Vision Issues driving me mad.

[matt13]

Hi all.

Bit of a background as it's my first post...

I'm 25, nearing 26, and always had mild health anxiety. Never really BAD but more than your usual person would.
2.5 years ago I got LASIK with fairly good results, better than 20/20 vision was achieved, no dry eyes or any of the usual side effects etc, so a success. I developed floaters in my eyes though which although I had before the procedure, definitely got much worse after getting it.
Anyway, this sent my health anxiety sky rocketing to new levels. I OBSESSED with my eyesight, constantly checking multiple times a day, literally 10-20 times an hour at my worst, if my eyesight was deteriorating, floaters getting worse etc etc.
After about 4-6 months I got over it and dealt with my floaters and moved on with my life.

7 weeks ago I developed a weird pain, what felt like it was IN my eye, in my left eye. about a week after, maybe 2 weeks, i noticed more floaters than usual in both eyes. Now, i'm unsure if the eye pain just made me conscious of my eyes and i noticed them again or if they got worse along with it but again i've been sent into health anxiety over drive.
Checked out by vision express (eye doctor in the UK incase anyone is wondering), still 20/20 vision, maybe some dryness in my left eye, go on my way kind of attitude.

took eye drops for dry eyes for a week with no improvement, went to the GP. She reckoned I was fine, give it a week and see how I get on. gave it a week, no improvement in pain, went back and got anti biotics for sinus infections for another week. These didn't help and I finished them last friday.

Unfortunately since i'm so aware now of my eyes again, I've been constantly checking vision, looking at floaters etc etc since this started and now im seeing 'after images' EVERYWHERE. I think this started 2 weeks ago. I mentioned it to my GP the day she prescribed antibiotics. it was pushed to the side...

Anyway, i only really see them when using a computer screen (high contrast like white on black and bright neon colours) and when watching the tv especially in the dark. Clicking a link on a website is becoming a fear because for the split second there is a white screen while the new page loads, I get a feint after image of what I was previously viewing (ie the blue bar along the top on facebook or whatever)

My logical side tells me im just looking for faults and that it's normal but my other side tells me i never saw them before and so there must be a bigger problem.

The company I work for uses a logo with a black background and white design on top of it so i constantly see after images of this when working on designs for them etc which I never noticed before, closing and opening windows on a computer etc i can see the text for half a second after switching windows and whatnot.

My doctor seems so flippant about it so i dont know what to do. I can deal with the floaters (again) even though they're worse than your usual ones on a bright sky or screen (i see them all the time, regardless of light conditions), but the after images are extremely worrying.

[pray4me]

I am a long time lurker on this forum but just joined myself. I just wanted to let you know that I can commiserate. I have not had Lasik, but I too am vision obsessed. I see what you see. For me, it is intermittent and more noticeable when I look for it. The main reason I wanted to respond to your post is - please stop obsessing about your eyes. The more you obsess, the more anomalies you will notice. Even things that are normal and that everyone sees will feel like vision disturbances to you. You've already been checked out so try and find relief in that and try to distract yourself with happy things as much as possible.

[matt13]

I am a long time lurker on this forum but just joined myself. I just wanted to let you know that I can commiserate. I have not had Lasik, but I too am vision obsessed. I see what you see. For me, it is intermittent and more noticeable when I look for it. The main reason I wanted to respond to your post is - please stop obsessing about your eyes. The more you obsess, the more anomalies you will notice. Even things that are normal and that everyone sees will feel like vision disturbances to you. You've already been checked out so try and find relief in that and try to distract yourself with happy things as much as possible.

Thanks. I read your post. I try not to go down the rabbit hole of forums for visual snow etc. I first learned about that 2-3 weeks ago and that night was convinced I had it. Stopped thinking about it and it's gone so it's anxiety based.

Likely my after images are anxiety based too although the floaters are 100% real unfortunately lol.

[matt13]

Anyone else with after images when looking at certain high contrast or bright things?

[beatroon]

Hi Matt,

I think you sound like you are being very logical in the way you're approaching this - you've had it checked out and had it confirmed that there is nothing wrong with your eyes themselves, so you can relax about that, and now you're doing the hard work of convincing your anxious brain that you're OK. You've made that leap, by saying that as you forgot about it, it went away, which is great.

I also had a worry about my eyesight. It was triggered by working on a computer screen too many hours a day with too small type, but it faded away once I made some adjustments. Of course, because I had health anxiety, I continued to be upset about it for some months afterwards, but now I can see that I was just focusing on the symptom and getting into a vicious cycle.

It might be worth addressing the fact of your anxiety more directly - could you discuss it with your GP? I guess it depends whether it's affecting your day-to-day life - at the point where it is, we would normally think about doing some therapy or something, as there's no reason to suffer with it unnecessarily.

Hope this is helpful although I am aware I didn't answer your latest question directly!