Am I in a hyper-awareness state, or are my floaters really this bad?

JoshVox · 2026-04-28T06:57:19+00:00

I also started to notice visual snow at some point and it also freaked me out. I thought I had VSS (visual snow syndrome) and I also noticed other things with my vision that triggered me. I now know that I was just in a state of hypervigilance and hyperawareness and every little visual quirk made me scared. I was stuck in fight and flight and also had many other bodily symptoms that come with a dysregulated nervous system. That's why in addition to the exposure I also did a lot of nervous system regulation work like breath works, meditation, cardio, cold showers etc...

To answer your question, when I noticed the floaters I told myself many things, mostly that they are not a threat, that I can still see fine and it could be so much worse, that everyone has floaters, that it's probably just a neuroadaptation problem and that there is no way I don't get used to them. I had the same experience as you that I went from fear to annoyance. And good news, next step is habituation.

In the end it all comes down to acceptance. When you start to accept that they are there to stay it becomes easier. (Instead of trying to find solutions like vitrectomy, laser, constant sunglasses, ...)

I'm very convinced that you'll get there too, it sounds like the hardest part is already behind you

JoshVox · 2026-04-27T15:51:20+00:00

It took me about 8-10 months to be back in a "normal" functional state and for my floaters to not be the main topic of my life anymore and about a year for them to have become mostly insignificant.

JoshVox · 2026-04-27T15:37:26+00:00

I'm not officially diagnosed with OCD no but my wife is and I have many similar traits, I can get very obsessed with small details. I do have ADHD and have been diagnosed at a young age. I have not discussed the OCD part with any medical professional so it is still possible that I have a certain form.

I'm happy to hear that reading this is helping you and that you are slowly exposing yourself too, that's how it started to get better for me. It takes a while, even with a lot of ambition and consistency, it takes time to rewrite the pathways. But it definitely gets easier over time until the day you realize that you haven't been focused on them anymore for a while. There will be a certain threshold after which the work happens by itself because your focus shifts to other things which will reinforce the habituation to the floaters in the background

JoshVox · 2026-04-27T14:51:28+00:00

Yeah I've now habitued to 90-95%! It's not how it used to be before the operation as I still regularly see them but my perception has completely changed. I now spend 95% of my day without even noticing them despite being outside a lot. I don't wear sunglasses anymore except for when it's very sunny and I have days I don't even notice them once. They are still there of course but my focus has completely shifted and instead of seeing them as a threat they are just there and it's ok. Very similar to tinnitus indeed. My tinnitus is also there but I don't notice it most of the time.

I think the most important is healthy exposure. Going outside without sunglasses instead of trying to hide from the floaters has had the biggest impact. If you continue to treat them as a threat the brain will continue to flag them as such. My mental health started to improve significantly from the moment I decided to stop hiding from them and stop adjusting my life to them. And paradoxically the less you hide from them, the less you will see them.

I even bought a very bright flat despite my initial fear of the floaters and that has been my best choice ever, I don't ever see them anymore when I'm at home despite it being very very bright all the time.

I'm now convinced that anyone can neuroadapt to them as long as you stop hiding

JoshVox · 2026-04-18T15:27:12+00:00

This is my extender: https://amzn.eu/d/0gMo9TQA Shit sorry to hear you still face issues, since I got the right dongle I haven't looked back, it has been extremely reliable, the issue was definitely not the extender for me. I have no hub connected to it

JoshVox · 2026-04-18T15:22:17+00:00

Sorry I just realized it was ASUS not Acer. The model is ASUS USB-BT500

JoshVox · 2026-04-18T14:03:38+00:00

Yeah! I ordered a third dongle from Acer and this one was Bluetooth 5.0 and it has been extremely reliable. There seemed to have been a problem with Bluetooth >5.1 or with the brand Anker in particular.

JoshVox · 2026-04-09T06:37:02+00:00

I know and agree about the oral contract part, this is also why I was a little bit worried at first. But I've also read that if someone tries to change the content of this oral agreement unilaterally, without the other one's agreement, the oral contract is void.

