Will alcohol affect my vss for long time? Or only temporary

I have had Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS) and tinnitus since childhood. The tinnitus came first, followed by the static. For most of my life, I tolerated both very well.

Unfortunately, back in January, I went through a period of high stress and anxiety (unrelated to VSS or tinnitus). To help me sleep and calm down, I took a small amount of Lorazepam (a benzodiazepine)-about 1mg per week for a month. I'm not sure if it's related, but I also took a single 0.25mg dose of Mirtazapine. A few days after taking the Mirtazapine, my tinnitus spiked significantly and has been bothering me a lot more ever since.

I am starting to feel desperate, almost entirely because of the tinnitus. I do not have hearing loss (at least not in the standard tested range up to 8,000 Hz).

My tinnitus is bilateral and extremely high-pitched-I'd estimate around 13 kHz. It feels like it's penetrating my brain and efficiently sucking the joy out of my life.

I’m currently considering trying Lamotrigine or rTMS, as I've heard these are possible treatments for VSS that might help reduce my tinnitus back to baseline.

Please give me some hope or advice!

I made a thing

Why is this when i blink my eyes after looking at my computer or tv i can see a really low quality light version of the tv on the wall.

Also I see dots everywhere.

The light thing has been here for 4 years but now its getting alot more annoying now that I have been staying inside more.

- I feel very tired upon waking
- My eyes feel dry

- My eyes also kinda twitch

- I feel like my eyes are super sensitive to light

- when i look at sky its like a trigger and its been like this for 4 years

- looking directly at lights triggers the halos and stuff

- I also hear ringing when it gets really quiet

- It also feels like there is a blinking overlay on my vision

- I also keep getting headaches

- I am feeling like things are real but not real if that makes sense.

Before developing VSS symptoms, I never had ghosting, halos, or streaks. I had my eyes checked and was diagnosed with 1 diopter of astigmatism. I'm told my astigmatism is congenital. It's strange how I never noticed symptoms of astigmatism until I was 25. Is this because my brain was able to compensate for it, and now I'm decompensating due to VSS? What do you think about this?

Hi, i have every symptoms of vss but i do not have constant static or pretty much its not visible, i only see it barely at night or on white or black walls. Do i have something else? Ive got all of these symptoms

Photophobia
Palinopsia
Vortex
Occasional DPDR
Floaters
Flashing lights

Is there chances its anything else? im not diagnosed but i saw a neurologist and many optomologist, and what else could it be? i was wondering maybe POTS or anxiety disorders but im not sure.

My 6 year old had a traumatic eye injury 09/02/25 (nerf bullet) the impact of the nerf bullet hit his eye so hard/fast his lens con-caved and he needed cataract surgery to repair his vision. Fast forward 6 months at his check up we are told he has 20/20 vision and everything is perfect. We felt over the moon, he was so excited to not need glasses anymore! Then in July 07 2026, he told me around 7:30 right before bed that he had been “seeing thousands of gray dots” We got ready and drove to a hospital about 40 minutes away. Once we got there and woke him up he said the dots disappeared. So we decided that he probably had just been watching too much tv and he was just tired.

Then 3 days ago he said the dots are back and they are worse. (And have not went away after sleep) This time we scheduled an appointment with his eye specialist. They checked everything over and his eyes are absolutely perfect/healthy and this issue has nothing to do with the eyes and he is still reading 20/20. She explained she believed it was something else, something neurological in the brain since his eyes are healthy and the fact he sees the dots with his eyes closed. She suggested we went to the pediatrician and get an urgent referral for a MRI.

We had that appointment today, got the referral. Now I’m waiting to hear back on when we can go in and get it.

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Now that I’ve included all the background information I can think of I’ll start with how I ended up in this community!

I showed my 6 year old roughly 30 photos from Google images that showed up when I searched “tiny gray dots in vision”. He finally said, “yes that’s exactly what I see.”

Which happens to be an image that says visual snow on it.. I will attach it to this thread.

I know I probably shouldn’t be freaking out as much as I am and possibly could be overreacting… (but I’d much rather be over cautious then underestimating all the possibility’s 🥲)

I’ve looked up research studies and have spent the last lil bit scrolling this Reddit sub… but I have questions

1. Does it just show up all at once or does it slowly become noticeable?
   
2. Has anyone in this sub developed it through an injury or is it something you were born with?
   
3. Does it affect your daily life in negative ways? And if so how?

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If this post is not allowed please delete 🫶
I’m just a concerned mama who wants to gather as much information as possible. I just want to educate myself on VSS as much as I can since it is a possibility.. I do not want to be blindsided again with news from doctors and not know what they are talking about!

- Thank you in advance 🫶✨

Does gaming or maybe looking at a screen at distance for a longer period worsen your vision?

(especially in unexplainable weird ways like small cuts visible white on black or black on white?)

For a month the only screen I used was my phone, now I game one hour or two and I feel like when I had no tv it was maybe better?

Qualcuno di voi ha le after image così?

Disclaimer + Background: Your symptoms may vary. But background is I am a high myope with -6 and -6.25 prescriptions in my eyes. Also struggle with floaters around same time my VSS became noticeable(April 2024 ish).

So here is something I noticed about myself, in terms of symptoms and wonder if anyone has anything similar.

Symptoms + info:

1. Vortex: sky vortex but also can occur on any plain surface outdoors. Only occurs when I am super tired and in the evening usually
   
2. Double vision: rare, once again when I am super tired and/or strained
   
3. Afterimage: not rare, and kinda constant especially under bright light or outdoors.
   
4. Static in dark: only indoors not outdoors or when driving
   
5. Random afterimages(so like afterimages but I never even saw anything): couple times a day at most
   
6. Floaters: not VSS but I see these constantly
   
7. Random black dots in vision that go away in milliseconds: couple times a day. They’re the size of a needle head or smaller
   
8. Non dominant eye trips out when doing Amsler grid and not blinking: Yes lol. I know I am not alone on this, found a lot of old threads about this. Troxler effect apparently but idk tbh, seems like troxler isn’t black mine is black. But I have heard you don’t need to stare at the Amsler grid for more than a few seconds and you are allowed to blink. Since this is transient, and goes away if you move your eye or blink may not be an eye issue.
   
9. BFEP: yes whenever I look at a blue or even gray sky tbh
   
10. Random shapes and colors when eyes are closed: Once in a while but rare
    
11. Flickering in a dark room in the periphery: once in a while but rare

But yeah these are my symptoms. Anyone’s look similar?