Visual Trails (bursts of light that cross my visual field).?!


Question: Visual Trails (bursts of light that cross my visual field).?
I have for about as long as I can remember experienced Visual Trails. They don't happen very frequently, maybe just a couple of times a month, and tend not to last more than 10-20 seconds. When it happens it is as if tiny bursts of light fade into existence from out of no where and shoot across my visual field and dissipate. Usually there seems to be about 5-15 streams of light shooting around at the same time, new ones appearing and old ones disappearing for the duration of the trails. Each individual trail only lasts for a split second.

HPPD is possible as I have taken a synthetic hallucinogenic substance once in my life, but I had trails before that point. They aren't very distressful and don't really interfear in my life in any way, but I am mostly wanting to know if this is something I should have checked out? I have read on the internet that many doctors fail to find a reason for tails, and are usually unable to find anything wrong w/ the persons eyes or neurology.

Answers:

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What you are experiencing are abnormal nerve discharges in the occipital lobes of your brain. This is where your brain processes the nerve signals that come from your eyes. If you went on to develop seizures or migraine headaches afterwards, this would be called an "aura". You could have something called "ocular migraines", where the visual aura can be much more pronounced than the headache itself. Some people with ocular migraines sometimes don't get the migraine headaches afterwards at all. You might be one of those people. If they're occurring as infrequently as you say, and don't seem to affect your life very much, you probably don't need to do much about them, but I would at least have your doctor check you out, and possible refer you to a neurologist, but if your primary doctor is comfortable with the diagnosis, a referral might not be necessary.

I am a physician with over 18 years of experience.




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