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These visual auras typically last only a few minutes, and come right before the headache phase of the attack (if there is a headache phase – see migraine headache aura).
But these aura eye symptoms can vary drastically from person to person. Here are some of the types of aura that migraineurs have described, from Migraine Art: The Migraine Experience from Within:
- Uniform flashes of light
- bubbles
- clouds
- splotches
- specks
- dots
- zig zags
- crosses
- herringbone patterns
- geometric shapes (polygons, rectangles, triangles, etc)
- arcs
- fortification patterns
- angled or star-shaped sphere
- curved shapes
- circles
- spiderwebs
- lattices
- veinlike shapes
- nets
- checkerboards
- grids
- tunnels
- spirals
- kaleidoscope shapes
- mosaics
This is a very simplified and incomplete list. For one thing, patterns may be a combination of the above.
It should also be noted that these hallucinations may be moving. Most often they will grow over the course of a few minutes. The hallucinations may also move with your eye movement.
Also, there are complex hallucinations, such as seeing numbers and letters, or even animals, people, and imaginary creatures.
There are also changes in perception that go far beyond these kind of aura eye symptoms – such as the perception that things are closer or father away than they appear.
We’re only starting to understand why these migraine auras take place. A part of the answer is the cortical spreading depression, a spreading storm of lower activity and hyperactivity that tends to be a part of the migraine chain-reaction. When the storm reaching parts of your brain that relate to vision, at least some of these types of aura eye symptoms occur.
These disturbances are telling us more and more about what migraine is. But in the mean time, the answer for most people is to treat migraine as a whole.
If you have new symptoms, or your symptoms change, that’s the time to talk to your doctor. Although these aura eye symptoms may be an indication of migraine, they may also be related to other conditions.
Be sure to talk to your doctor who knows your medical history, and give her as much detail about your symptoms as you can.
Have you experienced any of the above disturbances? Or some not listed? Tell us about them!
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I get a jagged-edged, undulating flashing circle that starts as a speck and then grows. I’m tipped off it’s about to happen when I look at a face and can’t see half of it. It lasts thirty minutes and then the headache starts. I can even see this aura with my eyes closed in a dark room.
Strong and lasting deja vu is sometimes a warning sign as well, the day before. The sensation will last over several moments. I’ve also had the odd sensation that I was coexisting side-by-side with a dream world that would reveal itself if I opened a door or could “notice” well enough. That one freaked me out until I realized it was a neurological symptom of migraine.
I sometimes have flashes of little stars. But more often I have the “Alice in Wonderland” feeling of either being too big or too small (supposedly Lewis Carroll suffered from migraines so perhaps he had experienced this). Kind of goes along with the change in perception: things being too close or too far away.
Ever since I was a very young child, I get visual aura with about 10% of my migraines. It starts with a tiny “blind spot,” which when I realize that it means aura is starting, makes me feel quite anxious and depressed (I call this “down the rabbit hole;” I think Lewis Carroll might have experienced the same thing?) This begins to flicker, very intensely, as bright as the light from arc welding. The edges have very sharp points that undulate and flash and grow. Gradually the shape spreads and changes, sometimes C-shaped, but also can be round, oval or geometric. As it grows, the central area is grey-out, blurred and “empty.” This is present whether my eyes are closed or open, whether the room is dark or light. Eventually, after 30 minutes or longer the bright flashing jagged patterns spread to the edge of my visual field and I’m left feeling wiped out, almost like I’ve been to a workout (but not in a good way), and my vision is dazzled and strange. The migraine then follows.
This is my aura described exactly. when you first see the dot, you star to panic, have cold sweats and a sense of dread because you know what is to follow.
just recovering from yet another migraine. yes, i do see this type of visual disturbance…
I have the aura BEFORE I get the migraine, and sometimes during it gets worse. Makes the nausea worse as it messes with my equilibrium.
ryt now recovering yet another migraine…..really its too painful….:’(
I have zig zig, colorful lightening, black spots tunneling inward, and cloudy vision ‘aura’ 30 minutes to an hour prior to immobility, wishing I can just “sleep it off.” Sometimes have a tingling on one side of my face and head. Always left eye pain in my temple with every heartbeat. At least I know it’s time to prepare the ice pacs, meds, get still, quiet, and in a cold dark room.Tried almost every med available in the past 30 years. Mine last sometimes 2 to 3 days even on beta blocker and topamax. Once the vomiting starts, off to the hospital! It’s discouraging to come home from the hospital and STILL have the headache. When the migraine pain is gone I am left feeling like I have a hangover. Botox injections helped in mid ’90′s every 3 months. My neurologist has just turned me over to pain management now.
When I get migraines, I get flashing lights in the centre of my vision that starts off small and get’s bigger, It is usually in my right eye only and once the vision returns that’s when the pain arrives. Just before I get the visual aura I get the feeling that my arms are not part of my body – a very strange feeling.
