This afternoon I had another visual migraine. It was a little different from the previous ones in that it had more significant visual affects and in that it affected the right side of my vision. My central vision was OK, the left side was quite good, but the right side was mostly occluded by bright flashes. Closing my right eye seemed to make it a little better – apparently my right eye was more affected than my left. Previous visual migraines had only affected my central vision.
It happened shortly after going outside and it was a sunny afternoon, so maybe the bright light helped trigger it. The Australian optometrist chain OPSM advertise transitions – lenses that darken when exposes to UV light so they act as sun-glasses when outdoors, this sounds interesting (I don’t want to have prescription sun-glasses as well as regular glasses). However there is one concerning item in the advert – “protect your eyes from dazzling sunlight, harsh artificial lighting and the glare from computer screens“, I don’t want my glasses to go dark when I’m looking at a computer screen (a large portion of my waking hours)!
Hi, I also suffer from visual migraines, it affects my left eye, i start off with flashes, then the visual shimmers, zigzag patterns start, it’s very scary, I am not sure what triggers mine off, so I can relate to what you are saying.
I’ve never been really scared by mine. It’s strange really, because the first time it happened I thought it was the start of a process that would lead to permanent and serious vision impairment but I didn’t freak out or anything. I think that my colleagues were more concerned than I was (it happened at work).
Apparently there are some other neurological affects that are related to it (some sort of general impairment of mental processes). So maybe I just lose the capacity for fear when it happens.
I have had visual migraines for years. I started taking a regular aspirin to reduce the length of time the visuals lasted by I am now on a baby aspirin. I get a mild headache after the migraine but the first time I had one of the visual migraines it was a bit unnerving.
I still get them from time to time but found over the years that bright lights (including sunlight), flashes of bright light, lack of sleep, and stress in general make me more susceptible to the migraines.
Transition lenses are great and will not turn dark when inside a car (even in bright sunlight) or when sitting in front of a computer screen. They turn dark due to the UV rays of the sun even on cloudy days.