Managing annoying floaters

[montys]

I'm severely myopic and have health anxiety mostly related to fear of retinal detachment.

Has anyone else noticed how floaters are completely ignorable when you're occupied with something else, and then when you notice one, they all seem to "come into focus" and are all immediately observable? Cue anxiety and obsessively trying to determine if there were more than there were last time you saw them. Repeat every few hours.

Does anyone have tips for how to control this? I'm starting CBT in the next week or so but has anyone found their own way to ignore floaters?

[Jotia]

About 3 years ago I started to notice floaters, mostly in one eye. It's a huge clump of them. They seem to come and go, they look the same every time I see them but sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Once I have seen one though like you said they all come into focus. I think they are just generally more noticeable in times of high anxiety so it's hard to ignore them. I just remind my self when I see them that they are nothing to worry about on their own and I have just learnt to put up with them, after a while of not thinking about them your brain starts to block them out.

[countrygirl]

The more short sighted you are the more floaters you can see. I was born with severe short sight and am partially sighted so I have always been able to see absolutely everything that is happening in my eyes. Because my eyes are so severe I have had red flag symptoms drummed into me since a child and I thankfully know what to worry about and what not to worry about!

Remember that the number, shape etc of floaters change daily as they are just debris in the eye. IF you suddenly got a massive rush of big black floaters across your vision then yes you need to be concerned and see someone but otherwise its just the usual daily assortment of eye debris. If you weren't short sighted you would not see them.

[darkside4k]

I notice that too. When I was real focused on them last year it was so annoying. Felt like they were EVERYWHERE.

[montys]

Remember that the number, shape etc of floaters change daily as they are just debris in the eye. IF you suddenly got a massive rush of big black floaters across your vision then yes you need to be concerned and see someone but otherwise its just the usual daily assortment of eye debris. If you weren't short sighted you would not see them.

That's really good to know. Thanks a ton!

[swajj]

I have floaters. They are very noticeable if I look at a light background. I work with someone whose floaters had to be investigated further. He said that he would see one really big floater that would appear and move from one side of his vision to the other. My floaters are just the average type and I don't worry about them.