EYES! Help!

[Gee]

So I started getting black floaters which panicked the hell out of me because of all my 'MS' (MS in my head not my the doctors standards or the neuro or the MRI ) symptoms I thought oh that's one I don't have - any eye symptom.

I feel like my eyes feel tired all the time and the black floaters are driving me insane!

I have a dilation test at the optician tonight, my doc says floaters are not common MS symptoms at all and it's like putting in headache to google and getting brain cancer - there's no perspective.

But yet I'm still panicking like mad - I feel like this Is the start of my eye problems and next it will be blindness or excruciating pain!

:( any reassurance to help - will these floaters ever go away!?

[rubynoodles]

Hi Gee

I get floaters and they are very very common. I too have had a full dilated eye examination which was fine.

The problem with anxiety and floaters is that the more you fixate on them the more you become aware of them.

Its very difficult I know but if you can tell yourself that they are normal and harmless,eventually (even though they are still there) you will become less and less aware of them.

I find that I only notice them now when I look at light coloured backgrounds.

[Speranza]

Hi,
I have a retina condition and even so, my floaters have never proved to be anything serious.

If you are telling yourself 'This is the beginning of my eye problems' then you are making a choice about being further out of control... Maybe you could follow some of the links to CBT and look up 'Catastrophic thoughts' - now that is a condition you DO have! ;) AND even better, it can be overcome!

[Gee]

Thanks guys, my left eye keeps twitching now too!!!

[Speranza]

Anxiety... big big hugs to you. If at all possible, try to laugh at yourself. I was determinedly fighting off 'meningitis' as I walked round town waiting for a doctor's appointment earlier. ;)

[Gee]

Just been for the test - he said my eyes look very healthy and totally fine. He can see the floaters but he says 90% if people have them including him - he also said they aren't an MS symptom, optic neuritis is and something else he mentioned which he said I also don't have!

I just need to try and ignore them I guess - so hard when I have these other random symptoms to contend with!

[xvolatileheart]

I worry about my eyes so much because I have all kinds of annoying eye symptoms! I think we just focus on tiny little fluctuations in our vision that everyone has but most people don't even notice. Glad to hear your eyes look good and healthy. :)

[Gee]

The floaters drive me mad, they are unbareably uncomfortable
Always there no matter what I do !!!
Do they drive everyone else mad?!?

[Pipkin]

To be honest, I've completely got used to them and just ignore them. The only time I see them is when looking at a light surface or the sky. I've had them for years and, once I had been reassured that they were quite common and not harmful, I soon gave up worrying.

Sorry, I guess that doesn't help except to say you're not on your own and it is possible to live with them (and I've got loads).

Pip