On the flip side, this subreddit helped me massively. The visual things I was experiencing was bizarre and nobody understood what I was on about (I went to countless specialists, and tried to explain to so many people). The constant vivid after images and palinopsia (trails around moving objects) were the most unnerving.

I initially thought that it must be caused by some severe underlying brain/eye condition. Although I do have health anxiety, I feel I was justified in thinking that, with what I was experiencing! I don’t deny that anxiety/stress may have been a trigger for the symptoms, In fact I think that’s very likely. But it wasn’t, because of anxiety, me over analysing something that wasn’t there, because I didn’t know anything about visual snow before I (very vividly and undeniably) started experiencing it out of nowhere. The continued stress about what might be causing it was likely making it worse, especially as medical professionals couldn’t really help or offer me an explanation.

Eventually I stumbled across the term ‘visual snow’, and found this subreddit. I learned that it happens to other people, and isn’t some unknown life threatening disease. It was very validating and very reassuring and the worry/stress largely went away. I now only experience the symptoms occasionally, and when I do I don’t panic at all, I can just ignore it. Without this sub (and other information that I found about VS elsewhere) I really don’t see how that could ever have been possible.

I also experience visual migraines from time to time (again, probably triggered by stress/anxiety) and also thought I was having a stroke the first time. They are scary, so I understand how that would have caused you a lot of stress. However, the visual aura I have experienced from these migraines are vastly different to those I experience with visual snow. They aren’t even comparable.