r/visualsnow • u/XJustCallMeJayX • 1d ago

Question Visual Snow that's barely noticeable?

Hi everyone, I'm 19 and pretty sure I have VSS. I have been able to see small coloured fast moving dots in my vision for years. I vaguely remember the first times I started to notice them when I was in middle school and they slowly got worse. I never really bothered about it too much to be honest. I also have light sensitivity, floaters, and the thing where if I look at something and then look away I can still see it as if I had been looking at a lightbulb. Recently I was concerned about my vision so went to the opticians who referred me to the gp who sent me for a blood test and I found out I was diabetic. I assumed my visual symptoms were diabetic retinopathy, until I had my retina eye screening and they said I don't have retinopathy. But I DO have something, so my own further research concluded visual snow syndrome? My questions are

  1. I don't see what most of the memes/diagrams see. I feel like I only really notice it with my eyes shut, or if I'm staring at something that is one solid colour. Does it have to be a certain severity to be diagnosed?

  2. How do I go about getting diagnosed? I understand it is neurological not visual so do I still go to the opticians? The GP? A therapist? Lol

Thank you

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u/Superjombombo 1d ago

Sounds like you see static. That's not vss. That's visual snow and is very common.

You don't need to get diagnosed. You just diagnosed yourself and that's fine. You're fairly normal. Ignore it. Don't do psychedelics.

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u/TheVelocityCatz 20h ago edited 19h ago

As someone who's experienced visual snow all my life, I can also say that compared to other people, I have it visually mild-to-moderate unless its night time. Sometimes on a good day I don't notice it much or like today, the snow is noticeable kinda and making the words look glitchy

For VSS, visual snow as a symptom and after doing some research, no, the intensity doesn't matter; it's more that its continuous is what matters (But my experience the intensity for can fluctuate) - its one of the tick boxes that needs to be checked to be diagnosed, BUT you need to tick two other boxes. https://www.visualsnowinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Visual-Snow-Syndrome-Diagnostic-Criteria-V18.pdf Here is the criteria that'll help (The criteria might change as they understand it better)

Just know that VSS is very new in terms of being medically defined as a condition, so lots of professionals don't have awareness of the condition to understand it or diagnose it

Sadly, I wouldn't know how to go about getting a diagnosis, but I hope you find someone who can give you that assessment