light flashes

Yeppers...The fear was the worst. Mine is almost gone now but when it started it was pretty intense.
The best reason to see a Doc is that you can actually do things to make it worse and cause a retinal tear. That situation can be really BAD.

I have had floaters in my right eye since highschool, after getting hit dead on by a soccer ball. Forever is a really long time, greater than 40 years, at this point.