Eye strain, headaches, head pains, aches and pains around eyes.

[louise0501]

I don’t know how much more I can take of this, I have been suffering from Eye strain, headaches, head pains, aches and pains around eyes for over two weeks now. I am constantly worrying that I have a brain tumour, I can’t relax and feel like I’m going to panic attacks all the time. Is it all anxiety? I don’t know how to cope anymore. I don’t even know if a lot of the pains are real. Am I going crazy? Am I dying? I just don’t know what to do anymore?
Please reply
Luv Louise

[supmittenss]

hey.
i'm pretty sure you will not go crazy, people who are going crazy do not know they are going crazy.
you will not die.
eye symptoms do exist with anxiety.
have you seen a doctor?
i thought i was going blind when my eyes felt strained as so
but i actually had a sinus infection.

[Jabz]

hi,
i had the same thing. constant eye burning and burning around the eye, my face would always be hot and my eyes really itchy and tired. combined with a pressure in my head and in my neck plus dizziness and vertigo like symptoms.

i had went to an eye doctor twice, both said my eyes are just drying out and they have an ability to look inside your "head" and tell you if they suspect a tumour and both of them said everything was fine. after that.."surprisingly" enough my eye pains and strains started to go away, and eventually went away completely.

best advice i can give you, is to get it checked out..because it is probably nothing (brain tumour are completely different symptoms), once you realize that its nothing..you'll realize that you are just paying attention to it too much and eventually it will flow away without you even realizing it.

good luck

[looking4answers]

Hmmmm So odd for the last few weeks I have had eye strain and terrible aches and pains around my eyes and head and body too.

This seemed very alien to me especially since I hadn't been using my eyes too much and haven't really done anything to cause any of the aches and pains and headaches. I would even have to lay down early at night close my eyes and to sleep because of it.

I felt that i was going crazy or going blind or both.Then I realized it was hay fever and allergies..Reason. My neigbor called and had been to some of the same areas I had been on a daily basis. We were chatting and he said that he had come in and gone to sleep .I asked if he was sick and he said well, my eyes are hurting ,feels like pressure in the back of them, my head hurts and I am having aches and pains..Same old allergies as last year and year before.

Guess what? Mine pretty much cleared up right after that .Amazing knowing that someone else has the samething you do and its a yearly thing and its contributed to allergies and hay fever and sinus..Amazing really .I got over it and sure you will to.. just the time of the year and things around you .Pretty normal.

[joannap]

i can pretty much guarantee all your symtoms are anxiety. i suffered a constant headache for 3 YEARS so i can assure you you are not going to go mad - the pain is due to tense muscles and the more you worry - the more pain. i was under the care of the headache clinic, had endless treatment at the dentist in case it was tmj and basically went to my doctors several times crying and begging for a brain scan - they gave me prozac! constant headaches are usually a sign of stress/anciety/depression. after my headaches went (not overnight but the more i accepted them and less i worried about them the more they very gradually went) i then developed terrible face pain where i had to go to bed everyday it was that bad - i look back now and think this was just another way of anxiety expressing itself because i had stopped letting the headaches bother me!

i am not wanting to worry you more - just letting you know you are not alone and the quicker your mind is put at rest the more you can strop worrying, relax and the pain will go.

just check your jaw - is it clenched and pushed forward? is your tongue stuck to the top of your mouth - all of my pain was down to sheer tension which eased the more i relaxed. i still get lots of headaches now - 2-3 days out of the week i can have a headache but they are nothing like they used to be.

good tips for those suffering with chronic headaches are - drink 8 glasses water/herbal tea a day. as soon as i get lax about this mine return.

get your eyes checked to rule out eye strain.

check which pill you are on. dianette is a no no for headache sufferers and yet my gp kept me on it even when i could not get out of bed for migraines! yasmin is a much milder contraceptive pill and good for headache sufferers.

do some form of relaxation and exercise every day.

[Jon06121974]

Hi

Well i hope all of the postings so far are putting your mind at ease!

I am about 10 weeks into dealing with anxiety and have only really accepted it for the past 2 weeks. I was getting sore eyes, head pains, weird eye movements where i was looking at something and it would move sharply and then return to normal. most of all my peripheral vision was awful. I had a CT scan which was clear and a full eye test at the hospital where they dilate your pupils to have a long look around. this was also clear. its hard to accept that nothing is really wrong and that your head is making all of the problems so if you havent already i would fully recommend a session with a psycologist but only if you are prepared to tell them everything you worry about however silly it may seem as after 3 sessions with a great one ive found im feeling like im making progress.

