# Mild Visual Hallucinations



## bookert (Mar 5, 2010)

Lately, I've been getting some strange hallucination type things that come and go every day or two. They are very mild and don't interfere with my life. What will happen is I'll be sitting down in class or something and everything will start to sort of shimmer. I can still see things but shadows and dark things will get a little visual snow/static. Some times if its dark, I will see a faint line of the static horizontally across my whole field of vision and sometimes it will be lightly colored. I get small flashes of light now and then too. I also get very strong after images of computer screens and lines of text. I was taking kava. When I stopped taking it, these visuals ware less intense but still there. Does anyone know what this could be? These aren't like psychotic hallucinations from what I can tell but I haven't heard of anything quite like this. Also when I smoked weed(stopped a couple weeks ago), I would have pretty intense visuals like I was on acid or something(glowing geometric patterns on everything and slight movement in shadows and dark objects). Can someone help me out? or at least reassure me that I'm not psychotic? I think it might be from stress and lack of sleep as I just moved and have been working to confront my anxiety problems. I show no signs of psychosis in my speech, thoughts or actions, and I know my visuals are not real and they don't interact with me nor do they take on meaningful shapes.


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## neurotic1 (May 17, 2009)

no its not psychosis, but it could be the weed or meds you could be taking.


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## UncertainMuffin (Sep 24, 2008)

You're not psychotic.  It does sound like a drug induced thing though, doesn't it? I remember hearing about a rare condition on the radio where when some people take a ton of acid, they almost get stuck in a high state and it feels like never fully come down. As a result of that they see things that aren't there months after the drug is out of their system. I wonder if there's an equivalent of that with kava or pot? However, I doubt it. You'd hear a lot more about it if there were! 

Whatever it is, I hope it goes away soon. And I don't think it would hurt to see a doctor if it keeps happening. They would know a lot more than we would.


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## dubtongue (Mar 2, 2010)

UncertainMuffin said:


> I remember hearing about a rare condition on the radio where when some people take a ton of acid, they almost get stuck in a high state and it feels like never fully come down. As a result of that they see things that aren't there months after the drug is out of their system.


yup, it's because when you take acid, the molecules are transmitted from brain to spinal cord. the only way someone can be drugtested for LSD is by a "spinal tap" (great movie haha). once there, acid can be dormant for the rest of your life. that's why if someone who does/did acid can have a flashback from just cracking their back or randomly seeing something that causes them to remember a trip. some people can do acid once and be stuck with flashbacks for the rest of their lives, while others can do it numerous times and never expeirence a flashback. depends :/

that's why i'd never tried it... i know i'd be that sucker who'll never be normal again. lol

but i know what you mean with random hallucations, you're not crazy. 
ever since the first time i did mushrooms i'll have random moments where a moving object will have a trail behind it... kinda like the way a glowstick looks in the dark. it's cool because i'm like, "whoa! i just had a little flashy!"

as long as you're not hallucinating negative things or images, you should be fine... if it gets worse or they seem to realistic, i would bring it up to a psychiatrist.


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## Madison_Rose (Feb 27, 2009)

Lack of sleep can often lead to visual (and auditory) hallucinations. I woudn't know about the drugs!

Also, it's possible to get the disturbed vision of a migraine without the actual headache - maybe that could be what you're experiencing?

I suggest making sure you sleep and eat at regular, sensible times


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## livingnsilence (Feb 4, 2008)

I've done research on both visual snow/static and increased after images because I have both. The thing that is throwing me off about your visual snow is it's not completely over your whole vision and not 24/7 which is about all I've ever researched. They really don't know what causes it in people that are like me and have never done LSD or shrooms but they have a few ideas. For people who have done LSD or shrooms or a few other halucinagens it could be hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) that is causing it and it is often treated with benzos. Other pausalbe causes are MS, lyme disease, lessions in the occiptial cortex, or persistant occular migraine aura without infarction. Or some believe everyone has it you just don't notice it until you get stressed or depressed to the extent of a disorder. I can't remeber to much about the increased after images other than it can be caused by MS/lessions in the occipital cortex but there were other causes.


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## UndercoverAlien (Dec 29, 2009)

yeh not psychosis, the intense visuals you were talking about while on weed is not uncommon, but never heard of anyone really hallucinate off just weed. 

if your tolerance was low and you smoked a lot of some very good weed you can hallucinate a bit. the most intense i've ever had from weed was a fast/slow motion to everything with static/blur.


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## Wuddlefoof (Mar 25, 2010)

*Bump*

i've searched all over the internet and you're the first person i've found with the same symptoms as myself.
First off, i've concluded that these symptoms are not due to visual snow/static, I have visual snow now as well.. From personal experience, I've found these two phenomena very separable.

i've had the lines of horizontal / vertical static in the dark as well, they seem to originate from nothing at times. Other Times I feel that they are late afterimages that I can bring back when I concentrate in on them. when I smoke weed I get strong geometric patterns when I look at objects. When I stared at objects with multiple contrasts, I can create multiple illusionary pictures out of it in multiple ways by using the darker and lighter contrasts to outline the picture(it feels as though the pictures can create themselves). On top of that, when I closed my eyes during smoking I could see strong hallucinations of geometric objects. When you say they glow I completely know what you mean, it's just hard to describe. I want to say it's a blueish colored glow though(and that it can get lighter colored), but when I concentrate on it sometimes I feel as if I can see the whole color spectrum in the glow of the object.


I don't have your symptoms described in the first half nearly as much anymore, but at the time I did, I was working on deep inward relaxation techniques. It got to the point that whenever I relaxed for a couple of minutes, I could be aware of the shimmering and would also notice very small changes in my environment.
I believe that Kava could play a major role in why you're experiencing what you are. (This is just my guess but the mixture of stress while taking Kava could have played a part in increasing your awareness. While Kava made you more relaxed, the mixture of stress could create a hypersensitivity of awareness. This could be true especially if you're not good at getting rid of stress.) 

(I'll also note here that the only drug i've ever done is Marijuana. ) 

I have a few questions that maybe you can help me with too. 
1) have you had any differences in auditory awareness?
2) when you started experiencing the symptoms were they before or after you smoked weed?
3) Can you remember if you could see static when you experienced the geometric hallucinations from weed?
I look forward to hearing back from you! =).


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## Slicknick888 (Apr 25, 2011)

*thank god*

finally i found someone who has the exact symtoms as me i have anxiety and also got these hallucinations from weed do you know what it is?


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## ValiantThor (Dec 6, 2010)

i wish i naturally tripped balls


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## PerfectDutches (Apr 25, 2011)

No, I get that too at my school. Its the lack of sleep.
I ussauly dont hallucinate with weed unless i smoke like ALOT
was your **** laced?


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## abads (Jul 16, 2011)

*kava and hallucinations*

I have been drinking kava for a few weeks now and experienced my first hallucination last night. Freaked me out. Glad to know it's not just me.


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## Bacon (Jul 4, 2010)

Starburts in vision? Derealization? floaters in eyes....



I Got a ton of floaters and vision starbursts and sometimes i OCD about our vision and see a bunch of small dots.


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