Am I seeing 'pressure phosphenes'?

[RachelSpeck]

Dear reader, I'm a 22 year female and have been straining my eyes for Uni, and have come across something kind of scary. When I am in low light or eyes close and I look over my shoulder so my eyes are basically popping out my head or when I push them to their crossed-eye limit to look very far in any way so they feel like they're about to roll, they feel very strained (of-course) and I also see a 'flash' of light in both eyes which fades away as soon as I stop holding my eyes in such a uncomfortable position. Now I say 'both eyes' because I can clearly see as I'm holding them tightly that there is a circle, not to bright but noticeable in front of each eye's pupil, just like when you press around your eyes with your fingers or squeeze your face, I only noticed this by accident trying to straighten the back of my hair. I am able to recreate this whenever I please, and mind you it takes some effort it's not just the same as looking around like we do every day, it's just when I push my eyes to their limit - I'm pretty sure I saw a similar post recently about this and a MD mentioned it was because you're pushing the eye against the outer structure, hence pressure, just like when you push your fingers into your eyeballs. Now I am quite worried because I don't like health problems, I had a full eye test done only last week for a annual check-up, which included retinal which was tip top shape.

Is this anything to worry about, I NEVER see this 'just happen' out of nowhere, nor do I see it in pitch darkness/full daylight when I am just looking around as you do, I must apply pressure through 'rolling' my eyes to their edge.

Thankyou anyone for your answers, all the best now,
Rachel x.

[JohnHaganMD]

One of several posts like this in the past few days. Read the section in wikipedia on "entopic phenomena"  Pushing against the eye, moving it suddenly, straining into extremes of gaze can cause a arching or flashing or spot of light. Sqeezing hard and suddenly opening can cause them also.

[RachelSpeck]

Thank you John, if you can ease my mind a little bit, is it dangerous or bad for me to do it? I've purposely strained my eyes in just about every direction so that I may see more of this phenomena, it's headlights infront of my vision, same as when you physically push your eyes, but what I DON'T understand is how does it happen, am I squishing my eye when I do it? I know that the slightest stimulation to your retina will cause light to display especially at 1000x more sensitivity in dark (I read your older post/work and was very impressed :) ). But overall is it bad to do this? I asked a friend and they said they could do it but told me it might be dangerous to keep doing! :/

[JohnHaganMD]

No entopic phenomena is not bad for the eye.  You won't hurt your eye unless your press hard on it with fingers or hard object and sustain pressure.  Moving eye will not damage it.