Visual snow means seeing many tiny, moving dots across your vision, often described as TV static.

Visual snow syndrome (VSS) involves persistent static with other visual symptoms, such as:

• Afterimages or trails behind moving objects.
• Light sensitivity.
• Difficulty seeing at night.
• Unusually noticeable visual effects, such as floaters.

VSS is a neurological condition involving visual processing. A clinician needs to rule out other explanations. It is distinct from a typical migraine aura.

Research has not established that psychological trauma causes VSS.

People with VSS may also experience anxiety, depression, poor sleep or feeling disconnected from themselves. These associations do not prove trauma caused the visual symptoms.

VSS does not mean someone has PTSD. Trauma-related difficulties need their own assessment.

Visual snow has been reported after head injury, including concussion.

A study reviewing clinical records found head injury among several possible events associated with the start of visual snow. This does not show that every case was caused by the injury.

New visual symptoms after a head injury need medical assessment. They should not automatically be labelled VSS or attributed to stress.

Persistent visual symptoms can be unsettling and tiring. Trauma-related distress may also make it harder to feel safe or rest.

Research links psychiatric symptoms in VSS with poorer quality of life and greater reported visual symptom severity. It does not establish which came first.

Feeling detached or unreal is not specific to PTSD. Tell a clinician if this happens, especially if it is new or distressing.

• Adjust lighting and screen brightness for comfort.
• Use uncluttered pages, larger text or audio when helpful.
• Take short breaks from visually demanding tasks.
• Ask for quiet space, clear explanations and time to respond.

These are comfort adjustments, not proven cures for VSS.

If visual grounding feels uncomfortable, try a neutral sound or familiar object to hold instead. Stop any exercise that increases distress.

A GP can arrange eye assessment and, when appropriate, neurology or neuro-ophthalmology care.

There is no established treatment that reliably removes VSS for everyone. Care can also address migraine, sleep and mental health needs.

For PTSD, treatments may include trauma-focused CBT or EMDR. These treat PTSD; they are not established cures for VSS.

EMDR may involve eye movements or other forms of stimulation. Tell your therapist about visual sensitivity so you can discuss a suitable approach.

Discuss new or worsening symptoms with your prescriber. Do not stop prescribed medicines suddenly.

Seek urgent eye care for sudden new flashes or floaters, a rapid increase in them, blurred vision, eye pain, or a dark curtain or shadow over your vision.

Call 000 in Australia for sudden vision loss with stroke-like symptoms, such as weakness or difficulty speaking, or another medical emergency.

For emotional crisis support in Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. If life is in immediate danger, call 000.

This connection spans Sensory / Neurological and Mood & Mental Health. Pain, migraine, sleep and daily demands may also need attention.

Choose support that fits your capacity. You do not have to describe traumatic events to ask for practical adjustments.

This Scottish guide is not crisis care. Local services differ. Pause if the material feels too much.

• Solly and colleagues (2021): The Psychiatric Symptomology of Visual Snow Syndrome.
• Mehta and colleagues (2021): 248 cases of visual snow — potential inciting events and comorbidities.
• Visual Snow: Updates and Narrative Review (2023).
• NICE: PTSD treatment recommendations.
• NHS: Floaters, flashes and urgent warning signs.