Intense visual disturbances - Anxiety?

[Eyeanxiety]

So the past 3 and a half months my vision is seeming to play up quite a lot; distorted vision, blurred, more sensitive to light, tunnel like vision, and visual snow- these on top of what I believe I have known as scotomas. These visual disturbances first happened during a very stressful period where the family dog almost died from a spinal injury and uni exams, mostly one of the class which I needed to repeat. It has been coming in waves ever since then and seems to get a little worse every now and then. I've seen an optometrist, ophthalmologist, go, and recently a neurologist and all say my eyes are structurally healthy but neurologist wrote me a referral for a MRI and Optic field test and wrote in his clinical notes that is a chance of scotomas, anterior optic dysfunction, or retrobulbar/chiasmal lesions in the brain. I've had the MRI though I assume nothing serious was found as no one has contacted me but I want answers for what seems like my declining vision but I'm getting nothing and it's making me more anxious because it's something that can possibly be treated but will possibly become permanent if needed to wait longer.

[Peppermintbach]

Hi Eyeanxiety,

I think it is indeed very stressful and worrying. No wonder you’re feeling so alarmed. If I were in your shoes, I’m pretty sure that I would be feeling the same way.

How the symptoms seem to be intensifying must be exacerbating your worries too. I admittedly don’t know much about the biology of our eyes, but I really do feel for what you’re going through...

Hopefully it’s the case of “no news is good news” when it comes to your MRI.

Can I please ask when is your Optic field test? I hope that is soon.

Kindness and care,

Pepper

[Eyeanxiety]

Thankyou, it basically is what I'm feeling. Just makes it a lot worse when everyone is telling me I'm okay and it's the anxiety causing my eye issues, when my instinct is telling me otherwise.

I hope so- I'm quite sure it is mandatory for them to call me if there is a serious problem though, so I'm not worried if it's something like MS or something Similar, just I'd want them to tell me if there are lessons or such in my brain that is affecting my eyesight.

I'm not too sure, the hospital was supposed to contact me by now but haven't, and I called them to which they didn't answer. But I'll call them on monday and book it in as soon as I can.

Thankyou for taking time out of your day to respond to my thread, Pepper.

[Guest_1643]

Hi there, Good on you for posting... To some extent i really relate, although not with eye issues, i felt similar with my skin. I hope you hear good news on Monday and thats encouraging that so far so good.... it's hard to deal with when you have a lot of stressful stuff going on - so just saying thank you and good on you for posting! hope you feel good today...

[Eyeanxiety]

Thankyou, I appreciate your comment. It really does help reading your supportive comments and does make my day better. Have a good rest of the day

[Peppermintbach]

Hi Eyeanxiety,

I feel for you. I think that trying to tell you that your anxiety is causing your eye issues must be frustrating. Even if they mean well and have good intentions, I think it can still feel as though they are being dismissive.

I suppose the “no news” yet from your MRI is a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand, hopefully it means they haven’t found anything serious. On the other hand, it does leave you wondering and questioning; uncertainty can be stressful.

Hopefully, you can get through to the hospital on Monday and book your optic field test. All this uncertainty must be hard...

If you like, let us know how it goes on Monday, plus you’re always welcome to share any other worries, thoughts, feelings, etc. No pressure of course, but just know we are here if you want to chat 🙂

Kindness and care,

Pepper

[Eyeanxiety]

Hi pepper,

Though I do believe anxiety can worsen my vision, I think there is an underlying issue I have with my vision, all I can do is hope its not too serious and it can be treated. It definitely is hard that they're being dismissive, I just want closure.

Hopefully they will answer this time, thankyou.

I think I'll do that, thankyou pepper, you've been a huge help:)

[Guest_1643]

hope it went okay x

[Peppermintbach]

Hi Eyeanxiety,

You’re most welcome. Thank you for bravely opening up 🙂

Just as Sleepy21 wished you well yesterday, I also hope that you were able to book the optic field test.

Kindness and care,

Pepper

[Eyeanxiety]

Hi there,

Just wanted to give you an update, there's good and bad news. The good is, out of the OCT eye scan, MRI, and visual field test, my eyes and brain are healthy and have no reason to cause a decrease in my vision. The bad news is, i still have crippling anxiety and still believe there is something wrong because my vision isn't getting better. I'm quite constantly in a fight/flight response; I've heard that once the amygdala expands, it is permanent, and is a major contributor to how we react to stress.

I apologize for the late response, just been on a holiday