Stuart Major - VSS Survivor

My name is Stuart Major, I am a UK citizen living in Cheshire.

I can remember at the age of 23 coming down with some kind of virus that laid me up for about a week. All my senses were affected by this which seemed normal at the time. When I got over this, everything returned to normal apart from my vision which still retained a grainy/static condition to
it. (This also included poor night-time vision).

I went to my GP and tried to explain what I was experiencing, but it was so hard to try and explain. They tried a number of things over a duration of months/years and in the end held their hands up and said “Sorry, we give up, we can’t think of anything else to try and we don’t know what it is you
have”.

After a while, I became accustomed to this experience (I couldn’t work as an Illustrator/Artist any
longer) and learned to live life normally with this, sometimes forgetting about it for days, I was
happy-ish again. This stayed constant not getting worse or better.

Many years later at the age of 48, I noticed that the static got worse, along with this I developed
tinnitus, dizziness, floaters, after images, brain fog and a constant pressure in my head. Not thinking
this was related I went to the GP again who intern sent me to an Ophthalmologist/Neurologist who
couldn’t find anything wrong with me after many tests/scans.

By this time I was suffering from depression and was in a dark place as I now had a wife, a teenage
son and a demanding job and was worried that I couldn’t keep on top of things!

Around this time I went for an annual standard eye examination at the optician which was normal.
Then the Optician asked me if there was anything with my vision that I wanted to discuss. I just
thought that I would mention the grainy vision that I had had for many years now. Their reply was
“This sounds a bit like a new condition that the medical field have now acknowledged called Visual
Snow”. I immediately went back to the office and ‘Googled’ this and ‘EUPHORIA’!!

I had finally found out what I was suffering from and that it was a condition with a name and there
were others going through this (which was kind of comforting – not in a horrible way).
I have managed to become a patient of a Neurologist who has written articles on VSS and am
currently being trialled on different treatments.
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I am so happy to now see so many organisations out there globally now fighting our coarse and
looking for funds to try and find a treatment/cure for VSS and great progress has been made with
regards to the area of the brain the hyperactivity is coming from and I honestly think that we shall
get there soon!...........So please stay strong and let’s hope for a happy 2022!

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