I have bouts during which I CAN NOT watch TV because of the changing camera angles or because there is motion in the picture. My head would feel as if it was about to explode and burst with excess visual information. It doesn’t feel like outright pain but it feels very unpleasant.
I usually sit down to watch TV so I don’t notice that I am dizzy. Although when I really can’t cope with the excess visual motion then it can make me physically slump forward suddenly. At those slumping times, I feel very ill and can’t properly take in what is going on around me.
I would get this more often when my general health was less good about a year ago. Now I experience this every four or five days usually when some other undiagnosed strong body pains are present.
If I’m symptomatic (like now) then yes, definitely am affected - especially by shaky camerawork (why do they do it??), fast editing or just too much movement in general. And as for 3D - forget it. I really want to see the movie Tintin in 3D but have had to turn down a couple of invitations with nieces and godsons as it would just do me in right now.
oh yes…today hubby was watching the 2 man bob sled & the camera was at the front of the bobsled catching every curve & corner…i had to look away
Most movement makes me quesy.
In a bad spell the TV is a complete no-no, even for a few seconds. In a good spell I still have my moments, much the same as Vic described. My husband took a picture of me once, ‘watching’ the final of X Factor with a cushion held up to my eyes!
I get this to. Most programmes aren’t too bad, but anything with the camera moving too fast or spinning around the actor - forget it!! Also watching boats - oh dear that made me really ill once - thought I was on the thing!
:lol:
Blecch. I can watch some things but definitely have to turn off some shows, and my pet peeve is news shows with all those crawls and graphics they think they have to have now.
This was brutal for me before I started on medication, and now it is only moderately painful. I have a very large high def TV where the motion is extremely clear.
I used to watch CNN and tell my wife, “The background is moving back and forth, can’t you see it, it’s driving me crazy.” And she would say, “No, I don’t see it moving . . . oh, yeah, now I can see it, the background is a flag that is waving and the camera is going in and out. Hmm.” I used to just surf the channels for a show with a single smooth camera shot, like an interview setting. Nowadays it is better, but I still get the sensation of motion, and sometimes panic, when a screen is too busy and moving.
I believe that the problem is caused by over-reliance on the eyes to stabilize the balance system. The brain is discounting the ears and the body, and relying on the eyes. So when the eyes are tricked by television, then it really throws off the brain.
Weird coincidence for me today…
I was at a doctor’s appointment and on the TV in the waiting room they were touring a home. When the camera panned in what seemed like an arc to me I noticed it made me a tad dizzy. Now, I did have a dizzy spell (vertigo) threaten me when I was standing at the desk checking in a couple minutes before, so maybe I was already dizzy, but I stopped watching the TV at that point. I also had to look up to see the TV as it was near the ceiling, so that may have had something to do with it as well. I don’t watch a lot of TV anymore, but come to think of it now I do notice some things that bother me while watching, but I didn’t think much of it. When it happened at the Dr.'s office today I recalled seeing this thread here and that’s what got me thinking.
I have a little trouble concentrating, but I think it’s just due to my being dizzy at those moments and my attention is diverted to thinking about the dizziness. I usually just do something else when I don’t feel like watching TV, but by then reading or being online is stressful on my eyes and seems to give me a headache. When it gets like that for me most times I just go to bed for at least a nap (but, who wants to take naps all the time?). I definitely empathize with the frustration it causes.
