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Grainy Vision/ Visual Snow

I've noticed this since long before any drug use. If you think it's related to drugs... Do less drugs, right? I don't wanna sound condescending but it really seems as simple as that to me. It seems baseless to connect visual static to HPPD considering how many people get it normally...
 
Ah visual snow/grainyness, I get it just about constantly lol, Or maybe I just dont notice when im getting it or when I'm not. *shrugs* Doesnt interfere with my life at all, I dont even notice it unless I look for it.
 
I have suffered from this problem for as long as I can remember. A constant "screen" of colored static covering my entire visual field. It becomes extremely noticeable for me when looking at either a white wall or whenever I'm in the dark. I always wondered if other people saw this way too and thought for awhile that everyone did but found this to not be so. I am almost convinced though that this condition is brought on by drug use, in my case marijuana. My parents were regular users of marijuana and always smoked it around me since I was a baby so I wonder if my grainy eyesight is a result of breathing in the second hand smoke for all those years.

I've also found that the effect increases whenever I've smoked pot myself. This has led me to a theory of sorts. I've heard from some that the effect increases at night whether before going to bed or just after waking up. I've also heard something about the body doing something chemical in nature when tired that is similar to what goes on when smoking pot. I probably could have worded this all better, oh well. Anyway, could all this be correctional or something? Okay I'm done with my tirade for now.
 
thats normal,yesteday I had light dose mushroom trip and these some of these dots started glowing like little stars.They are neurons of some sort,if some psychedelic excite them,they start to flash & glow.
 
Lately, while on DMT, I've been getting grainy RGB snow on all contrasting edges in my visual field.

If you look at this illustration of how photoreceptive retinal cells fire to create contrasts with which we learn the invariances that create our visual frames in the first place (source: click here for the whole presentation), you can see how easily adding a noisifying agent (such as DMT) could cause the illusion of "snow" by randomly changing the normal firing patterns in the early visual cortex hierarchy. Or just as easily by interfering with the learned firing routines of the complex and hypercomplex cells in V1 and V5, midway up the cortical hierarchy.

I kind of like it, as seeing RGB snow creeping into the edges of my vision makes me feel like I'm humming with chaotic energy %)

I've always figured the really complex hallucinations we sometimes get (DMT "elves", morphing alphabet-like symbols that aren't from any alphabet we've ever seen before, alien landscapes, etc.) occur because of increased signaling noise in the more abstract regions of the cortex (nearer to the Hippocampus, further from V1). The more our abstract interpretations are being messed with, the more "intuitive" we end up feeling we've become, and the more intricately our brain interprets the noise (and also its own previous interpretations, thus the introspective element to so many psychadelic experiences), in the form of morphing characters/symbols/fractals. Always morphing (both images and introspective thoughts) because, as each interpretation stems from ever changing "snow" interfering with the signaling route, it can't maintain the same abstract interpretation particularly long before the random noise cause different sets of percepts and concepts to settle into temporary stability.

Just as our brain fills in the eye's "blind spots" (where the optic nerve crosses through our visual field), we see hallucinations morph as a means of filling in the settled-upon shapes or thoughts from one of these noise/reality perception contests to the next.
 
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thugg said:
I've had this for as long as I remember.. Long before ever trying drugs. But I have noticed that over time, the 'random' static has started to form more complex fractal patterns. Its also a lot worse when I first get up, and right before I sleep. Marijuana increases the intensity, and the basis for a lot of the hallucinations I see on psychedelics is this visual snow turning into large complex geometric shapes that overlay my entire visual field. It's also a lot 'brighter' when I close my eyes, instead of seeing black, its more or less a fairly bright field of static..

I've become almost prone to the effects, but its still a little annoying. It makes navigating dark places a little hard because its dark, and hard to see, but on top of that is a bright static that is like a glare on the dark backdrop.
Click to expand...

thisss! I thought everyone had this so some extent, I can easily look past it and ignore it, but I can always focus on it and it has always been there.

It does get amplified by psychs and by marijuana but as he said it started from birth I believe.
 
I've had this for about 4 years now. It doesn't really bother me and I in know way find my self at a disadvantage for having it.

In my experience it's just something you become accustomed to after awhile. When you look at the symptoms from a medical standpoint their really not that bad at all. Sure I was freaked out a little when it first appeared, but was eventually superceded by other more serious medical and emotional life problems.

I can say for certain if you want this problem to go away you have to refrain from psychedelics. Your going to have to do so for a number of years, this includes marijuana. I found marijuana would aggravate theses symptoms more than any other drug, interesting considering the symptoms don't originate from the use of marijuana alone. I could take a dose of ketamine or a small dose of mushrooms and it would pale in comparison to the anxiety I would experience from cannabis at the height of my trouble with this visual phenomena.

The symptoms I still experience today are highlighted in bold (I figured we could use a rundown of the symptoms for any new comers):

halos surrounding objects, trails following objects in motion, difficulty distinguishing between colors, apparent shifts in the hue of a given item, the illusion of movement in a static setting, air assuming a grainy or textured quality (visual snow or static, by popular description), distortions in the dimensions of a perceived object, and a heightened awareness of floaters.
Click to expand...
 
