Why am I seeing motion aftereffects?

[3nity]

I've noticed that if I stare at something or, better yet, at a pattern for a bit of time, it will start to move, similar to what you see after staring at those swirly spiral gifs, but less intense. As the description I found says, it is the same as motion aftereffects in the way, that it looks like it's moving, but at the same time, when you look closely, it looks as if the position it's moved to is where it was supposed to be.

I'm 16, not on any medication.

[JohnHaganMD]

To answer your questions you would need to have an eye exam by an optometrist or eye MD ophthalmologist. However its likely it is just one of those "optical illusions" where our eyes and brain play tricks on us. If you are interested read the section on optical illusions on wikipedia and look at some and look how they seem to be moving.

[3nity]

I thought it like an optical illusion too. But only "like".
While I gave a pretty vague example, that can be minimised, I'll give you something more specific:
Coupled with me feeling the world sway (another symptom but unrelated to this section), I most often see basically my whole field of view move, in this example, the room I'm in is swaying.
But this I also sometimes see almost involuntarily (as opposed to the cases I mentioned originally, where I had to look at something for a period of time or just sort of will it to happen).
Other thing that I kind of involuntarily see move is straight lines. Instead of being straight, they just slightly wave up and down.
And the most annoying one that just happens on it's own that I can't control at all, is sometimes I see an object fidgeting. I can't quite remember how it happens when it's not happening, but I think it can be summed up to seeing a part of a door rapidly switch between 2 states.

I once wrote on a subreddit/forum of a disorder I was then quite sure I might have, a list of all the peculiar symptoms I could think of I had: https://www.reddit.com/r/visualsnow/comments/6z16oz/my_list_of_possibly_vs_symptoms/.

Most of them are about visual hallucinations, and while some are apparently normal things, most still stay a mystery.
It's a long list though, but you'd like to see a list of other possible side-symptoms...

[JohnHaganMD]

Well I looked at that link.  It certainly isn't classic anything.  The only think I could suggest is seeing neurologist and neuro-ophthalmologist.  If you've already done that then maybe bundle up all the test results and head our for a world class tertiary diagnostic and treatment center like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Washington University in St. Louis.

[3nity]

I see.
Is it a waste of time to go to a optometrist or eye MD ophthalmologist then?

[JohnHaganMD]

In my opinion with your problems it would be a waste of time and money to go to an optometrist. However if you have not had a basic medical eye exam with an ophthalmologist whom you have told about these symptoms that is where you should start not at a tertiary referral center. Ask your family MD to refer you or you can find an Eye MD ophthalmologist near you at www.geteyesmart.org  

[SassyLassie]

Hello~We have a very good eye care forum here, they will probably be able to help you more than I can. However, I do know that looking at certain patterns, such as dots, and certain lines, can cause this feeling. I think most people have experienced it. I don't really think you have anything to worry about.