Don't know whether my case qualifies as Charles Bonnet syndrome, but instead of seeing total darkness I see a mental representation of the world around me, sometimes with floating glowing white clouds. This started while I was losing contrast perception, and I went psychotic because of it as I thought I was seeing ghosts.

It's surprisingly common, but not many people want to talk about it because they are concerned people might think they are crazy. I think research indicates almost 20% of people losing their vision experience it.

About 10 years ago my vision got dramatically worse over the course of a year due to glaucoma and then a cataract. I had some hallucinations then - mostly shapes/patterns, but a few times I saw identifiable things (random chair in the bath tub, large black dog in the hallway... a search box in the middle of the bedroom).

They pretty much went away after cataract surgery, when my vision was restored to its normal level of bad. I still occasionally see one specific geometric pattern if I'm super tired or in really bad lighting, though.

I have a visual field cut (loss) from a partially clotted anureysm. Within the blind fields, I have a moving light show constantly. I've gotten used to it over the past four years, but even the neurosurgeon just shrugged their shoulders when I asked about the symptoms initially. I often see movements that make me look for a cat first to be certain it's just the lights in my brain.
Thankfully I learned it was CBS after a lot of research.

I used to, not no more. I've lost too much lol. Although there have been times when I could've sworn I've seen cats or dogs but they disappear very fast.

I do. Had a stroke a few years ago during a heart procedure and lost most of my sight and gain Charles Bonnet syndrome.

I see brightly coloured geometric patterns over everything. In daylight/indoors it's not so bad, but the darker it is then the more brighter and prominent the patterns are.

Outside at night is like being inside a kaleidoscope and I'm basically 100% blind as I can't see anything else.

Never knew about this and not sure if what I see counts.

Lost my sight suddenly ten years ago in my good eye. Now I see a field of color, bright or not and it is like someone put a color filter on my old good eye: Or like the world is so foggy but colored: White, orange, green and pretty blue all show up. I tend to ignore it now but assume it is my brain trying to fill in in a way.

I just get swirling red and green patterns but sometimes it builds up into really bright awful light that you can't get away from. I'm not sure that's CBS, though.

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I’ve spoken to people with this condition, they’ve seen porcelain on their couch, faces of cartoons on normal peoples faces and obscure patterns in free space. It’s true, it’s more common than you’d expect, so if I come across someone with functional vision loss, I tend to brush over the condition briefly and those who are experiencing this are more open to talking about it.

I picked up a bit of this with a cataract about a year ago and it never fully went away. It gives me the creeps. Mostly it’s just a few pinwheels that form in the corner of my eye. The surgery made it better but it seems to be permanent.

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