Yes I just recently started having them. First time I thought I was going blind. I went to my ophthalmologist and he immediately knew what was happening. He had me get several tests to confirm. I luckily have had very few. The first I was at a neighbors house working on her computer. I had to lay down for a while because it was so disorienting I was having vertigo. I did not have any pain.

Thanks for the response Raven. It sure is scary for sure. Mine started back in Feb. I happened to be sitting in a parking lot that time. Most recent one happened Sunday while I was driving to Mobile. Pulled into Sam's lot and waited till it passed. I saw my ophthalmologist after the first couple I had. I was also afraid of losing my vision. Looks like it's gonna be apart of my life now and don't know anyone that has experienced it before. Thanks again for you input

I have had them. Mine usually last about 20 minutes. I have the flashing lights but fortunately I don't get the headache.

http://www.americanheadachesociety.org/assets/1/7/Issue2notes.pdf

Suggest seeing a neurologst who specializes in migraines, if you have not already done so, as symptoms can be very similar to other very serious problems.

Perhaps keep a diary, noting date, time of day, duration, what you were doing prior to onset, what/if anything made symptoms resolve, noting the severity of the attack. You may find a pattern.

I found a correlation with stress and taking a break/walking away from what ever I am doing (if I can) minimizes the duration. While I get no headache/pain, the visual impairment is annoying.

I have had these headaches off and on for years. Much less now that I am older. I get the flashing lights and try to cover my eyes with a pillow or anything that is handy. Get a mild headache when the flashing stops. I think mine are usually caused by bright sunlight or stress.

I started getting them last summer---part of my Lyme symptoms, and connected with increased sensitivity to light, flickering light, and fluorescent lights.

Yes, scary the first time it happened. I was watching TV, and suddenly in place of the newscaster's face there was a grey blob. Other times I've seen patterns in my peripheral vision, or I've lost the peripheral vision temporarily. Very minor headache follows, or sometimes none at all.

I've learned that my triggers are chocolate and exposure to fluorescent lights. Even a tiny amount of cocoa in an herb tea blend (the 8th ingredient, so it couldn't have been much) gave me an ocular migraine.

I have to wear a visor when I'm exposed to fluorescent lighting. That means the library and most public buildings--including almost all stores.

I had one. I'd been sitting outside in the sun reading and came inside and it started. Lasted just long enough for me to get on the computer and Google it and calm my fears. No pain and it only happened once.

I've had them off and on for almost 30 years. Because they are pretty infrequent, the neurologist advised against taking meds because of the side effects. I rarely get a headache, just the flashing aura. The whole episode lasts maybe 10 or 20 minutes. I haven't really found consistent triggers, sometimes flashing lights and very bright sunlight triggers them, sometimes they don't. Sometimes chocolate/caffeine, sometimes not. They were worst before meno, sometimes I would have 2 or 3 in a day, for several days in a row, then none for weeks or months. I recently had several after not having had them for 2 or 3 years.

I was sent to a neurologist and had lots of tests and had my carotid arteries ultrasound to check for blockage or damage. They looked good. He was very thorough in having me checked out and all agreed that's what it was. I see almost like a pixalating wave pattern that just keeps doing the wave in my far peripheral vision. Extremely distracting and disorienting. I don't drive much but no way I could drive during one. I have not noticed triggers but they occur so randomly and not often I don't think I would be able to.

I have had them for several years, sometimes more often than not. Opthomologist has said not to worry as long as there is no pain. I also find them distracting and disorienting. It looks more like C or D in the illustration above. Starts out the size of a pencil eraser and gradually widens. I can then see through the center as it widens, then it widens to the point that it is gone. Have to stop what I'm doing and just sit for the 15 or so minutes that it takes for it to stop. I chalk it up to stress, as that is when they occur.

I've had them for years, very scary at first. My doctor said they are migraines, but because the blood vessels in the eyes are tiny, this is how they are expressed. He himself used to get them and participated in a study. He took a white pill every day for a year and didn't get one occular migraine. Long story short, he was given a Bufferin every day. He has taken one a day for the 35 years and hasn't has one since.....

I just had one yesterday, but I think mine was brought on with my shingles. Hate them, but feel better knowing I'm not going blind!

Mine started more than 60 years ago when I hit puberty and was a predicted part of my monthly cycle. From then till menopause the aura, or disturbing light show was always followed by a severe headache. Since menopause, the aura which is very sporadic (less than monthly) is only sometimes followed with a very mild headache. These days I cannot identify a trigger for the aura.