Ive had similar effects as well over the years. ABout the only time it affects me is when I stare at stationary objects for extended periods of times. the surface will start to move around and throb much like it would while tripping. I did psychs in high frequency for a year like 1/2 times a week. I noticed towards the end my eyes would start to hurt while on them. OBviously constantly dilating my eyes and seeing on psychs can have an effect on your vision. If you get like that just slow down or stop. Now my frequency is maybe once every 3-6 months I stopped for 2 and a half years too. its gotten better I no longer notice the visual side effects like I used to.
 
That's an interesting point that I never realized.

I wonder if there have been any studies on the effects of psychedelics on the eyes.

*Jumps ons pubmed/google
 
thugg said:
I've had this for as long as I remember.. Long before ever trying drugs. But I have noticed that over time, the 'random' static has started to form more complex fractal patterns. Its also a lot worse when I first get up, and right before I sleep. Marijuana increases the intensity, and the basis for a lot of the hallucinations I see on psychedelics is this visual snow turning into large complex geometric shapes that overlay my entire visual field. It's also a lot 'brighter' when I close my eyes, instead of seeing black, its more or less a fairly bright field of static..

I've become almost prone to the effects, but its still a little annoying. It makes navigating dark places a little hard because its dark, and hard to see, but on top of that is a bright static that is like a glare on the dark backdrop.
Click to expand...

We are in the same boat ;).
 
luckytaak said:
HPPD is bullshit there is a lot of factors in eyesight I really don’t think residual effects of psychedelic drugs do anything to it especially when you 17 years old. Get some glasses or put your head in some ice water and wake up.
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I used to think that until I had perma trails and warpy, wobbly vision when sober.

It's very real, a lot of people just think they have it.
 
I had similar things way back when and, to a lesser extent, still do. THC does make this effect more noticeable. Only time really lessened the effect. While I have noticed the effect is definitively lessened, it is not entirely absent.
 
thouart_that said:
I've had this for about 4 years now. It doesn't really bother me and I in know way find my self at a disadvantage for having it.

In my experience it's just something you become accustomed to after awhile. When you look at the symptoms from a medical standpoint their really not that bad at all. Sure I was freaked out a little when it first appeared, but was eventually superceded by other more serious medical and emotional life problems.

I can say for certain if you want this problem to go away you have to refrain from psychedelics. Your going to have to do so for a number of years, this includes marijuana. I found marijuana would aggravate theses symptoms more than any other drug, interesting considering the symptoms don't originate from the use of marijuana alone. I could take a dose of ketamine or a small dose of mushrooms and it would pale in comparison to the anxiety I would experience from cannabis at the height of my trouble with this visual phenomena.

The symptoms I still experience today are highlighted in bold (I figured we could use a rundown of the symptoms for any new comers):
Click to expand...

You bring up a good point with the "accustomed to it" aspect mentioned. I definitely think this was the turning point in diminished symptoms - a ceasing of noticing/caring that such things were happening eventually evolved into no longer experiencing them at all at times, and at reduced pace.

Particularly interesting since this would point to the phenomena being primarily mental vs. physical.
 
i get too. sometimes its there sometimes it isnt.

it's there now but i'm stoned so it should be there
 
But do you think it is the psychedelics? It seems to me it might be the marijuana, because the only time the grainy vision is amplified is when I smoke marijuana. Psychedelics don't amplify it, if anything they decrease it.
Click to expand...

This is the case for me. Psychs don't, by themselves bring out the grainy vision. Weed by itself often does. All stimulants with a serotonogentic component normally do. Nitrous and DXM bring it out the strongest. Diazepam clears it up, which is weird because if I drink and smoke at the same time it is worse than if I had just smoked. Must be related to the GABA receptor su8btypes I guess, no Idea how though. Actually mescaline does bring out the grainy vision a bit, but mushrooms, LSD and LSA do not - though they don't stop it while I'm tripping either. Perhaps most Interestingly, psychedelic afterglows make me completely immune to grainy vision the next day - in the case of LSD for a good week or so! It never really bothers me either way though, the grains are always faint enough to not be an unwanted distraction or a visual impairment.

Peace
 
i have always gotten the static and my infrequent use of psychedelics and slightly more frequent use of weed has not changed a thing besides weed increases the static at night while high.
 
I recently encountered this exact same thing, but never heard anyone else talking about it!

One night I ate Mushrooms, snorted molly, then smoked DMT and a large amount of weed, and after all that my vision was seriously fucked and I was afraid I would wake up with lasting distortions. I wrote a trip report on the ordeal here.
 
Yeah I get this "visual static" as well...it's really noticeable when I look at anything dark or if it's at night...becomes way more noticeable when i smoke weed...if any of you play call of duty modern warfare 2 it kind of reminds me of getting hit with an EMP.
 
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