Meet our #WarriorOfTheWeek, Liz! ✨
Spotlight on: Lizbeth De Santiago ???? @lizdesantiago15
“Hello everyone, I am Liz, I am 18 years old and I have suffered from visual snow for 2 years. At first it was like any other day, then it changed my life completely, noticing certain visual anomalies such as flashes of light, blinking points, floating flies and static in my visual field causing me a lot of anxiety, fear and really thinking the worst … all this happened because I was going through a period of great stress. The saddest thing is I went to ophthalmologists or neurologists and nobody gave me a prognosis and they always told me I had absolutely nothing, that my vision was fine and they didn’t pay attention to them. Whenever I left the doctor’s I came out very sad and anguished that even though I saw many visual symptoms they would not care at all. It is really very difficult to live with VSS since it makes me uncomfortable to go out in the daylight. I cannot do activities during the sunlight and with electronic devices it is a challenge against my eyes since I am suffering with the flashes and migraines caused by VSS. Something that surprised me so much was that I told people if they saw what I visualized in my field, they called me crazy, stressed, scared or that I imagined things … You might have an idea of what we struggle with going out day by day suffering from this syndrome but it is very difficult for us to live like this. My parents at first stopped believing me since the ophthalmologists found “good vision” in me. They stopped believing me until I learned about visual snow syndrome and the Visual Snow Initiative campaign and they made me want to keep moving forward, giving us hope that everything will turn out well and that there will soon be a cure. For now the best thing is to exercise, eat healthy, and do activities such as yoga or meditation to reduce anxiety and stress, because some of the symptoms of this syndrome are those and the depersonalization that you are disconnected from the world, everything you see is unreal and you live in a world that of burning, full of sparkles and points that have no end. I thank the Visual Snow Initiative, my parents for supporting me in this and my high school psychologist and my boyfriend for supporting me in my most difficult moments, for giving me strength and never giving up for this condition.” ✨✨✨????????