I woke up with one today. No known trigger. Mostly painless but some pressure but disturbs vision and balance. I can't walk a straight line. I have Nystagmus and an achy neck. I had all those tests too. I think weather and allergies play some role.

Wow what a coincidence. I was just at my eye doctors yesterday and I mentioned this happening to me. He also said not to worry, but if it keeps happening to come back and he'll run more test. It was pretty scary, but I didn't have any pain. And it lasted no more than 5 - 10 minutes. I go every 6 months to keep check on my borderline glaucoma and so far so good. I put eye drops in every morning and night.

I've had them. I notice the onset first as I can't read...my peripheral vision is ok, but central vision is disrupted. Then the "cut crystal" image starts and it's really lovely to look at. If you put a touch of water on a CRT screen, that's just what it looks like. Eventually it moves off, usually to the upper left of my vision and then it's gone. I'm left with a feeling of "loose brains" after that, usually until I get some sleep. Sleep helps a lot.

There are many triggers for migraines and that's what makes them so difficult to deal with. One thing I know for me was diet cherry coke. Loved it but afterward I would have a migraine. Also stress can be a trigger. I used to get them after every presentation I gave, but I talked myself out of them and now I don't get those anymore. Sometimes missing a meal will trigger one. But otherwise, I just don't know.

I have a GF who gets them frequently but she's let them control her whole life and diet. She's been meat eating, non meat eating, eating gluten, gluten free, nightshade, no nightshade, no gum, no chocolate, nothing that's not organic and is to the point that she'll only eat food she's prepared. But what's been consistent is the migraines, so I've tried suggesting she isn't going to find the answer in her diet, but she's gonna do what she's gonna do. She also gets triggered by bright lights and fragrances. Mostly for her I think her own belief that these things trigger them can trigger them.

Her sister suffers worse as she gets the pain as well as the ocular migraine, and she's found some relief with botox injections.

They are supposed to be working on a new class of drugs for treating them though.

I've had them for 30+ years. Mine are always caused when direct sunlight enters the sides of my eyes. My eyes are very sensitive to sunlight, but I have to be careful. I cannot sit parallel to a window with sun, however I can face the sun just fine.

I hate when it happens at work because it paralyzes me for about an hour. First my peripheral vision goes. I'll move my hand around my face and cannot see it. Then my forward vision goes. I can read the sentence in front of me but it quickly will disappear if I focus on it. I also see spots in my vision while it's happening.

Luckilly everything goes back to normal within an hour.

I probably need a pair of those sunglasses you get when they dilate your eyes, but they're ugly. I have the car windows tinted to help. Unfortunately the dark tint I have is illegal in the state of Ohio for the drivers side window, to which I carry a prescription from my doctor indicating I have ocular migraines and it's a medical necessity. (No, it's not limo black tint, just darker than the 50% allowed).

So now I just do my best to keep the sun from entering the sides of my eyes.

Mine will start at the center of my visual field and then widen until they disappear. Rarely have a headache with them. Triggers are strobe lights and NutraSweet (this also causes facial spasms and seizures in some). Caffeine actually helps. As long as they go away in under an hour, my doctor says no other testing is needed.

However, my sister started having similar symptoms and they began to last longer. She was found to have a brain tumor in her occipital area of the brain. It pays to get it checked out.

That is usually how my migraines start out. My experience has been that if I get enough, strong enough coffee quickly enough, I have been able to prevent it from actually becoming a full-blown migraine. I have never heard of an "Ocular Migraine" so it has never occurred to me that some of the incipient migraines that I have managed to stave off via massive caffeine intake, maybe would have never become a migraine any way.

For me the risk/reward calculation is such that I'll likely continue to self-medicate in this way, since the downside of treatment is being jittery and maybe having trouble sleeping, whereas the downside of no-treatment might be a full-blown migraine, and a day in bed in agony.

I've had them 3 or 4 times in my life, never attached to any trigger than I could figure out. My 25 year old DD called me once, panicked at what she was 'seeing' but I reassured her that I've had them before and they go away usually within 2 to 20 minutes. Neither of ours were accompanied with any headache before, during or after, or anything else odd, other than the visual aura.

