What is this?

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When I am in transport like a car or train if there is sun that is flashing through the trees I have weird flackbacks.

I kind of black out like all my senses disappear for about 30 seconds and then I jolt back to reality in a way that scares me I sometimes end up screaming when I jolt back, it makes me anxious as well its like something is attacking me.

I really don't think I can drive because of this.

I was tested for epilepsy but everything came back fine.

Have you been tested for OCD? It sounds like you're having intrusive thoughts and bright light is what's triggering it. Intrusive thoughts are also a part of PTSD. Did something traumatic happen to you where there were bright lights. An intrusive thought can be triggered by the smallest thing.

I have not been tested for OCD but I am aware of having certain OCD symptoms, such as thoughts of needing to touch something or something bad will happen. I would not consider it severe.

I don't think anything happened that was traumatic in relation to bright lights.

I don't really have intrusive thoughts with the bright lights It just scares me a lot and I lose all senses temporarily.

It sounds like it might be some kind of sensory overload that triggers a shutdown and then you come back.

Are you diagnosed with an ASD? Because then this would make sense and, while unpleasant, isn't totally atypical for someone on the spectrum.

no I am not diagnosed but I suspect that I do have ASD. are a lot of people on the spectrum not able to drive because of this reason?

it only happens with flashing sun, I do get very anxious in clubs as well because of lights and noise but I don't shutdown completely like I do on transport

oh right yeah, well I call it flashbacks just because of the way it happens, when I was younger its the only way I could explain it, the flashing lights look like memories they are not memories but you know because they are different colours and things, does not make much sense. sometimes I hear noises in my ears when It happens which when I was younger described as voices, now I am older I can see its just noises though.

This still sounds a lot like epilepsy.. From what I've read there it's very common for an EEG to miss seizure activity in the brain or for the person to simply not experience a seizure while being tested. I could be wrong, I haven't read about it in a while. Anyway, it might be worth looking into again because I've never read about anything similar to what you're describing that isn't a type of seizure. I guess it sounds a bit like PTSD, but the more you describe it the less it seems related. I'm not an expert though D: it's just related to my special interest.

Flashing lights can cause seizures. I used to get them

I think I have found out what it is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_vertigo

Yay :3 that sounds exactly like what you're describing.

Have you tried wearing sunglasses to see if it helps?

Oh! I get flicker vertigo too! I can't drive for other sensory reasons but I can see why that would lead to not being able to drive in certain conditions, which might be too common to be ever effectively safe to drive.

Tinted lenses help with my flicker vertigo.

Different tints help different people, though pink is a pretty comin one to help. There is a rose tint that a lot of people with migraines use to help with migraines.

Personally I use a blue tint, not a pink tint. Pink wouldn't help me, but blue helps immensely. I have a specific grey-ish blue that I use that is optimized for my visual issues, but even beyond optimizing I know I'm better with blues than pinks.

So generally trying different colors might be good. I know someone who wears purple glasses, I have blue, I know someone with pink, I know someone who just likes grey...

But color can help a lot. And polarized vs non polarized for sunglass is something to look at. And you can generally try this just in stores because they have fans to look up at if this is your only issue, it you might have others it helps with too.

I like my blue glasses.