# Why do fluorescent lights make dp/dr worse?



## dax (Mar 16, 2005)

I've noticed several people on the board mention that fluorescent lights make their dp/dr experience much worse. I have noiced this as well. Why do you feel this is? I think its because of the environment that it creates around you, it always makes me feel trapped and increases the vision abnormalities, i.e. feeling like i'm in a fish bowl, like I'm in a haze. etc.


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## Guest (Mar 17, 2005)

the lights made me feel wierd even when i didnt have dr, i hate them


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## Guest (Mar 17, 2005)

Because somehow we become sensitive to light outside of the visible spectrum?


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## Guest (Mar 17, 2005)

It's the way they flicker - 50 times a second here in the UK and 60 times a second in the US I believe.


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## Brainsilence02 (Jan 29, 2005)

I have something very.. very interesting to report, I'm sure that you will like this 

One day I was in a big amphitheater for a lexture (university stuff). The light wasn't fluorescent, it was the plain (incandescence/glow) lamps.

The light was yellow (as with almost al plain lamps is). I had this "bold contrast" thing, I knew that something was not OK but I am used to this (for the last 10 years or so).

Without any great motivation I said to myself "hey, maybe I can change this". I knew that the problem is in my head not my eyes. So I concentrated and said "the light is perfectly fine, you must see it the way it really is". And I believed that the light was fine. And then... the light became fine.

It was a spectacular sight! Natural lighting the way I was remembering it 10 years ago. After a while, I noticed that was focusing into this and that I was making it happen, and it was gone 

I have a fluorescent lamp in my desk since I was 12. And sometimes, today, I see "good" even with this lamp (while at the same time all light seem to me "bad").

I now know that for me (and maybe for others too), it might not be the fluorescent that creates the trouble. But maybe they make it worse.


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## agentcooper (Mar 10, 2005)

grrr! i absolutely HATE fluorescent lights. when my dp/dr was very severe, a few years ago, i couldn't even go grocery shopping because it was too bright and too fluorescent. now, with only mild dp/dr, i still have to turn half of my lights off in my room (i'm a teacher).

it feels like the lights shine directly into my brain and aren't filtered by anything...like they're zapping me...


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## David (Nov 23, 2004)

What about mirrors? I have a real issues with mirrors. That whole thing about how you look into it then become hyper aware of yourself. It's OK if you're shaving in the mirror or something but if you actually just stop and look at yourself it feels really weird. I was getting my hair cut last night and having this huge mirror in front of me was doing my head in. I sometimes think I could go completely mad if I just looked in a mirror for a while!

Anyone else experienced this? I do agree about fluorescent lights by the way. Supermarkets with bright lights and buzzing freezer cabinets freak me out.

David


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## lyssy (Dec 7, 2004)

i hate mirrors and florescent lights. im joining the club. :shock:
it was alot worse but is getting better over the months.


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## dax (Mar 16, 2005)

agentcooper said:


> grrr! i absolutely HATE fluorescent lights. when my dp/dr was very severe, a few years ago, i couldn't even go grocery shopping because it was too bright and too fluorescent. now, with only mild dp/dr, i still have to turn half of my lights off in my room (i'm a teacher).
> 
> it feels like the lights shine directly into my brain and aren't filtered by anything...like they're zapping me...


I feel exatly the same way :shock: :x


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## skEwb (Mar 5, 2005)

If you guys think grocery stores are bad try going in huge malls with lots of different lights and patterns and mirrors and glass and people.

It can be scary, but I've been going more and more against my will to get used to it and it's kinda working. I've been able to keep the small adrenaline rushes that occurr from messed up vision in control by ignoring them.

I guess I keep doing what I used to as a normal person against my will and it's sort of working.


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## David (Nov 23, 2004)

There's a solution there - don't go to malls. They're dreadful places. Luckily we don't have as many of the in England, and I avoid the ones we do have. Horrible, soulless places.

I think keep doing what you used to do a as a normal person is absolutely the best thing to do. It's fucking hard, but just work through the DP. When it kicks back in and reminds you, you realise that you might have had half an hour or an hour with it.

David


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## sleepingbeauty (Aug 18, 2004)

flourecent lights suck.. but what sucks worse for me is sunlight. the only thing that comes close to describing it is that scene in the movie blade where the girl is starting to turn into a vampire.. and when the sun comes up its very very bright and almost blinding. i have to wear shades when i go out during the day, its not a choice its a must.


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## David (Nov 23, 2004)

Are you sure that's DP? I've never heard of sunlight and DP before. May be more anxiety-related?


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2005)

I can't stand neon light and supermarkets make me feel totally disoriented. But as an IT professionnal and internet dweller, I spend up to 12 hours a day behind a computer monitor and that does contribute to my DR feeling quite a bit. Flat-panel monitors are easier to bear, in this respect and that must be because their refresh frequencies are usually higher than those of cathodic monitors. Or is it because diode light is less debilitating than cathodic tube light? Are there physicists in here? What differenciates these two sorts of light besides, perhaps, their wavelengths? More down to earth, how do you geeks cope with that problem? Like most software developers, I have a compulsive need for coffee when I'm designing or programming. I stumble my way to the coffee machine like a zombie, annihilated, walk into people, mumble an apology, I forget I even exist while looking in my pocket for change, putting the coins in the slot and waiting for my coffee. I walk back to my office, sipping that disgusting watery coffee, avoiding to look people in the eyes, my visual focus is completely off, like non-existant and exploded at the same time, I finally crash on my chair and slip back into my imaginary world made of C++ code, behind that TFT monitor.

That's my experience of DP/DR and computer monitors.


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## dax (Mar 16, 2005)

sleepingbeauty said:


> flourecent lights suck.. but what sucks worse for me is sunlight. the only thing that comes close to describing it is that scene in the movie blade where the girl is starting to turn into a vampire.. and when the sun comes up its very very bright and almost blinding. i have to wear shades when i go out during the day, its not a choice its a must.


I feel the opposite when it comes to sunlight. The sunlight reduces my dr. I notice my dr is a lot worse at night in my office when there is no sun coming in the windows and the only thing lighting the office are the flourecents. When I am outside I don't feel so trapped and I think that helps too.


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