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View Full Version : 24/7 Vision issues - Anxiety or even derealization?



Vimbetin
05-06-16, 15:59
Hey,

I wonder is it possible that after a long course of really bad anxiety, stress and depression combined with even really traumatic events to yourself... Could lead to "permanent" vision changes or disturbances?

I've had a really rough, horrible and traumatic events in the last year(For 8 months in row now) in my life. Terrible things have happened to myself, had chronic infections, couple failed big surgeries etc. All this has led to worst anxiety and stress ever in my life, which has also led to dark depression and none of it has gone away, since everything in life is still going just as badly.

All of the sudden at the start of this year I developed tons of new symptoms that I never had before. I was sure I had caught some serious disease suddenly. All my doctors told me at that point was... It must be flu or something. I had developed horrible cold intolerance/feeling cold/shivering symptoms along with severe pains all over my body, including horrible headaches. Also feeling tired and powerless all the time. Along came disturbances in my senses, especially in my vision. Some weird strange and horrible smell disturbances as well, which have mostly passed by now. But the disturbed vision stays!

I've been plenty of times in the ER, taken MRI of the brain, had wide infection tests done, seen plenty of specialists(neurologist, infection doctors, eye doctors) etc.

Been suspected having hypothyroidism, Type 2 Diabetes, Lyme disease, MS Disease, CFS, Fibromyalgia or something in my eyes like Optic Neuritis.

They've found nothing, aside of finally getting Fibromyalgia diagnosis last week. Lyme isn't 100% ruled out either, but at this point it wont be treated "for nothing" anyway.

The visual symptoms resemble closely to Optic Neuritis, but I've seen 2 different Eye doctors that have said my eyes are 100% perfect. Even though you dont always see that disease from the eyes...

So starting from January this year along with all the other symptoms I've developed this 24/7 visual changes that havent gone away at all. If anything, they've gotten worse only by time.

My vision seems to have dimmed, as if everywhere lights have been turned down(outside and inside) and contrasts are totally messed up. All colors look washed out and lifeless. My vision is more close to black/white sight than full vibrant color sight. Everything looks dark and "dead" often. Outside world may look really "grey" a lot of time, even that I know it really shouldn't be. All lights easily hurt my eyes and i'm really sensitive to them. Sunlight, traffic lights, lights from cars, lights inside the house etc. Everything looks to have awful lot of "glare" on it or just look glossy. My night vision has gotten awful and especially then the lights hurt my eyes even more and everything in the dark looks so foggy and blurry. My sight still is pretty sharp most of the time, even almost too sharp some times? A lot of times without any clear reasons it can get somewhat/really blurry too though all of the sudden.

All the familiar places I go to, all the familiar people or anything look completely different, weird and "new" unlike what I used to see before. All the damn time, every single day. The vision could still change a bit at times for some reason. So that everything looks even more dull, grey and lifeless. And lightning could look even too bright, making everything look so dull. Even though most of the time I got this usual dim/dark vision with the messed up contrasts like I've explained. But it still varies a bit.

Because of this constant vision issue I've become even more anxious and depressed and it stresses me out 24/7. I dont even want to go outside the house anymore barely, even in familiar places or see people I'd otherwise want to. Even at home i'm scared and disturbed by my vision issues all the time.

If nothing physical is found to be reason for my vision, then could it be only caused by the constant huge anxiety and stress that has been "on" for months and possibly even led to derealization that wont let go? After more than 4 months and tons of doctor visits and tests etc, everything remains the same and nothing is found... I'm thinking of still visiting a neurologist one more time and after that I guess I'm forced to finally ask a psychiatrist about this... Or could it still be the damn wrongly diagnosed Lyme behind it all?

Thank you all in advance if you can help at all! : )

Friday13
06-12-16, 22:09
I have had symptoms 24/7 for over 3 years now after suffering a panic attacks in sept of 2013. This happened at the age of 40 with no history of anxiety. My vision subsequently started going dim and blurry and feeing strained all the time. It's been like that for 3 years daily. I keep getting told it's anxiety but I fail to see how anxiety can cause such visual disturbances all the time. Night is especially rough. It's a. It better during the day outside. But my vision sounds similar to your issue.

JonnyUK
07-12-16, 06:38
I am 38 now and when I was 19 I had an awful terrifying health attack that was never diagnosed, but it scared me so much I believe it left me with long lasting problems. I remember going to the doctor and saying my vision is darker than it should be, things don't look as sharp and clear as they should, it is like looking through a pair of stretched tights, a sieve, or a car window all the time. This is what I remember telling him back in 1998 when my problems began. I also remember saying I feel like I am in a daydream all the time, everything is slightly surreal.

The bad news I am afraid is that I am 38 and still have all this, but I have not taken any meds for it, so there may be an easy cure out there I am yet to find. It even took me until the last few years to believe it could be anxiety, I was positive it was in my brain or somewhere, but the more research I do the more I believe my health issue which may have been a inner ear drop attack scared me so much my brain changed in some way maybe to do with anxiety.

Last year I even got new symptoms, I have floating vision now, everything I look at slightly floats and moves, a bit like being on a small bit of LSD. Again it is probably brain tricks, but I am always thinking otherwise.

If you find a med that works please let us know. I need to be brave and try things myself too as I am just treading water.

Jobes
07-12-16, 15:52
I have had weird symptoms with my vision feeling like I was in a tunnel all the time especially when Driving, I had one night when I was trying to sleep in a dark room thinking I could see eye floaters with my eyes shut which doesn't make any sense. It sucks but the things we feel are all more then likely caused by our obsession that there is really something wrong with us. I have difficulty not focusing on my physical anxiety symptoms and they are rarely not on my mind so I feel achy and tired all the time.