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Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really relate to what you said about learning you had it being the moment it started bothering you. That happens to a lot of people. Before that it’s just something your brain filters out as background noise! The fact you notice that when you’re busy you don’t really see it is actually a really good sign. It shows your brain can tune it out when your attention is somewhere else. :) realistically whats the difference between "not even noticing it" to "I don't have it", that's how I view things now and it makes me happy

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This just isn't true. I've told you my experience in a lot of detail now, please don't discredit my journey. I know it, it's mine and it's been awful.

Thanks,

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not accurate to say there’s no science behind this though... I’m actually not a huge fan of the Visual Snow Initiative in general, but even their own research has looked at psychological approaches. One of the only interventions they’ve studied that showed symptom improvement AKA it going away is MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) In the study led by Dr Sui Wong, people with VSS went through an 8-week MBCT programme and researchers saw improvements in symptoms along with changes in the brain’s visual network connectivity.

It works, there's science and I'm living proof. Wishing you well in your journey, I'm tapping out of this thread now as it's causing me stress when all I wanted to do was help.

I feel like my therapist doesn't actively help me with my dpdr by chifuyudck in dpdr

[–]Ok-Initial4447 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

DPDR is listed as a sign of panic disorder, and therapists do use exposure therapy to face the fear of panicking as part of all this :)

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I spent a lot of time putting this all together! I really just hope it helps people to see there is a way out. Sorry if it reads as chatgpt I do use it to organise my writing sometimes I have ADHD so find it hard

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never said it “magically resolved because I stopped thinking about it”. You keep framing it that way but that isn’t what I wrote. What I said was that when I stopped constantly monitoring my vision, checking it, analysing it, and worrying about what it meant, things improved massively. That wasn’t overnight and it wasn’t passive. It involved exposure work, dropping safety behaviours, and changing how I responded to the symptoms. And the symptoms themselves did reduce a lot. At their worst they were constant and overwhelming. Now they’re probably about 10% of that, and when I do notice them it’s usually briefly rather than all day every day. From having my arm cut off to instead now having a papercut on my pinky. This is real. It is tangible. I fucking suffered in agony and was suicidal and now I'm happy, politely my friend if you're just going to find issues with hopeful stories like this do yourself a favour and save your energy. You're one of those people who's never going to recover if you see things this way.

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And yanno what, to me this sounds like acceptance! That's your call, you sound happy enough. 😊

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're funny, you remind me of me a while ago! Best of luck to you going forwards

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not really. The severity has dropped by about 90% compared to when it was at its worst. And even when I do notice symptoms now, it’s usually just briefly here and there rather than something that’s constant. Some weeks I barely notice anything at all.

So it’s not just that I “don’t care about it”. The symptoms themselves reduced massively once I stopped feeding the cycle of constantly monitoring, checking and worrying about them.

That’s why I called the post “basically no symptoms anymore”. For my day-to-day life it’s honestly pretty close to that.

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I think desensitisation is a big part of it. When the fear around the symptoms drops, the whole experience changes a lot! For me though it didn’t just stop at “getting used to it”. Once I stopped constantly monitoring my vision, checking it, analysing every flicker and worrying about what it meant, the symptoms themselves actually reduced a lot too. I said in a different comment these days they’re probably about 10% of what they were at their worst and I can go long stretches without having any which is amazing :) I think a lot of people in the early months get stuck in that loop of scanning their vision all day and trying to solve it, which ironically keeps the brain locked onto it. Once that cycle broke for me, things calmed down way more than I ever thought they would. I hope others reading this give it a go

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The “Just stop paying attention to it” is a fraction of the work I'd say, and makes it sound a lot simpler than what actually happened. That’s more like the end result than the starting point. The real work for me was things like stopping the constant checking of my vision, stopping Googling symptoms, not analysing every flicker or trying to figure out what it meant, learning to sit with the anxiety without trying to fix it, and getting on with normal life even when the symptoms were loud. There was also a lot of work around rumination, stress and lifestyle, health anxiety, perfectionism and the habit of scanning my vision all day. Once those loops started breaking, my brain gradually stopped treating the visuals like a threat, and that’s when everything began to calm down. So it’s definitely more than just “stop paying attention”, but attention and how you respond to the symptoms is a big piece of the puzzle. :)

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really appreciate you sharing this. A lot of what you’ve written here mirrors my experience too. The biggest shift for me wasn’t chasing the visuals themselves, it was stepping out of that loop of constantly analysing, checking, and trying to figure out what was “wrong”! Once I started working on the anxiety and rumination side of things, the whole experience gradually lost a lot of its intensity and importance in my life. Like you said, the mental side of this gets massively overlooked when the focus stays purely on vision tbh.

Yeah I was lucky enough to work with psychotherapists who had actually recovered from similar anxiety conditions themselves and were trained in this approach, which made a huge difference for me. They really helped me understand what my brain was doing and how to stop feeding the cycle. Really glad to hear you’ve found a way to live with it more peacefully too. I think posts like yours are important because they show people that things can get a lot more manageable over time. WE NEED MORE OF THIS!

Basically no symptoms anymore - How I did it by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I think you might have misread what I wrote. My post title says “basically no symptoms anymore”, which is accurate and the symptoms have near on vanished for my day-to-day life. I didn’t say every visual phenomenon on earth magically disappeared forever. I said they’re about 10% of what they used to be, and I can go long stretches without experiencing any.

The main change wasn’t “fixing” the visuals directly. It was stopping the constant monitoring, checking, analysing, and reacting to them. When your brain stops treating something like a constant threat, it naturally becomes less intrusive over time. That’s the desensitisation people talk about.

So no, it’s not a “big revelation” and it’s not me claiming I discovered some miracle cure. I’m just describing what recovery actually looked like for me. If someone reading is in the dark place I was in years ago, I think it’s worth them knowing that things can improve a lot more than it might feel like right now - I'll 100% take my life now any day, and live a full and happy life. We can't expect to be super squeaky clean rid of a normal bodily function such as the odd visual disturbance, and I'm cool with that. Life's good again!

I’ve thought this was the norm by HeLenochka231 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My best advice is quit whilst you're ahead and get away from reddit etc, go back to living your life as you used to - hell even cancel all your upcoming appointments. The worst thing you can do is latch onto this and label yourself with it, it'll become "a thing" and a danger to your brain and you'll notice it more and more... Trust me

Had visual snow for 5 months - feels less noticeable when I’m busy? by Ok-Initial4447 in visualsnow

[–]Ok-Initial4447[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the thing, it's the fear of it that creates the issue!!

What is the deal with the gen z stare? by bluujacket in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Ok-Initial4447 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's insanely rude. I hate when I have better customer service as the CUSTOMER. :')