Negative afterimages.

[Durrgen]

So I started experiencing negative afterimages, you know where they are not the same colour but can still see them, and I've been posting about other symptoms such as entoptic phenomenon, as well but I believe I narrowed it down to this, I have gotten quite paranoid about my vision, and started looking for things that were wrong when there really wasn't a problem,  and I started to get anxiety over it, and very obsessive, so I think I trained my brain to see all of these things, because for example, entoptic phenomenon, its gotten worse, I used to have to really focus on the sky to see it, now wherever I look I see it as long as it is bright enough, the negative afterimages are quite concerning, so I get very anxious, I geuss what I am asking is, did I train my brain to see these things by obsessing over them? Is that why? And if so, can I train myself to unsee these things?

[JohnHaganMD]

These things would be helpful if you have not done:  1. Exam by an ophthalmologist  2. If normal one of the most common things that causes this is extreme anxiety. Consider seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist. 3. Yes you might be able to untrain your self. Ask the mind doctor about "cognitive behavior therapy"

[Durrgen]

When you say the mind doctor do you mean the psychiatrist? And the anxiety has gone down quite a bit I believe that will subside so will the symptoms follow?

[JohnHaganMD]

Yes.  And maybe, no way to tell for sure.

[Durrgen]

Well, I am recovering from anxiety, its a lot better now I imagine after a while I will be okay, its just harder with all of these visual symptoms, hopefully they will go away or atleast become less noticeable. I have been to two opthalmologists and neither of them found anything wrong by the way. So yeah, thank you very much, I really appreciate your responses.

[JohnHaganMD]

CBT is drugless and highly effective against anxiety and phobias  see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy

[Durrgen]

Wow, sounds very interesting, I probably  will check that out some time. Have you ever heard of visual snow syndrome? It makes me wonder if this CBT would be effective against that, anyway, thank you.

[JohnHaganMD]

There is a ton of posting on visual snow. I know nothing about it. Have never had a patient come into my office with that complaint.

If you want a book that is often used for CBT look at "Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think" by Dennis Greenberger, PhD and Christine Padesky, PhD published by By Guilford

[Durrgen]

Yes I've often thought that my symptoms are due to me believing that I have them, I've trained my brain so to speak, our eyes are capable of many odd things, you can train them to stop seeing your nose, I would imagine I could train them to stop seeing blood cells in my retina. That's the problem with visual snow, its so obscure that not many doctors even know it exists, quite sad really. Anyway, I will look into that book, seems very interesting. Thank you, its been very nice talking with you.

[JohnHaganMD]

Same here and much luck and peace of mind.