Very occasionally when I am experiencing the visual aura I get tingling and numbness that spreads, once was from the tip of my nose to my throat, I thought I was having some sort of stroke then!, but I have also experienced it in my finger tips going from one finger to the next.
It would be interesting to know what causes the tingling.
When I was a baby (while still in the cradle) I used to see a cascade of multicoloured stars falling down like a waterfall. I thought this was “normal” (I didn’t have the headaches then) until my teenager days when the nausea, vomiting and headaches started and the auras changed to golden zig-zags, blind spots and a half visual field filled with water. During adulthood it changed to a moving pattern, faces changing into other faces or geometric figures changing into other geometric figures. I still have them particularly when lying in bed and they get worse when I close my eyes (I have horizontal nistagmus when lying on my back). Now that I’m older : ( and experiencing abdominal auras and paresthesia, I sort of “miss” the eye symptoms
I get a single small psychedelic coloured zig zag , like the symbol for a lightning flash, that gradually splits into several more zig zags, that grow and move in a floating fashion in my peripheral vision, gradually covering all but a small dot of vision in the centre of my eye. Sometimes in one eye only, sometimes both, and visible with eyes both shut and open.
They reach a peak after about 15 -25 minutes, then disappear slowly. Once they are completely gone the headache starts immediately.
I’ve had the zig zag aura on it’s own for about 15 years, but only began having the headaches as well about 6 months ago.
My usual aura is a flashing light like small firecrackers exploding in front of my eyes. Sometimes blue-violet blobs when I am in a dark place. I also had a few episodes with negative scotoma (the blurred part being in squares). I also have seen checkerboards; doors rolling out like carpets! My earliest recollection of auras when I was a teenager were rounded lights like the stars on van Gogh’s Starry Night. I did not tell anybody because I was afraid they might think me weird.
I get a big aura in the middle of my eyesight and then the migraine, which will last for more than a few hours. My doctor told me to take Ibuprofen as soon as it starts but it just has no affect. Sometimes I go to sleep for about 4-5 hours and hope it has gone away. It seems to work most of the time but not always. I am only 23 and it is a big nuisance for me I don’t know what to do.
Kevin, it sounds like you need to be referred to a doctor that understands that migraines are different from headaches!
I have had this twice in the last month I am under an enormous amount off stress. This is the perfect image which is hard to describe to anyone. Could anyone tell me a little more to help me
Thankyou
Mine unfortunately is persistent visual Aura – Patterns aren’t pretty or colored – purely “visual snow” similar to what you might see on an old B&W TV with poor reception. Have been battling this for 5+ years with a team of specialists. Testing (to date) picks up nothing abnormal. Visual acuity, particularly at night is awful. Migraines that I get appear to be independent of the aura – get migraines on average 2x a month.
I’m lucky in that I have very mild migraines in terms of pain. However, my visual problems are sometimes bad enough that I can’t drive to work or have trouble walking without holding onto something. If I can close my eyes, I feel nearly normal. If I can’t, I never know if I can trust what I see. Are the lights really flickering? Are things really scampering across the walls and floors? Did I really see a hippo in our woods? (turned out that last one was definitely a hallucination, thank goodness.)
I see a spinning translucent circle a couple of hours before I begin to feel the onset of a migraine. I used to have about 2 migraines a week but in the past year it has diminished to 2 a month. I am not sure why – I have been trying a number of different approaches.
Mine are zig zag patterns that start as a very small strobe-like pattern. The zig zag lightning eventually covers all of my vision and then the headache pain starts. Usually this aura last 30 minutes or so. Sometimes I don’t get a headache after the aura, but don’t usually chance it and almost always take meds at the first sign of aura. Hopefully some day they’ll find a cure for the aura.
My neurologist started sending me to a Pain Clinic due to chronic migraines back in July. His botox treatments didn’t work any longer. The Pain Clinic first tried Myobloc injections and a Cervical Faucet Block due to disc injuries. The migraines continued. He added Percocet 10/325 mg. 3 times a day as needed. It helped, but migraines and vomiting continue at least three days a week. I have a neck injury from a car wreck with a lot of neck pain and muscle spasms the dr. believes could be starting the headaches. I told him I thought it was stress and weather changes causing them. Last week he changed my meds to methodone twice daily(I hate that – makes me sleepy.) At onset of migraine, spray SUBSYS 200 mcg under my tongue. IT WORKS!! Headaches gone within minutes!!! No quessiness, no vomiting, no ice pacs, going to bed in total darkness and quiet. I think I’ve found my cure for migraine with aura.
I haven’t had an Aura in 19 weeks now with a self help treatment that I created. If interested, e-mail me…Barry in Pa.