Jojanxiety: by chance I came across one of your other
posts and seeing if it was related, stumbled by this one about
scintillating scotoma, something that I have also experienced.
Seeing your name crop up twice on the vastness of the internet had to be a sign that we've got something in common here!
I get both the visual pulse shadow phenomenon, and I recently had my 4th episode of Scintillating Scotoma, which I'm so far putting down to an aura of Ocular Migraine.
The first couple of times it happened I got very scared I was going blind. The 2nd time I got it I also experienced numbness in my left hand, which gradually moved up to the left side of my mouth.
Since this was a new development I went to the doctor who said it was consistent with migraine. Even though the experience is as scary as hell, it's relieving to see it explained rationally as a normal symptom of migraine, which is a common and not-so-scary condition. I have found much evidence on the internet to
corroborate this.
So we have a rational, benign explanation for the visual disturbances caused by migraine.
With regards to the shadow in vision with heartbeat, I've noticed it occasionally, more so recently than before, but have never had it investigated. That said, I had a normal Optician checkup earlier this year and that passed without issue.
Do you also experience similar shadowing when moving your eyes to the far left or right? I get this, and
this thread describes it well, where others have seen a similar thing.
Anxiety and stress are terrible things, and it's very hard to combat them, but they are usually the cause of all of most of these issues.
Final thing for now: do you find you get irritated or feel enraged by mundane usual noises made by people in your life? Maybe eating, sniffing, speaking deeply, and feel it stresses you out? If so you may want to read up on
misophonia. Long shot but it's something I've come to realise may be an issue for me, and wondered if this was at all linked.