Neither DD nor I get any type of headaches commonly, let alone migraines. This video kind of resembles mine, except my flashing arc is black and white and covers more of my field of vision, before disappearing. I don't really have a foggy area like the grey spot in the video, rather my blinking light show is what's obscuring whatever I should be seeing, behind it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVFIcF9lyk8

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences. I will talk with my primary again as this is occuring more frequently sometimes with dizziness/nausea. This thread has been helpful for sure.

Interesting how many posters here have had them. I used to have full blown migraines, brought on by exposure to tobacco smoke (my ex spouse smoked) but never with an aura. They pretty much stopped after we separated and I started diligently avoided people and public spaces with smoke. Maybe the stress of living with him played a role also -- but the smoke is a certainty. Thank goodness for all the non-public-smoking laws; I can go to sports, bowling, music shows again!

I have had 3 ocular migraines in the past 5 years though. The first time I was at work and realized that I couldn't see half of my coworker's face -- obscured by a glittering fog. It lasted about 90 minutes that time, the last 2 times I don't think as long. Only the mildest headache accompanied them. I've no idea what brought them on, but my job is very stress filled.

I said above that my triggers were fluorescent lights and chocolate, while others said stress and bright lights triggered theirs. Well, I guess I'm in the stress and bright lights camp too. I was supposed to babysit my 2-year-old grandson this morning, but as it ended up I had to stay, get his 4-year-old brother off the bus, and watch both boys for several more hours. They were rowdy, I was hungry and tired, and when we settled down to read a book the rain stopped, the sun came out, and the light from their big window was so bright on the white paper. Yup, I got an ocular migraine.

My niece started getting them at age 18 and then continued on until she
was 28 and, all of a sudden, there was hardly a day she didn't have
one. Long story short and seeing a multitude of medical people, my
brother got her an appt. with a golf buddy of his who is the top brain
surgeon at MGH. She had an ocular aneurysm and had to have brain surgery. Had she not pursued aggressively, she may not be here today. The aneurysm was pressing on her optic nerve, he did save her vision and now she's just back to infrequent migraines. Not trying to scare anyone but there are times when a headache is a symptom of something worse.

WOW!!! Thank you mdln for the link including the picture!

http://www.americanheadachesociety.org/assets/1/7/Issue2notes.pdf

I recognized the zigzag pattern #C right away as soon as I saw it! Then I went on to read about it on the link. I've seen those a few times but never got worried. There was never any pain, they just seemed odd and eventually disappeared. I can't remember exactly when I saw them the last time. I will sure take notes next time! I don't know if it was related or not but I did have a TIA stroke about 6 months ago. All the stroke symptoms have disappeared now except my left hand hasn't yet remembered how to type like it use to.

There are two things, among others, that can cause discomfort as described in several posts above. One is a brain tumor and the other is caffeine withdrawal. I used to get that problem on occasion and it mostly happened on weekends. I drank coffee all day at my desk and then had very little to none on the weekends. My problem was traced to caffeine withdrawal! It was causing me to have sick headaches. The headache would worsen until I became sick enough to vomit and then it would abate. Once i began regulating my intake of caffeine, I have not had such an episode in 25 years.

There is a radio ad running here currently for the local hospital and it's team of neurologists/neurosurgeons. A woman is telling of the severe migraines she was having. After several tests, it was found that she had an aneurysm in a brain blood vessel. A non surgical procedure, that is her skull didn't have to be cut into, was performed that not only saved her life, but eliminated her migraines.

So see you doctor, especially if migraine like symptoms are new to you.

Alisande are you exposed to fluorescent lighting regularly? I know the receptionist at our company experienced frequent headaches because of the lighting. She had the diffuser panels replaced with skypanels and that ended her frequent migraines. The panels stop the lights from flickering and blue lighting is a lot more natural.

this is the website with the decorative panels https://www.usaskypanels.com 

Thanks, Dave. Fortunately, I'm no longer working outside of the home. There's no way I could work under fluorescent lights anymore. So the only ones I'm exposed to are in stores and the library. That's often enough. :-(

My DH has had a few ocular migraines. He says for him it's like looking through a broken window. Since he's only had maybe three (thankfully!), we haven't been able to identify a trigger. It's scary even for me when he has them.

