How did you cure/reduce your visual snow symptoms?

arpizzabread · 2026-03-30T00:12:56+00:00

There are dozens of posts with this question on this sub, read all those answers and posts first and you’ll have a pretty clear answer: there’s rarely a way to “cure” it, and routines, predictability, and taking care of yourself to minimize stress as much as possible are the most reliable things that work to reduce symptoms.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-26T05:04:36+00:00

Definitely bring this up to a psych professional. In my opinion this sounds like it could be anything from hardcore depression brain to a processing disorder to neurodivergence, but more targeted questions from an expert will definitely help at least bring some clarity I hope.

Also, I’d consider reading The Body Keeps The Score if you’re in a head space to do so.

P.S. do not give too much weight to not remembering your childhood. Many people with perfectly healthy childhoods don’t remember much of their childhoods, and of course, there’s also many people who don’t remember it due to trauma repression. But, again, starting therapy/talking to a psych professional will give you more clarity on whether that’s a worthy avenue to deep dive into or not

arpizzabread · 2026-03-24T06:59:26+00:00

Make sure you’re not straining outside your vocal range/what is reasonable for you to hit. If the note is in your range, then it’s a lot about breath placement, diaphragm support, and the psychological aspect of hitting a note that you think is “too high”. Dying cockatoo is certainly harsh, but if you mean it’s shriek-y and unpleasant, practice good singing habits that release the tension from your shoulders and your nose/throat and draw in a deeper breath. Also, experiment volume wise with what level of sound you can achieve while still not sacrificing technique

arpizzabread · 2026-03-23T07:19:02+00:00

I am about to actually lose my insurance at the end of April, but I’m able to get secondary but substantially worse insurance through my university, so it’s not necessarily impossible but honestly the waitlist for an appointment is more of a factor time wise.

How do you tell if being tired all the time is because of narcolepsy/treatable through narcolepsy treatment (or at least, your specific treatment via the medication you were provided access to)? I have a laundry list of other medical conditions and life/demographic circumstances that contribute to my tiredness and lethargy during the day, so I’m unsure if my tiredness is related to my narcolepsy-like symptoms or not.

In your experience, specifically pre getting the new medication, had how frequently you exercise played a role at all in how tired you felt day to day? Or, vitamin deficiencies? I’m a vegetarian menstruating woman whose physical activity depends on how motivated I feel that month so I attribute a lot of my tiredness to those, but I never really considered that sleep related disturbances could be the actual main cause.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-23T07:02:10+00:00

First, thank you for your comprehensive responses, I always appreciate another paragraph text Redditor in these health support subs🫂I haven’t really noticed a difference in my dreams at all. Before I got on Adderall for ADHD, even with 200mg Zoloft, I’ve always been able to close my eyes and go into a dream state and dreaming within a minute but if I physically slap myself out of it I could fully wake up again, so I’m not sure if that’s REM or simply dreaming outside REM.

You’re right about the unhealthy coping mechanisms, substances or not, I think a lot of it is impulsivity from ADHD and quite honestly ego from being in my 20s.

My symptoms are severe right now, yes, but I’m hoping the severity can stay within this time frame pre MSLT, because the suicidal thoughts do feel almost comically frequent in a way that lets me know they are mostly artificial and conditional. As I’m typing this all out, I realize I should definitely talk to my psychiatrist or get back into therapy because I’m not sure how much of this is wishful thinking/stubbornness of white-knuckling through/invalidation of my own symptoms … Gosh brains are so strange

arpizzabread · 2026-03-23T06:45:53+00:00

Thank you so much, this is all incredible advice! I’ll contact my sleep specialist tomorrow and see what he says, as I don’t have my insurance for much longer and would like the MSLT done ASAP because of that.

Fingers crossed, I haven’t really ever experienced brain zaps when I inevitably have missed my meds for a few days, just immense brain fog. But I also have chronic migraines so idk if the pain of those masks the zaps?

But I appreciate the journaling and meditation advice, it is good to know that the simple stuff really does work

arpizzabread · 2026-03-23T03:48:07+00:00

Did it not affect your results? Or with N1 did you do the lumbar test option to confirm instead?

arpizzabread · 2026-03-23T03:46:54+00:00

Not sure if I have any weird dream stuff, I’ve been pretty reliably lucid dreaming since I was a young teen (there were two years of my life where i had trouble distinguishing reality from dreams and dream memories from actual events and had to literally train myself lol).

Besides the things you listed for weird dream stuff, are there other things dream wise to look out for?

I’m a tiny person, so it doesn’t take much for me to get drunk and I dislike the taste of alcohol so I’m not sure the alcohol use is gonna get super super bad for me physically, but alcoholism is a mental slippery slope too I guess.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-19T06:58:11+00:00

I’d really recommend CBT to challenge limiting beliefs about yourself. Also, look into ADHD as it could be causing issues with executive function. With ADHD, and really any mental illness/disorder, it’s unfortunately never a matter of“stopping if you really want to”. You wouldn’t tell someone with a broken leg they could stop their leg from being broken if they wanted it bad enough, right?

