Anxiety and eye problems

[Benb]

Hi All

I hope I can get some help please ???

I had been very very stress and super high anxiety for the last 4 weeks, which I am working through but my eyes have been playing up. I have been see eye floaters, finding it hard to focus in a bright room at night, bright lights (shopping centre, work, in front of the Tv) are hurting my eyes and I my Finding hard to focus on sometimes but if I drive a car day or night it goes away instantly ???

Or if my stress and anxiety are low I can see as normal, ( it is like a cloud has lifted) ??? I have seen my GP and had all the check and test for the last month and all good. I had a eye test and I do need reading glasses which I should get next week.

Just see if anyone else has had this ???

[Whazp]

Mine are sensitive to bright light (evening and cloudy days are better) for a while everything had a greyish hue. My eyes cant focus most of the time & i have an almost drunk like feeling. Not much fun.

[44Max44]

This is exactly what I've been experiencing!

It feels like sometimes I can't focus on this, maybe one of my eyes will go slightly blurry, and I feel kind of sensitive to light sometimes, but as soon as my mind focuses on something else or my anxiety goes away my vision goes back to be completely fine...

It's pretty distressing, but after reading this post I'm pretty convinced it's probably just another symptom of anxiety. Still worth getting checked out regardless which is probably what I'll do.

[44Max44]

After doing a little bit of googling it turns out that your eyes feeling 'weird' and blurred vision is common for people with anxiety, this is due to the high levels of adrenaline caused from the anxiety, and also because people with anxiety tend to strain their eyes. It probably also doesn't help that I stare at a screen for several hours a day.

I'm starting to think there isn't a single thing Anxiety can't make you feel... 😕

[Benb]

Thanks for your comment mate

[Academy]

I am sitting in my lounge ,at the moment, having an anxiety attack. My eyes go out of focus and my neck tenses up. I am scared to drive in case it happens in the car and I have my grandchildren with me. I am in the process of packing to move house and I wonder whether this is the catalyst for this happening more often since I signed the papers to sell my home . These feelings terrify me. Any suggestions, people?

[Oscar93]

Hi Benb.

Yes I can identify with this. I consider myself to be an anxious person and have had problems with anxiety attacks in the past. A few years ago I noticed that I was starting to see eye floaters/black spots more often as well as flashing lights in my vision. It's a horrible thing for someone with anxiety to get!

Basically i've been told that my eyes are okay and haven't been able to get much explanation for the onset of floaters. Funnily enough when I stop worrying about it I don't seem to notice it as much.

My only advice is that it is more common than you think so try not to stress too much over it, and to get a checkup every now and then just to be safe.

Take care.

[Guest2583]

Hi Benb,

I completely relate to your post - When I experience high levels of anxiety, I find it really difficult to read and words seem to almost overlap. I've also had times where I've seen floaters for long periods of time.

This used to get me really worried and I was convinced there was something wrong with my vision, but I also find when I stopped getting worried that I 'wouldn't be able to stop noticing it' or that 'I'll never be able to read properly again', it became a lot better - because although anxiety tells us differently, there is no harm it can do.

Hope this helps 🙂

[ks1993]

Hi Benb,

I can definitely relate to this! When I'm feeling anxious and in an overwhelming environment, for example, a brightly-lit, busy supermarket, I start to feel really faint and my vision blurs. I feel like my head is underwater and sounds get distorted too, sometimes I even bump into people accidentally because it's like my spacial awareness disappears too.
I think it's a pretty common experience with anxiety, but it's certainly scary! I remember when I first noticed this happening, I was petrified I was going blind (hello, health anxiety!) and booked in eye exams etc, but everything was fine.

Hope this helps 🙂

[Thomas_S]

This post and subsequent replies have been so helpful. I have been experiencing a lot of the same symptoms. I developed anxiety mid last year and the physical symptoms (especially eye problems) developed strong and fast, though I had no idea what it was at the time. I have since seen a few doctors and a psychologist, but no one has told me about these physical symptoms as succinctly as this post. As you can imagine - a lot of stress about what it was actually occurring to me. Reading all these replies with very similar symptoms to me, has reduced a lot stress for me.