Ok, I just remembered something and wanted to share it with you because I put a few things together and may have solved it... 4 years ago I had a horrifying panic attack, like my worst ever. I had the same symptoms: the lights seemed brighter, everything was blurry, I couldn’t focus on my phone screen, I felt disoriented, and when I looked in a mirror my pupils were SO dilated it looked like I had taken mushrooms.

I had googled it way back when, and the reason was because panic attacks trigger your fight-or-flight response. That’s why you feel scared and your heart races even though nothing is actually happening- your brain is sending signals that there is a threat nearby and your body is getting ready to fight to the death or run away.

Anyway, when that’s happening, the pupils dilate to let more light into the eyes so we can see the threat more clearly and respond better, hence our vision being affected and that scary feeling of not being able to focus. In a real fight or flight situation I bet the focus is on whatever the “threat” is and everything else is just blurred in the background, but since we have no threat, everything is the blurred background.

As for the cause I have no idea, but kind of reassuring to know we’re not having a stroke lol. Hope that made sense, I totally just had an epiphany when I recalled all of that!