Dealing with changes to your vision due to multiple sclerosis (MS) can be one of the scariest and most stressful things you face. It’s a core sense we rely on every minute, and any trouble with it can feel overwhelming. If you’re struggling, please know you are absolutely not alone. Your challenges are valid. As one forum member shared, dealing with vision issues can truly “mess with your head.”

Optic Neuritis: The Sudden Blur

One of the most common vision problems in MS is called optic neuritis (ON). It happens when MS attacks the nerve that connects your eye to your brain—the optic nerve—causing swelling. This makes it hard for your eye signals to reach your brain, causing sudden changes in your sight.

It’s a symptom that often leads to an MS diagnosis, and it can be quite frightening. As one community member shared, suffering from ON is a “terrifying symptom of MS.“

What can ON feel like?

• A Hazy World: Things may look blurry, like a curtain has been pulled across your eye.
• Fading Colors: Colors may appear dull, gray, or washed out. One person in our vision problems forum shared the scary reality that their eye was almost completely “color blind,” noting their vision was very blurry.
• Pain: Many people feel a dull ache, especially when they move the affected eye.

Shakes, Shimmers, and Light Shows

MS doesn’t just attack the main nerve; it can also affect the parts of the brain that control your eye movement and process images.

• The Shaking World: Many people experience uncontrolled, rapid eye movements called nystagmus. A related symptom, oscillopsia, makes the world appear to be constantly moving or shaking even when you’re still. This feeling affects your balance, making walking difficult. It can feel like trying to walk on a large, swaying boat. One person described the dizzying feeling as making them feel “lost all the time. Feel like I am a space cadet.“
• A Startling Image: Sometimes, the damage to vision processing centers in the brain causes severe effects. One individual who lost sight in half of their visual field shared the terror of waking up and seeing their son “cut in half LITERALLY. I could only see one side of him. It looked like he only had one eye.“
• Your Own Light Show: You might also see strange, colorful lights called phosphenes—bursts or swirls when there’s no real light. One writer described this as their “personal aurora borealis,” seeing “strange green ghosts flitting across the screen of my eyelids” when their eyes were closed.

Coping and Hope

Vision loss can bring on intense fear about the future. One forum member spoke about their profound anxiety: “I am scared I will be completely blind or that there is no better with this eye, and that it is permanent.”

These symptoms impact your whole life. Driving is a major concern. One writer shared the difficult, responsible choice they made to stop driving, deciding that it “is just not safe for me to drive anymore” for themselves and others.

But there is hope and adaptation. Many people find ways to compensate; some note that their other eye has learned to take over, they’ve received some help from medication, or they’ve simply learned to adapt. Stress and heat can make symptoms worse, so finding ways to destress as much as possible can be helpful.

If your vision changes, the most important step is to talk to your doctor right away. By connecting with your medical team and the MS community, you never have to face these scary challenges alone.

References:

1. Vision Disorders. Multiple Sclerosis Association of America. Available at mymsaa.org/ms-information/symptoms/visual-disorders. Accessed 10/30/2025.