Startle Response to Noise, Accompanied by a Flash of Light - Anyone?

Dear PC Contributors,

I've been given a diagnosis of Complex PTSD. One of my symptoms is an exaggerated startle response - it can be someone chapping the door, the telephone, a bus going by, my name, someone quietly approaching out the corner of my eye, etc, etc. But the one I would like to talk about is when falling asleep.

When falling asleep, if there is a noise and I start, even though my eyes are closed a light flashes quickly in my vision. There is no light actually on when I open my eyes, this seems to happen in response to the noise - my eyes are closed when I see the flash of light.

So it goes like this:

Eyes closed--->Falling asleep--->*Noise+startle+light flash*--->Eyes open---> Awake.

Has anyone else experienced this combination of the startle+light flash when there is no actual light alongside the noise stimulus?

I cannot seem to find any thing about this on searching.

Actually..... yes. I think it's just the pressure we probably put on our eyes when they're closed - the startle response likely makes us sqeeze them shut which would put pressure on our eyes... and thus light!

Oh yes, though not so much anymore. It was much worse before I sought treatment.

WW

Dear Red Panda,

thank you for replying. I think I know what you mean, however, the flash of light I am talking about happens just before my eyes fly open in fright - I'm not aware of squeezing them shut at any point, they are closed normally for falling asleep.

Dear Werewoman,

thank you for responding. If you don't mind me asking, did the flash correspond to any of your memories/flashbacks, or was it just part of the startle response? And can I ask what treatment you received?

I don't notice my own squeezing shut either, but our eyes are massively sensitive so I don't think it necessarily needs to be noticeable to us. Especially since we'll have a rush of adrenaline at the same instant from being startled.

I wouldn't use the word 'correspond' in relation to the light flash and my memories/flashbacks, but yes there was a connection between the two because this problem was always worse when I felt really anxious - not quite panic attack mode, but close to it. So for me it was like:

more tense and anxious than usual - closed eyes - startle/jump out of my skin (my whole body reacts) with simultaneous light flash in my brain/behind my eyes - opened eyes - wide awake for most if not all night because my heart rate is going ninety to nothing - exhaustion for the rest of the day.

It's really difficult to describe, obviously, but I think what I just wrote makes sense.

As far as treatment, I find a combination of CBT (cognitive behavior therapy), EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and medication - I take Welbutrin 300 mg a day, Inderal 80 mg a day, and Klonopin 2 mg a day - to be most effective. When I started taking Inderal, the super sensitive startle response got a lot better. I still get jumpy sometimes, but not as often and my whole body doesn't flail like it used to.

I hope this helps. Like I said, it's difficult to describe, but completely normal with PTSD, and treatable.

WW

Edit: after closing my eyes, I could (and still do) startle for no apparent reason. Sometimes it was a sound or some other stimuli, but not always.

I haven't really ever noticed much flash of light...I do tend to sort of squeeze my eyes shut if a noise startles me along with the either jumping a foot or flinching. Thinking the squeezing eyes shut thing could cause what looks like a flash of light due to pressure on your eyes...but I haven't really noticed it myself.

Aside from that though was there a flash of light at all involved in the trauma? if so then perhaps that has something to do with it but not sure.

No light, but I have had quick visual responses to being startled or scared. I think its almost like a mini dissociation for me. The visual effect is very similar to what I have experienced while dissociated, but more extreme and its over fast. It's hard to describe.

I wonder if it is something like that.

I have suggested EMDR to my psychologist, he is taking advice and getting back to me on it. I've pretty much ran the gamut of medications, and am at the end of what will end up being 18mths of deep therapy.

Thank you for your response, it's helpful to know that there are approaches that help.

In reference to startling for no reason, following a psychotic episode years ago, I startled without any discernible trigger the whole night I was trying to get to sleep. My eyes would be closing, and I would start to drift, them out of nowhere my whole body would jerk and I'd be awake. This went on every 5-10 mins til morning. I've never had it that bad since, and I think that was because I had no idea yet that what had happened to me was a psychotic episode, I still truly believed that I was possessed by evil spirits of dead mothers and babies and WW2 veterans. So, I think I was reacting to the trauma of "being possessed" (in one of the incidents I watched a "spirit" fly into and through my body - felt every inch - so it was as real as the nose on my face).

I have considered this. Photographs were taken, yes. But I can't recall a traumatic event related to a photograph, just photographs being taken when I was naked from the waist down - I don't recall feeling much of anything at the time, perhaps a bit yucky, and weirded out, however, there was so much weird, it didn't seem to phase me sometimes. I do suspect sometimes I was drugged, so perhaps more traumatic stuff with flashes happened then. I'll probably never remember that fully though.

Hmm, could be. I can be dissociative under stress/shock.

Hello. I experience this exact

phenomenon. My startle sensitivity increases in the evenings to a level where I react to the sound of turning a page in a book I am reading. I don't get the white flash at those times but I do when my eyes are closed and resting, if startled then there is a flash of white light as my eyes are closed. I recall having experienced that same flash many years ago when I hit my head pretty hard. I don't think that incident caused this current startle response though. I have to wear earplugs in the evenings to insulate my hyperstartle.

I experience this lightening and a loud noise sometimes together or separate. I googled and found it be termed Exploding Head Syndrome. Explains that it's the brain in a different stage of sleep, happens to me when I am extremely tired and can't fall asleep but I think I do as soon as I close my eyes hear the sound or see lightening then wide awake and usually can't sleep after.
I do hear voices regularly as I try to fall asleep but not always interfere with me getting to sleep.