Visual anomalies

Post Reply New Topic

Hovis' "What is this?" post made me want to ask about this, but I didn't want to take over that thread with it.

I am mildly synesthetic (coloured hearing, coloured text), and also subject to migraines, but I have a couple of visual anomalies that don't seem to be related to information "leaking through" from other senses, or to my migraine auras, and wondered if it is at all related to AS, or if other people here experience similar phenomena.

The Cloud Funnel: In bright light (especially sunlight), when I am looking at a solid-colored space, or when my eyes are closed, I always see this thing like an animated transparent overlay that is like clouds being sucked into a funnel in the center of my visual field.

Blue/Red flashy thing: When I'm trying to read in sunlight, the (black) text flashes blue and red. This makes it almost impossible to read. I've noticed at these times that if I close one eye at a time, it does not flash, and that one eye seems to see more red, while the other sees more blue, so I think this must have something to do with eye teaming, or with not smoothly integrating information from both eyes into a seamless image.

Bugs: This usually happens when I stand up too quickly, or turn my head too far to one side (like trying to look over my shoulder), but sometimes for no apparent reason. I see tiny black spots with a white or silvery glow around them, usually at the edges of my vision, that scoot around like water-bugs.

Cats: When I am very tired, or very stressed-out, I start seeing cats. Or rather, I detect (non-existant) motion in my peripheral vision, which my mind invariably interprets as a cat (probably because I have had cats as pets for most of my life). Sometimes at work, I have been so convinced there was a cat in the building I have had to go check around the lobby to be sure one hadn't got in somehow.

Does anyone else here experience these phenomena, and if so do you know what causes them or why they happen, or if they are related to AS or to something else? Whenever I have asked anyone before, they have just assumed I was on drugs (I'm not), so I'm reluctant to ask, generally. But this seems like a slightly safer place ask, as some people have reported equally weird things.

I get something similar to the blue/red thing. At times I have noticed that one eye seems things more blue and the other eye more red. After a little testing, I have established that if one eye is somehow in a more shaded position than the other then this effect occurs. So I think it must just be a filtering thing the eye does naturally. So maybe everyone gets it, just most people don't notice? As for the text flashing those colours, maybe that is a combination of this effect and some lack of synchronicity between your two eyes.

I also get something similar to the bugs, except my eye-bugs don't ever seem to be caused by anything. And they are entirely light blue and sparkle as they squiggle around the edge of my vision.

The bugs don't happen very often and obviously the blue/red thing just happens when the light disparity is there.

I don't think these mean you are going crazy.

I've been spanked a lot, emotionally, for trying to describe some of my uniquenesses, when I was younger ... before I learned to keep my mouth shut. No spankings here, of course but it is still very difficult for me to talk about. In fact, I put up a little decription of a couple of things, about a week ago. My post stayed overnight and I had to impulsively remove it. Not quite sure why. I'm trying to become braver about this stuff, but I'm still new here and I have a ways to go.

I will say that I have some constant confusion between sights and sounds, that is very real to me, even if it IS impossible, outside my mind. I also experience some oddities that seem to come and go. I sometimes experience a rather debilitating migraine type headache which cancels a couple of days when it visits. Sleep seems to do screwy things to me, also.

I'm an NT, this jargon is all new to me. I have a new friend with AS and I'm learning.
I just wanted to comment on the visual anomolies and your perceptions.

I might imagine that whenever anything odd happens you wonder if it's your diagnosed condition and just one more thing to worry about.

This has happened to me all my life and it happens to most people. It could be a piece of dust in your eye or light reflecting off of something.

I flat out have poor vision, if I'm driving along a road, mostly at night. A mailbox might look like a deer or another car. I react and slam on my brakes, then see it was nothing. As a matter of fact it just happened last night. I feel foolish, but it's better to hit the brakes and be safe not sorry.

It's just tricks our eyes playing tricks on us. I think it might be safe to dismiss this an no big deal and it certainly isn't specific to any one group of people. EVERYONE gets it.

I hope that helps

I know exactly what you mean. I tried a few times as an adolescent to ask about my synesthesia (I did not know the word for it, then) and other sensory anomalies, and invariably got scary-bad responses from friends and family, as in: "You're scary, stay away from me" "You need to see a shrink" "You are on drugs" or "You should be medicated." So I learned not to talk about it.

It is only very recently I have been able to try asking about it again, mostly because of my bf, who was the first person I ever told about my synesthesia who reacted in a positive way ("that's really cool!").

I hope you can learn to be more comfortable with those things, DirtDawg. It's definitely a relief not to think of it anymore as this big dirty secret that I will be locked up for talking about.

This can be your temporal lobes playing tricks on you. This is what I was told by the doctor when I asked about that, and also hearing a lot of radio static.
I started taking anticonvulsant medication a few months ago to help me with anxiety and for mood stabilising, it has helped ease the effects of seeing shadows as well.

Thanks!
I'm actually an old guy with no reason left to be shy about anything, but some stuff has been catalogued and filed away in my head so many different ways and so many different times that I just try to roll with it when I'm having a 'highlight' day. Sometimes I have a highlight day, sometimes it's an ALL CAPS day and sometimes I have days that falter between the paragraphs of life.

the "bugs" (and by extension, cats) are probably from a fluctuation in blood pressure when you move suddenly. I'm chronically dehydrated and when I stand up too fast or move my head quickly, I see spots or totally black out or see a big blue cloud. If your blood pressure drops, it means it's taking time to send blood up to your head and you'll get visuals.