I have had these from time to time for decades. Other than being annoying, they really don't bother me. There is no pain associated, and rarely does a headache develop. They generally last 15 minutes or less. If I am in a place where I'm able, I just take about a 15-20 minute nap; if not, I just ride it out doing whatever I can with what vision I do have. They scared me at first, now I just say "Really???" when I get one. Mine are either a white spot that blocks part of the center of my vision (if I close my eyes and can clearly see a bright white shape in a dark background) or they look similar to a Chinese shou design.

Whatever they are, and whatever causes them, to me they are just an annoyance. My opthamalogist says I do have floaters, so maybe this is associated with that.

Starbuck's coffee triggers my friend's migraines! He cannot drink a cup of their coffee, can drink any other coffee without a problem though.

I had ocular migraines in my 20s in conjunction with recurrent ovarian cysts (couple decades ago). That was the only time I've had them, so always assume that mine were probably triggered by hormones?

I discovered that my new glasses frame was putting pressure on my temple area. I took them in for adjustment and I have had very few episodes since then. So if you wear glasses check that. I was having them almost daily with the new glasses. I first thought it was the prescription. I went back to my ophthalmologist and they checked the lenses for correct prescription. They were correct. I said well these frames are tighter and so they adjusted the frames so they were not pushing against my skin. Immediately after I didn't have any episodes. I was amazed. I now do have them but very rarely. I go to a dark room and keep my eyes closed till it passes.

My son has been getting them since early adolescence. He gets debilitating headaches as well as the light flashes and oras. At times his have gotten so bad feeling in his fingers and arms gets fuzzy. We believe his are about allergies. Allergies to mold/dust/mildew/pollens. As long as he takes his Nasocort once every morning they are not an issue. He was very glad when Nasocort became an over the counter drug. It's much cheaper and easier for him to get it this way.

I had terrible headaches behind my eyes when I was young. Y Dr explained them to us as growing pains which we basically read to mean he didn't know what caused them. No over the counter pain medication (aspirin, advil, or tylenol) helped seemed to help but eventually found relief using those eye drops to get rid of the redness in your eyes. I later read that the drops dilated the blood vessels in the eye which may have relieved the pressure. Much to my relief, I rarely get those headaches anymore.

I've had migraines since my early 20s. It wasn't till I reached menopause that I started getting aura just before I got a migraine. My aura lasts for about an hour to two hours.

Luckily the same pill that I take for my regular migraines also helps aura. I do not have a painless or a migraine go they are just as bad and sometimes I feel sick to my stomach as well.

I read recently that people with aura are much more likely to have a stroke than with migraines without aura. I am thinking that the protection of the female hormones for the heart and so on is lessened with menopause. I noticed if I keep on top of eating oily fish and things like that that I don't get as many auras or migraines. I unscientificly believe it's partly because my blood gets slippery and isn't stopped by inflammation. Blood circulating around your body better is supposedly healing. I should be eating more slippery blood making food to protect myself from strokes and migraines:-).

I used to have debilitating migraines when I was younger. I had to be in complete darkness, no sound, with a cold cloth over my eyes. I would get nauseated and often vomit. I hated them. As soon as I was going through menopause bam they stopped. I have the occasional regular light headache but no more migraines. Then a few years ago the ocular ones started. No where as bad as the migraines had been. I have the C shape and so many beautiful colors flashing in zigzag.

I have had migraines for 30+ years, but never accompanied by visual disturbances. Last May while washing dishes, the vision in my left eye became blurry, followed by very bright white jagged lines, and pin hole vision. After 5 minutes I was still experiencing this and frightened as was DH, so he said we're going to emergency. We had no idea what was going on. ER doc diagnosed it right away and said most people experiencing it for the time come to the ER. That first visual episode lasted 45 minutes and not accompanied by a migraine. Since then I have had a couple only lasting a minute and no migraine. I worry about having an ocular migraine while driving, only thing I can do is pull over and wait it out.

matti, yes, the only thing you could do if one occurred while driving is to pull over, like you said. I've had maybe 4 ocular migraines between ages 50 and 60. The first one scared the heck out of me, but after I googled what I was seeing, I realized I was having an ocular migraine. Mine have always been in black and white, but very vibrant designs that vibrate across my field of vision, from the right side of my eye, then slowly maneuver over to the left, before disappearing.

My daughter has had 2, and I was glad I was able to assure her that it was a benign occurrence, since it didn't have the characteristics that might indicate a detached retina. Oddly enough, neither of us have ever had a migraine and rarely get standard headaches, either.