scintillating scotoma
migraine auras are psychedelic blips in time, sketching debilitating oracular smears, polarizer animation test
fluctuating prismatic peep shows for one
i started getting migraine auras at the end of 2018 after my mum died. maybe she’s haunting me.
an aura episode starts with a small blurry scintillating squelch in the centre of my vision that grows and grows in size eventually radiating out covering the whole view. the visuals swell and dissipate over the course of a half hour. at their peak all i can see are prismatic colours warbling constantly. in response i have to lay down in the dark as my sight and sense of balance become totally impaired.
these visual migraines happen randomly and are not immediately painful. the pain happens after the lights show is over. i get a lingering headache for a couple days/weeks following. also a heightened sensitivity to light and sound. and if i don’t make a point to intentionally rest and do nothing directly afterwards then the recovery time takes much longer.
these trippy episodes are happening with gradually more more frequency. a couple of times every other month instead of twice per year. i went to the eye doctor recently and they confirmed that i still have 20/20 vision.
i’ve started to recognize body sensations before it happens and am slowly learning to listen to those signs more closely. like say if I’m suddenly super stressed for no reason, or noticeably more clumsy and bonking into stuff, while also dealing with random unexplained neck stiffness…then i will think to myself “oh i feel a bit off an aura might be coming” and then two days later bam it hits. plus i think it’s all probably connected to hormones. so in the last year these moments are becoming a bit more… predictable … less jarring. but no less inconvenient as it 100% derails whatever i’m doing at the time.
an ocular migraine is a mini seizure.
literally a temporary blind spot.
some people call them silent migraines.
curious if anyone else here experiences this phenomenon.
i know at least one other person this happens to. my friend Charlie Rae Walker (painter musician prolific creative creature) who even made an artsy video depicting their experience of it as it relates to seizures.
all the images in this post are quick sketches i drew right after having a scintillating brain flush. marks in time. variations. and since this phenomenon keeps happening to me, i wanna make some sort of animation or handheld flip book thingy of what i see. wriggling prawn-like broken moon shards . . . a scattering of spazzed out toenail clippings . . . shattered wreaths of microplastics dangling on my inner mind’s door …
i made an analog shadow puppet version of the scintillating scotoma. here’s a test of a cutout stencil i made and placed on an overhead projector trying out a trick using some polarized plastic …
Crown of aura glass
A Scryer’s talisman
A dragon’s monacle
Ecclipse
A larvae of fractured light
A witchetygrub of the shining eye
-some poetic texts sent to me by Charlie Rae Walker after i sent them this animation test
My migraines began when I started taking birth control pills. It took years to go away even though I quit taking birth control pills.
i can't even think about it without wanting to throw up. have u tried propranolol? it also helps with frequency of regular headaches