Flickering spots in vision

[Emilym80]

Hi guys,

I've been having this for maybe a week or two, and I was wondering if anyone else has. I don't want to run off to the optician for this, so if others have had it I'll just pass it off as normal.

It's a little hard to describe but basically it happens when I wake up in the morning and I first expose my eyes to bright light. So, I could wake up and spend a couple of hours in my room with the blinds drawn and it wouldn't happen, but when I go to the bathroom or outside it starts. I basically get a flickering light that looks a little like throbbing in my peripheral vision, towards the centre (but it shifts around). It looks like a circle that throbs, and it's sort of transparent- like when you've been running and you can see your heart pounding in your eyes for a bit. Sort of like that, but with light.

It lasts for a minute or something and moves around if I blink and then goes away and I don't notice it until the next day. Today, however, I had it in both eyes, after previously just having it in my left.

Does anyone else get this? I imagine it's just my eyes adjusting to the light and, like I said, I don't want to go back to my optician if it's something normal. The only reason I ask is because I've never had it before.

Thanks everyone :)

[Daniele_T]

I often get alot of floaters in my eyes and get spots of nothingness...like voids that open up and close again quickly.
Similarly I also get blue spots or flashes that happen at random intervals and the only consistency is that they occur more when i'm having a particularly anxious time.
I do notice the pulsing spots after going up stairs and what not sometimes and thought this was due to blood pressure...taking my blood pressure at the time of getting these showed it to be 115/75 so it again seems like just another crappy part of anxiety :weep:

[Emilym80]

Hi Daniele,

Thanks for replying. I'm going to my optician tomorrow as the glasses they've given me aren't helping, so I'll mention this and see what they make of it.

Another weird thing happened today- I put in some eye drops and did it properly this time (apparently you're supposed to put them in and tilt your head down for a couple of minutes) and when I opened my eyes again, everything had a green hue to it!

I doubt many people would be concerned but, of course, my anxiety got the best of me. Anyway, I'll let you know what the optician says about the flashing spots.

All the best :)

[xvolatileheart]

I've been having flickering/flashy spots in my peripheral vision the last week or so that has me worried. Let me know what your optician says!

[DaveCH]

Emily,
how did you get on at the opticians ?

[Emilym80]

Hi all,

My optician wasn't really sure what it was, but she says my eyes are affected by allergies at the moment and I need to take eye drops with antihistamine as my allergies are giving me blurred vision. I've been having pain around the eye and she said this was consistent with sinus congestion as I also wake up every morning with a blocked nose. She also said when your pupils dilate, blood/etc allows them to do so. So I'm guessing that it's a combination of that, sinuses and eyestrain? I'm really not sure but she didn't seem concerned and didn't want to pursue it further.

She also said my eyes are more sensitive to light than most, being quite 'blonde' so I suppose this could contribute. Like many things, I expect it'll probably just go away on its own.

Best wishes.

---------- Post added at 12:07 ---------- Previous post was at 11:58 ----------

Also probably worth noting that she told me 1. that my eyes are very healthy apart from the allergies and 2. most people would not even notice the spots or be able to describe them... which leads me to believe anxiety does have a role to play.