Think I experienced a Scintillating Scotoma?

[Ashleyraye]

Hi! It’s been awhile since I posted on here. I had been feeling good up until Monday. So on Monday, I was feeling okay, not anxious or anything. I was reading on my phone, and I noticed it was getting hard to read. I looked away and noticed a sparkling in the center of my vision. I tricked blinking and it wouldn’t go away, so I started to panic. It got bigger and bigger, and took up a good part of my vision. It wasn’t colorful just almost like a sparkly white and it was shimmering. I hurried up and got some water and sat down, and within about 25 minutes it was gone. I started instantly googling and the only thing remotely close that came up was the scintillating scotoma. I seen the causes of them, migraine, stroke, high blood pressure, brain tumor, MS, seizure, etc and I’ve just been panicked since. I’ve never had this happen, and I didn’t get a headache afterwards, so I’m unsure if it was migraine related. I keep worrying myself that it was a seizure. I’m just panicked now and have barely slept because I’m worried it happens again. Has anyone else experienced this before?

[BlueIris]

Oh, goodness, yes! I'm currently getting about one a month, but there's been times when I've had several in a week, or even a couple of days. As described by you, these things are only symptomatic of migraine, nothing else. They don't always come with a headache (mine mostly don't), they're just a sparkly, anxiety inducing pain in the rear.

If you're over 50, advice is to go see a doctor just to be safe, but I swear these really are the furthest thing in the world from a big deal. Don't worry about colour/no colour either, it makes no difference.

You're going to be fine.

[Phill2]

I get them from time to time.
Had em for years now but not often.
It's called a Migraine Aura.
They go away in about 20 mins.
Nothing to worry about.

[NoraB]

Hi! It’s been awhile since I posted on here. I had been feeling good up until Monday. So on Monday, I was feeling okay, not anxious or anything. I was reading on my phone, and I noticed it was getting hard to read. I looked away and noticed a sparkling in the center of my vision. I tricked blinking and it wouldn’t go away, so I started to panic. It got bigger and bigger, and took up a good part of my vision. It wasn’t colorful just almost like a sparkly white and it was shimmering. I hurried up and got some water and sat down, and within about 25 minutes it was gone. I started instantly googling and the only thing remotely close that came up was the scintillating scotoma. I seen the causes of them, migraine, stroke, high blood pressure, brain tumor, MS, seizure, etc and I’ve just been panicked since. I’ve never had this happen, and I didn’t get a headache afterwards, so I’m unsure if it was migraine related. I keep worrying myself that it was a seizure. I’m just panicked now and have barely slept because I’m worried it happens again. Has anyone else experienced this before?

Sounds like migraine. I've had these in various forms since I was 21 - with and without headaches..

[Islandgirl3]

This is a visual or retinal migraine. Changing hormone levels, bright lights, lack of sleep and stress can all trigger them. They are scary but harmless.