Potential triggers or causes of Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS) [Personal Research]

Physical trauma that led to brain damage and/or maladaptive neuroplasticity:

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Thalamic stroke
• Neck injuries
• Hypertension
• Hearing damage (can lead to thalamic maladaptive neuroplasticity)

Medication leading to neurotransmitter disruption or apoptosis, neurochemical imbalance and/or maladaptive neuroplasticity:

• Prescription medicine: anti-depression (SSRI), anti-anxiety (benzodiazepines), antibiotics (penicillin, mycin family) and a lot more are being reported. It seems that psychoactive medication is very often reported and this is likely as they affect neurochemicals. Ototoxic medication is very often reported as well and supports the theory that hearing damage may lead to VSS in some people.

Toxic substances and/or toxic lifestyle leading to neurotransmitter disruption or apoptosis, neurochemical imbalance and/or maladaptive neuroplasticity:

• Recreational drugs: hallucinogens such as LSD or derivatives, research chemicals, DMT, MDMA, Psilocybin and possibly also non hallucinogenic psychedelics such as cannabis (THC).
• Neurotoxic (industrial) chemicals: industrial poisons that you have unknowingly been in contact with and have been building up in your body. It’s possible that this is a slow process, until your body/brain reaches a point where the amount of non biodegradable disrupter molecules is so high that it starts to cause medical problems. Such synthetic molecules are effectively poisons to your body (brain) which are never metabolized, hence stay in your body forever and then lead to metabolic disorders which is the case with VSS. This could also clarify why some people with VSS seem to sometimes suffer from a wide range of other health problems. It would also clarify why some people cannot relate any event or action to the onset of their VSS. For many decades now citizens have been subjected to extraordinary amounts of synthetic molecules in so many ways in the name of technological advancements without knowing if these chemicals are safe or not.

Less obvious, but also reported (correlation is not proof of causation however):

• Severe (prolonged) stress
• Severe (prolonged) anxiety
• Severe (prolonged) depression
• Severe (prolonged) sleep deprivation
• Severe panic attack
• Psychological trauma

Some people claim that migraine was the condition that triggered or caused VSS for them. It’s not clear to me if that really is a potential cause or if migraine is simply the first symptom they experience of the full syndrome. James T. Fulton (VSI) has said that he suspects that migraine, tinnitus and visual snow are diseases related to the same failing brain networks.

For some people however there seems to be no apparent trigger (cause) and their VSS onset apparently came out of the blue.

It is entirely possible that there is a genetic contributing factor. It seems there are some families out there with multi-generational VSS.

There are also some controversial triggers or causes reported on the Internet, but I’ve left them explicitly out.

It would be interesting to hear what people think may have been a trigger for the onset of their VSS.