Auras anyone?

Hello,

I have had a very strange experience yesterday morning that lead me to your website. I wonder if I had a migrane aura without the headache.

I was taking a shower after biking to work when I noticed a spot in the upper corner of my left eye. It looked like a "negative" image you get after looking at the sun or a light bulb. I figured that I must have been looking at a light and it will go away in a few seconds. It became intesified and started spreading out to the edges in a zigzag moving pattern. It was like electric neon zigzags moving in a circular pattern. My vision became somewhat tunneled, and I felt a wave of something that I could maybe descibe as "de-personalization". I felt a bit panicked, the images would not go away even with my eyes closed. Is started thinking maybe I have come in contact with some poison or halluciogenic, or perhaps I was having a stroke. I got dressed and as I was heading up the elevator to my office my vision dropped out and it felt like someone drew a visor or curtain over the top part of my left eye. I could see, but it was blocked. It's hard to explain exactly. Part of my vision became rain-like. Looked like water pouring over a windshield, with flickering zig-zags outlining it. I had a feeling of unreality and part of my cheeck and mouth area felt numb. Then suddenly went away.

I told one of my colleauges about it and she said that her mom has something very similar and it's called a migrane aura. Then I started searching for it and found drawings and descriptions of peoples that was very similar to mine. Reading these stories I realize that I always had floaters and occasional visual snow, with sharp pain to my temples. The symtoms were so random that I never thought much about them, in fact I always tought that everyone gets these once in a while.

The experience yesterday was very intense because it felt like I was loosing my vision or going insane. It helpful to read that neither of these two are the case. Any similar experiences?

You can get migraines with or without aura. They often start out similar to when you look into a light bulb or bright sun but the bright light turns to flashy colors. I have had them come and go quickly, and then other times swirl in my eye for quite awhile.

If it persists with you, I would definately contact your doctor and get checked out.