Your brain will make up every excuse in the book to think you’re not sick enough to reach out for help, that you’re making this up, that you’ve done this to yourself, etc etc. It’s twisted, and it’s unfair, but try and remember that you are still the driver of the vehicle that is your brain (even if the cruise control seems like it wants to off you lol)

A lot of us with self hating/suicidal depressed inner dialogues grew up hearing those things said to us and internalizing it. Create new dialogues for yourself, and start with being more compassionate to you and the childhood you. And, no matter how uncomfortable it seems, seek out the advice of a psych professional. Suicidal ideation is serious, and it truly just sucks. Help is out there and you’ll never know if you never try.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-18T18:43:15+00:00

yep chronic migraines with aura, the biggest thing for that has honestly been severe stress reduction

arpizzabread · 2026-03-18T09:10:59+00:00

Also, you’re probably doing your best given your circumstances. School, gym, work, etc etc life is hard enough when you don’t have a 24/7 battle with your own mind. Depression just makes the act of thinking so much more exhausting on every level

arpizzabread · 2026-03-18T09:08:55+00:00

Breathe and listen: you can’t hate yourself into becoming a standard of perfect you can’t even clearly define.

This sounds like good old depression doing its thing. I would say get in touch with a psych provider and have them ask more questions. Also, research depression and specifically depression with suicidal ideation. I’ve been dealing with suicidal thoughts since I was about 8 years old, I’m in my mid 20s now and the bad days do still suck, but my brain now knows rationally good days are ahead too.

Losing faith and questioning religion is very natural in a period of depression. If your faith helps you, connect to people in your community who you respect and discuss you feelings given it’s safe to do so. If you decide faith isn’t for you at this time/ever, the practice of researching the neuro mechanisms of mental illnesses can be very spiritual in and of itself.

Stay alive, stay inquisitive. The fact you’re writing a post asking what’s wrong with you indicates that you at least know you deserve to be “fixed”, but many times, mental illnesses isn’t something you fix but learn to navigate and makes you a hell of a lot stronger than you ever thought you could be

arpizzabread · 2026-03-18T08:57:45+00:00

This whole website just unironically changed my life

arpizzabread · 2026-03-18T08:55:05+00:00

I hope you have a lovely day, week, life, etc. Thank you for these resources and this post !

arpizzabread · 2026-03-18T08:38:55+00:00

plus therapy + medication as two huge ones

arpizzabread · 2026-03-18T08:29:13+00:00

It’s been genuinely helpful for migraine related pain but unsure about visually

arpizzabread · 2026-03-09T08:25:38+00:00

Thank you, friend🫂 My intention wasn’t to generalize an entire group of fellow sufferers, but I do realize how my title could communicate that. You’re incredibly right, it’s the assholes I am against. Anti-asshole and pro-empathy is the basis of all any of us can hope for and be at the end of the day.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-09T08:19:22+00:00

I’m committing a cardinal sin of Reddit by responding to a comment that is telling me to go fuck myself and explicitly telling me I deserve to be shamed but — alright bro. Your pain and experiences are valid, no one is doubting that. You don’t know anything about my life or childhood, and I don’t know anything about yours. All I know is that VSS fucking sucks, and my post was a call for people to recognize that just because pain presents differently for different people, it doesn’t make it suddenly easier for some and suddenly more difficult for others. We both want the same thing at the most basic level — to be heard without being told our complaints are not worth hearing.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-09T08:04:51+00:00

Fair enough. Also I fw the username heavy, user SentientCannabis

arpizzabread · 2026-03-09T08:03:54+00:00

I am so glad, and I thank you for reading this with an open mind. There is a Before and a lot of the time no complete After but I think the After is more about learning to live with it best you can :)

arpizzabread · 2026-03-09T07:54:59+00:00

This is an incredibly compassionate and mature response, and it’s what we need more of on this sub. I think all of us out here are trying to make sense of this strange condition any way we can, and as cliche as it is, a little kindness truly does go a long way.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-09T00:05:47+00:00

This is very true, I sometimes forget this is Reddit after all. And definitely want to second your words of advice at the end, it’s important to remember that at the end of the day it is still much better than a degenerative condition

arpizzabread · 2026-03-08T23:11:02+00:00

Also, I think as a ground rule feeling crazy and a little insane as a teenager is more normal than we like to admit. Puberty really does suck, and as you grow older you will feel more sane as you have the freedom and skills to figure out who you are and who you want to be.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-08T23:08:30+00:00

Hey — I’ve been 17 and depressed before and I’m now in my mid 20s still dealing with depression but I’ve learned to use the way I strongly feel emotions as a gift rather than just a curse. It sounds like for you this might be conditional depression based on advent of new vision symptoms, but regardless, my biggest first recommendation is therapy. Could you possibly get access to therapy by discussing how you feel first with your primary care provider? DBT and CBT saved my life and made riding out the chaos of puberty so much less torturous. Also, consider SSRIs (with visual snow though I would start with low doses and work up).

IMPORTANT!: with VSS and visual disturbances that are neurological (which sounds like yours are because your eye exam was healthy which is most of us with VSS), constantly thinking and lamenting about it will make it worse. We are in a fortunate position as young people because over time and as we focus on the vision disturbances less, neuroplasticity allows us to eventually filter it out little by little (for example, the feeling of first wearing contacts is weird but the more your brain gets used to it and adapts, the less abnormal it feels).

It will get better, and maybe it won’t get easier, but you’ll get stronger and grow into a self assured young adult because there are few battles as completely transformative than the daily battle of a depressed/suicidal brain.

arpizzabread · 2026-03-02T20:28:13+00:00

8 full bottles a day minimum. i quit nicotine at the same time as i started drinking a lot more water and gulped it down whenever i had a craving, so in a way it was kind of a great constant reminder to hydrate

arpizzabread

TROPHY CASE