011)

dextobra said:


> - after images (patterns of things get stuck in my cornea so I can almost see my surroundings with my eyes closed
> - visual snow
> - floaters
> - flashes of light, particularly when trying to sleep
> - things appear closer or further


I have the exact same thinggg!


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## forestx5 (Aug 29, 2008)

There seem to be many similarities, and many differences in individual DP/DR. I would say my DR was mostly transient. My DP was transient, but also episodic. But, my DP/DR was is/was a function of temporall lobe seizure. I did acquire heavy floaters and recurring migraine aura after my 1st seizure. There was something special about my 1st seizure. I recently read a medical abstract that thought it had established for the 1st time, that a temporal lobe discharge engulfed the visual pathway and resulted in severe distortion (tunneling) of sight with every epileptic discharge. Since discharges can occur for up to two minutes at a frequency of every 3 or 4 seconds, that is quite a visual experience. I had terrible head pressure following the seizure, and I'm pretty sure that's what caused my recent MRI to show diffuse lesions which are associated with migraine aura. Also, it baked my vestibular system and gave me some kind of myoclonus in my ears that presents with constant popping and clicking and pressure changes. Some seizures can cause edema and high intracranial pressure which can result in these things. I wonder if they will ever get this stuff sorted out at the research level. If/when they do, it will take another 20 years for it to make it to retail medicine. 
There is such a disconnect there.


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## JoshJones (Jan 8, 2013)

dextobra said:


> - after images (patterns of things get stuck in my cornea so I can almost see my surroundings with my eyes closed
> - visual snow
> - floaters
> - flashes of light, particularly when trying to sleep
> - things appear closer or further


Yes! Finally someone with the same as me, I also see sort of shapes when I'm trying to sleep. They're sort of like burns on my retina, like after looking at a bright light, but radiate like my visual snow. With my vision I also find it extremely difficult to focus on one small point as I will notice my eyes subconsciously slightly drifting, I'm not sure if it is my brain perceiving the image or my actual eyes, It affects how I read and watch TV. I have stopped having such a sensitive sense of peripheral vision. The symptoms and possible conditions I could list would be virtually endless. It's so frustrating.


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