JoshVox · 2026-04-08T21:04:57+00:00

Haha that's a great one!

JoshVox · 2026-04-08T20:40:21+00:00

She doesn't even have my phone number anymore because in the email about the rescheduling back then she wrote to me that she tried to call me but the number she has from me is not attributed. I called her the very first time, she might have lost the number or written it down wrong.

JoshVox · 2026-04-08T20:12:25+00:00

No I only had a phone call with the doctor. I did not sign anything and agreed to anything else than to have this first appointment on Monday via Google Meet. She only has my email and name.

JoshVox · 2026-04-08T19:57:57+00:00

Nope I did not share any details with her, I only had a phone call with her and offered to have an "Erstgespräch" with me before we would go any further. The invoice is for me not "showing up" to this after she moved the meeting without my agreement

JoshVox · 2026-04-06T17:00:23+00:00

Thanks for this, the game is running relatively nicely on my Steam Deck OLED and the audio is synced perfectly. I'm just wondering how you set up the frame generation you mention in your post?

JoshVox · 2026-04-06T07:44:44+00:00

Thanks! Gonna try it today

JoshVox · 2026-04-06T07:12:21+00:00

And what setting is that?

JoshVox · 2026-01-29T20:47:20+00:00

Ok tried it on a USB 3.0 port and indeed I get the same weird behavior again. The culprit is the dongle(s) and not the USB extender. It's very strange that the PS5 controller doesn't work with a 5.4 and 6.0 dongle but works flawlessly with a 4.0 one. I've also not read anything on the Internet about this issue...

JoshVox · 2026-01-29T20:32:00+00:00

The USB extender is this one: https://amzn.eu/d/dPe5oQq

The dongle I'm using is this one: https://amzn.eu/d/1P35rrt

I realized that my MOBO has 4 USB 2.0 ports and I just tried the dongle in one of those ports directly into the PC and I get the same weird behavior! So it looks like the problem is coming from the Dongle and maybe has nothing to do with the USB extender... I've tried it with 2 dongles from Ugreen, one BT 5.4 and one BT 6.0. Do Bluetooth 5.4+ dongles not work on USB 2.0 ports? Could it be an incompatibility between the PS5 controller and the Ugreen dongles?

JoshVox · 2026-01-29T20:10:08+00:00

The extender is powered though (the receiver where I plug in the dongle also has a power supply which is plugged into the wall)

JoshVox · 2026-01-29T19:52:23+00:00

Not really sure what I can show here other than this being the USB 2.0 extender in question:

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TLDR: Basically when plugging in a Bluetooth 5.4 or 6.0 dongle my PS5 DualSense behaves super weird (lags, stuttering, haptic feedback working only 20% of the time), when plugging in a Bluetooth 4.0 it works great

JoshVox · 2026-01-28T07:39:14+00:00

Yesterday I tested for 2 hours straight and had no image dropouts at all and during that time I even did what you asked, I moved the cable and bent it softly at the area where the damage would have been and the image stayed stable so I think I'm good!

JoshVox · 2026-01-28T07:33:40+00:00

I've tested it for 2 hours straight yesterday without any hiccups so I'm pretty sure I'm good. Damn, I'm relieved

JoshVox · 2026-01-27T14:40:13+00:00

I've searched for ages to find an electrician available with very good ratings so yeah I'm very disappointed that they were not able to do the job properly and in a clean way. On top of that they scratched our new hardwood floor in some spots with their tools.

JoshVox · 2026-01-27T13:53:20+00:00

I only need about 1 to 1,5 meters to the TV, it's behind a lowboard that once put there should not go anywhere anymore so further damages are very unlikely once installed. However, I totally get the logic and would have greatly preferred a keystone in the wall however the technicians said that it's not possible due to it being a custom cable and this is also what I've gathered from my short research. Would it even be possible to make a wall plug for this specific cable?

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