I wrote before about how I can see vivid colors when I close my eyes. Sitting on the shaded porch in bright sunlight if I close my eyes while wearing sunglasses I see a bright orange. Without the glasses I see blue. Deep, saturated blue, really pretty. That is unchanged.
A couple of times lately the orange is not just a solid color but overlaid with a grid of sorts. It isn’t even but tends to get more pronounced in the center. Here is where it gets weird. I can focus that uneven grid into a picture. The other day as I squeezed my eyes tighter it started to look like a scene with a house in it. I squinted and imagined and lo and behold, a really nice scene appeared for a few seconds.
Just now it started to do the same and I focused the blob and made a face. I might have been my face, wearing a hat and smiling back at me. I’m talking near photo quality. I seem to be doing it by willing it as much as squeezing my eyes. Am I headed for the padded cell?
Whatever else it might be, it is NOT a supreme being telling you what to do. If you do start getting messages, seek help. I’m not trying to be funny here.
You are not alone. I see colors and patterns when I close my eyes at night, and sometimes in bright light. I have been told that I am having ocular migraines. I’m not sure that’s the case, but both the eye doctor and medical doctor have told me this. They are often without the typical migraine headache, thank goodness.
Yes, not just possible, but probable that this is what you are experiencing. Sometimes they happen together, sometimes they don’t. Talk to your doctor and your eye doctor about it.
I assume you are being silly , but just to clarify, I don’t think those are used much any more, either.
I worked on a psychiatric unit in the early 1990’s, and strait jackets were frowned on. The hospital had gotten rid of them all except for one jacket that we kept stashed away in a closet as a historical curiosity. Google tells me there is still a very small market for strait jackets used in jails and prisons for things like transporting violent inmates.
The last few times I have taken someone to the hospital for psychiatric admission, I have noticed that medication injections for behavioral control are primarily used with permission from patients. The nurses explain what the shot is for and work at getting the patient to consent. Jabbing an unruly and nonconsenting patient with Thorazine doesn’t seem to currently be a preferred way of dealing with problematic behavior. (Although I did know patients several decades ago who would take off running if they saw a nurse headed their way with one hand hidden behind their back!)
Back on the subject of weird things a person can do with their eyes, I can tense up the muscles responsible for looking left and right and get my eyes to jiggle quickly back and forth. It makes everything look blurry, and if someone looks me in the eyes at close range, they can see the left-right vibration. It makes my eyes tired, so I can’t do it for more than 10 or 15 seconds at a time.
I have voluntary nystagmus— I can shake my eyes. Looks like they vibrate. My eye doctor loves to ask me to do it when he’s looking at the optic nerve. “Looks like a guitar string up close!”
Funny thing was, discovered this when I first got glasses in 1977. Turns out that a neighborhood friend could do the same. Everyone else thought I was possessed. (Catholic school).
Without going into lengthy details, I can relate to much of the OP’s descriptions regarding seeing colors and grids. Eyes/optic nerves/brains can do odd things. Nothing along those lines that I reported to various ophthalmologists ever alarmed them.
Where it gets a little bit more concerning, in my completely IANAD opinion, is seeing “scenes,” or a “face wearing a hat.”
Over 20 years ago, I did have a brief period where I saw pictures, rather than just colors or patterns. Long story short, I had been prescribed antidepressants, and after 2-3 months I decided they weren’t for me. You need to taper that sort of thing off rather than stop abruptly, and I didn’t quit cold turkey, but I did cut then down faster than recommended. I saw some odd visions (monkey faces, as I recall) for a couple of weeks, and I’ve always assumed it was related to the too-abrupt cut-off of the Zoloft, or whatever it was.
@Chefguy is right. There is no shame in have brain chemistry issues, any more than people are ashamed if they have kidney stones. Seek help if things get worrisome.
When I was a child I was able to see coloured dots when I closed my eyes. They would dance around in patterns. I kept the ability to do it till this day, it is just relaxation and controlled breathing for it to start.
It is also pretty similar to effects that I get from magic mushrooms.
Your eyes don’t just stop working when you close your eyelids.
On a sunny day, you can see light coming through your eyelids. Ever shine a flashlight through your fingers?
In the dark, if I really focus on what I “see” with my eyes closed, I definitely see patterns and colors. Usually just formless noise, but sometimes there are waves of color or other structure.
I’ve never seen anything that I’d confuse with reality though. But if I’m tired and close to dozing off I’ll sometimes start “dreaming” by seeing scenes in what seems like my normal vision even while I’m otherwise aware that I’m still awake. Almost like watching a movie.
I would only start worrying if you are seeing these things with your eyes open.
, but just to clarify, I don’t think those are used much any more, either.