Visual after images

Negative and positive, they can be colored, black (like shadows) or even exactly how the image appears. I think this may also be called pallinopsia? Example, if I am looking at the tv, when I look away I will see a floating square of varying color. I also sometimes still see images of what I was looking at even when I close my eyes. Can anyone relate? I have it 24/7 and it's driving me insane, among many other things.

That's all normal stuff I think. I've had that long before I ever touched a benzo. Pretty sure most people do.

I don't think this is normal. I've had it before when looking at things like the sun and when you blink you see the spot, but this is like that on steroids and happens with everything I look at. If this is something normal people have, I'm not sure how anyone with it functions because it is severely disabling and distracting.

That is normal stuff.  Our brains normally filter it out but in benzo withdrawal our filter doesn't work like it should.  Try not to focus on it and let it bother you.  It will become less noticeable as time goes on. 

I think I have something similar (it was worse during the first 2 months). I would have floaters or some colour distortion or (like you described if I close my eyes I would still be able to see the objects) after either being too long in the darkness or in front of a computer screen/phone.

 

I've never had it before benzos so I guess it's a symptom and should pass, too. Hang in there!

Thanks guys, it's one of my lesser symptoms in terms of suffering, but when it combines with all my other visual stuff it makes it really hard to engage in anything.

Hello Crazypants! 

I too had this sx 1 month prior (didn't know at the time that it was side effect of taking the poison pills), and during the first 3 months after my rapid taper. However, everything looked yellowish and very dingy.  Now at 5+ months out, I still occasionally get this but it's like white flashes in my vision.

 

I hope you get relief soon! Stay strong!!

Yeah I've had it before benzos too. It definetly ramped up after w/d. No idea if it was made worse by all the hallucinogens I did when I was younger, or that may have helped me not freak out about it much? I still occassionaly get some if the weird eye stuff, but for the most part it's gone now.

Yeah. I have that too. I also have visual snow. The after images are kindof annoying. Sometimes it randomly goes away, and with that my tinnitus goes away.

 

 

 

I have the snow too off everything. Also others things I can't even begin to describe

 

I saw trails and tracers pretty bad during the first month of being off, and colors were much more intensified.  It was quite similar to taking a small dose of LSD (Ive taken it a few times decades ago). I never saw any actual hallucinations, just trails and tracers coming off of anything in both slow and fast motion, or when I moved my head. That mostly went away after around 30 days, and after a few months it was virtually non-existent. Extreme sleep deprivation can cause this for me also, just not as bad.

 

Something like turning your head while watching ty and seeing a brief after image box is normal I think, I still have that.

I don't think this is normal. I've had it before when looking at things like the sun and when you blink you see the spot, but this is like that on steroids and happens with everything I look at. If this is something normal people have, I'm not sure how anyone with it functions because it is severely disabling and distracting.

 

 

I eat a broom if its normal.....its part of this nasty game....found this for you.

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=56808.msg766349#msg766349

 

Thanks for the link Morreweg - very reassuring.

I had visual snow and severe visual images during the first two months off. It was very annoying, I couldn't use laptop, couldn't read, watch tv. I still have after images, even when I'm in a relatively dark room and looking at something, but it's not as bad now and doesn't last as long. It will pass, hang in there!

Thanks for the link Morreweg - very reassuring.

 

Pleasure racksha, glad it helped.

I also had really bad after-imaging all through my taper and probably for a few months post jump.  It seems to be completely gone now.  I used to do a test in the mornings where I would look at this photo on my bedroom wall, blink and I could literally see the after image on the wall right next to it.  It got so bad at one point it was hard to read because after images of words would appear as I was trying to read them (pink words on white paper).  I know it's all gone now because I can look at that same photo and the image does not appear any more.  Now I just get normal after-imaging that I think everyone gets.  It should go away in time.  Sometimes I still get bad waves of floaters which I really believe are benzo-related, but again, they're usually not there any more.

 

Hang in there!!  This drove me completely crazy too.  I'm sure it will get better in time.

Its freaking me out that everyone says this left so soon for them...Im in my 11th month.. I also must reiterate, this is not within normal bounds of vision, they last a minute or more and often layer on top of each other and come from every surface I look at. 

I'm two years bro. It has to do with your CNS being overactive. STRESS. INSOMNIA.

 

Try using vitamin b8, Inositol. It calms you down, helps your brain recover and make old connections, and it actually increases pre and post synaptic density in your d3 receptors, and antagonizes serotonin re-uptake inhibition in the pre synaptic cleft.

 

It helps your brain recover. It eliminates stress. It's saving my life right now. 

 

I had High eye pressure two weeks ago, i was at the eye doctor today and it went from 32(right)30(left) to 21(right)18(left).

 

Eye pressure has to do with Intracranial pressure. No one really knows for sure what causes it, but it has to do with over excitability of your CNS, it actually causes inflammation in your brain.

 

Stress actually structurally changes your brain. Inositol will help. It's just a vitamin, but its as good as xanax.

Thanks Off. My brain was too scrambled to read your sig, was just going off times people were saying. I was on B vitamins earlier on, including choline and inositol. I stopped them a little while ago, I actually think they were effecting me negatively. I take a lot of other good things though.

Palinopsia - Wikipedia

 

What most people normally experience is not palinopsia, but physiological afterimages,

which are generally 'negatives' of the actual image viewed.

Palinopsia, on the other hand, is not normal, but pathological,

and the after-image is usually not a 'negative' but positive.

 

You've probably been experiencing the (benign) physiological afterimages,

rather than the (pathological) palinopsia. Probably. But no one here can say for sure.

 

On the other hand, as the Wiki article notes, illusory palinopsia can be caused by prescription drugs.

There was some discussion about it on a BB thread three or four years ago, here.

I've even read (elsewhere) that benzos are used to treat palinopsia!

We won't even think about that, but, it seems to me that if benzos can stop palinopsia,

then benzo withdrawal can certainly start it.

 

If it keeps bothering you and you keep worrying about it, see a doctor.

 

 

Thanks for the info Redevan. I seem to have all you described. I've seen a couple eye docs, among the many other types I have seen, including a neuroopthamologist. Nothing of any significance was found and they all had no explanation.