I too see cats, usually when I am very tired and somewhat "overloaded" but I have also had cats as pets literally since birth, and I'm hypoglycemic which may play a role in what my doctor terms "mild visual phenomenon". As to the other oddities, no, not as described...but I have suffered very poor vision all my life and even glasses did not seem to totally correct it. Then I met a neurologist during my disability hearings and he tested me for Irfen Syndrome (spelling here?), a neurological disorder he said was linked to AS - danged if I know for sure, I have not had time to do any comprehensive research as late and this is my first post here in awhile. He said it the waveryness and color oddities were caused by an interperative color bleedover. The solution - tinted glass. He said the tint color ranges for each person, for me a polarized blue tint added to my perscription lenses worked literal wonders. I am now aware of another Asheville Aspie, with IS through Asheville TEACCH whose lenses are pink. So who knows, I could do further research if you're curious and let you know.

cyberpunkwriter: if you can find the proper spelling, or more information on the syndrome you mention, I'd like to read more about it (I tried looking it up as you wrote it, but got nothing).

okay, will try to get that ASAP

Meares-Irlen Syndrome
Scotopic Sensitivity/Irlen Syndrome

www.autism.org/irlen.html

Hope you find it helpful or at least vaguely interesting.

I don't know so much about seeing things. But I do frequently seem to hear things.

I know they aren't real, so I am not schiztophrenic

But they sometimes sound really loud and they say things I'm not thinking of. Mostly they sounds like thinks I've said earlier. Like I'm hearing an echo of my voice. I guess I never really thought of it as being unsual until I learned I most probably have AS.

When I'm rested, generally I hear things when it's really quiet, but I can't make out what it is. But for some reason when I'm tired I'll hear it really clearly. Whole words and whatnot. It's largely ignored by me, so I'm even having a hard time thinking of an example... x.x

Sometimes it's an echo of my voice, or someone elses. Or perhaps its something I "might" say if I had been talking or had a reason to talk at that moment. As it happens when other people are around, I can assure you I am not actually saying it... Maybe if I was in a story and believed it was real, then I'd say I was hearing another parallel earth with me in it. j/k (lol, sorry I'm a scifi fan, had to say that )

I always just thought it was a sign I was tired.

dandelion

I think I read some where that the "bugs" are real...they are bits of dust or tiny fibers that float around on the liquid pond of our eyes....I asked someone about this when I was younger because I saw them all the time and they looked like little amebas or something.They seem to be more visible in perticular light and I think because my eys lenses change focus when I'm "spacing out" I see them floating around(they move as you move your eye from right to left...try it, looks like they are swimming)

I also have any over oad of perreferial information at times and see movements when nothing is there.I wear glasses but the perrefrial is very blurred (almost blind without glasses)so I can never tell what I'm seeing until I turn my head and look through my glasses...oh, nothing there....I always thought this was an after effect of all the acid I took when I was in twentys, so it is annoying but not scarey.

The auditory "halucinations" are a little more annoying to me.....when I was living at home I would always "hear" my mothering calling my name, but when I would ask her she would say she didnt...this still happens occassionally, hearin someone calling me, but less often.I sort of assumed this was because I was a "daydreamer" as a kid and would get in trouble if she called and I didnt come runing, so it made me hyper aware to any sound that might be my name(TV sound,dishwasher running...)The worst for me is that sometimes when water is running in the pipes of the house(I work overnights and it is very quit)it sounds like some music is playing somewhere....I check to see if a resident has turned on their radio or TV and find nothing...this is annoying, as the "songs" are often horrible sounding and repeat refrains....hard to explain, but I hate this.

Dirtdog...My family didnt punish me when I said"this soup tastes like it has a touch of Delux dish detergent" or..."these chicken nuggets smell faintly of road kill" but they liked to make fun of me for it.Alot of foods taste"chemical" to me....what a suprise...they have alot of chemicals in them....I only learned about AS a few months ago...so, I never realized that this were sinsations that others had.It is somewhat comforting to know that although I may be a freak...I am not the ONLY freak...lol

krex, I've seen these things, too, but I know what they are (and for some reason I notice them much less often than when I was a kid). The "bugs" I was talking about in my first post are (I think) more akin to what people refer to as "seeing stars". They are quite bright, and I think of them as bugs only because the way they move reminds me of the way swarms of little waterbugs dance around on the surface of the water. When I was younger I got them closer to the center of my visual field much less often, and would sometimes mistake them for actual bugs and swat at them.

cyberpunkwriter: thanks for the link! It was at least interesting

I get the "bug" thing too but I have always been told that they were floaters whatever that is suposed to mean. I have never visualized cats but I also see movement I\in my perherial vision when I am tired and in low light conditions . These things are pretty normal I think Douglas Adams wrote about this effect and named it "someone eles' problem" and I have heard several people talk about seeing floaties.
The visual abnormality I get is that louad low ringing noises cause my vision the virbrate. the closer the source and the louader the source the worst this effect is.
An office telephone is the worst but some ringtones do the same thing I, I do not think that this is related to Aspergers' though I think that it is just another oddity about my self