You wont get better overnight it takes time but if you can see gradual improvement its a great feeling and makes you believe that you can go back to a normal life again!

Good luck

[mtbc]

Your post has really put my mind at rest, as I am finding it hard to understand that my constant headaches (4 weeks) are due to anxiety, i keep thinking something is more serious wrong which is making me so scared.
i am now on amitrypline and diazepam hoping they will work.

[cheekycharlie]

sounds like sinus prob to me. You can get good over the counter stuff like sudfed & mucron. Or just ibrofen if you don't fancy taking them. If you fancy a natural remedy then a steam facial bath with vicks. Worth a try anyway & if none of that helps it then go back & tell your doc. Good luck. x

[NoPoet]

Hello everyone, sorry to come to an old topic so late, but I have been having almost the exact same symptoms since January this year. I found this thread (and this website) by searching my symptoms on Google.

Louise, the symptoms you describe do sound consistent with tension headaches caused by anxiety and stress -- I have suffered A LOT with stress, anxiety, tension, panic and depression through most of my life so I know exactly what you're going through.

You can suffer eye strain symptoms through anxiety because it causes you to screw your face up in a frown or a squint which puts a temporary strain on your eyes.

The pain around your eyes could also be what I call "mini-migraine" which is a short-term (as in a few minutes to a couple of hours) feeling of a small, less-painful-than-usual migraine, which cause all the veins round my eyes to hurt and can temporarily affect vision.

I'm no expert on tumours and believe me, I have often wondered if I've got one, or if I've got cancer or am having a stroke etc... it's all an illusion created by panic. If you were really that ill, you would almost certainly not be capable of carrying on living your life normally -- you'd be in too much pain, or the symptoms would start making it impossible to do everyday things.

Don't allow your anxiety to possess you. You're in charge; look up "positive thinking" and "feel the fear and do it anyway" -- you've got some work to do but hopefully it will help ;)

[jadeyjade]

psycho poet, thank you for that. im not joking i have been having the same things, they hurt so much! its been like over a week now after i had a migraine and i only just had my eyes tested 2 weeks ago :( im really getting worried as i have soo many symptoms but im going to the doctor tomorrow. please take a look at the threads i have posted lately!!

[Gemma T]

Your not alone angel. i have Migraines for years so i know how you feel. They cause pain behind the eye. Try Migraleve you can get it over the counter. Anx can cause Migranes. Believe me i had one for acouple of days. First the odd shooting pain, then a migraine, then a headache. Im feeling sick as well today which is another symptom of migraines. Light headed as well x x x x x x x

[xfilme]

Dont forget eye strain can cause tension headaches. When did you last see an optician to check if you need glasses? May be something that simple.

[NoPoet]

I've been convinced all week that I'm ill with a virus or something, yet when I write all my symptoms down, they are so consistent with anxiety it's almost a joke. Stress can and will bring on migraines, and there are MANY types of migraine - a wide and wondrous bouquet of suffering for the old noggin.

Best tip: You can take ibuprofen and paracetamol together. The effect is quite strong and can make you dreamy and tired, but it is tremendously effective against migraine pain.

You cannot combine migraleve or anadin extra or neurofen with other medication (as far as I know) -- you can ring your local pharmacy to check, or speak to your doctor. Obviously you should always read the labels etc, I'm not getting done for people swallowing pills without checking the risks :D

EDIT: As stated in one of my other posts somewhere, a tension headache can cause blurred vision and eye strain as you spend a lot of time squinting or frowning.

[wiskersonkittens]

Do you know if you suffer from TMJ?? (Which is kindly exacerbated by anxiety). I do, and I get eye problems, headaches, head pains, aches and pains here and there and even numbness! Just a thought . . :)

[jadeyjade]

im not sure..i get loads of face pains and just weird things. i read about myofascial trigger points and i honestly think my trigger points are aggravated - causing referred pain in other places. really strange.

[alba]

how do u feel when u got eyestrain? i felt : dizzy, light headed, burning eyes pain, watery eyes, can't focus well, when i sit i feel the urge to walk away, myhead felt like exploding, eyes look so puffy and small, worst is my head felt so tense that isit in front of pc then i felt so scared, head tense and i must run off or walk away, is that eye strain?

[xfilme]

My eye strain usually feels like Ive had my eyes forced open for about a month. I get throbbing temples and a band of tension round my head. It usually makes my eyes red and puffy and often follows with a headache. I am short sighted so it happens as soon as I watch TV without wearing glasses. It also makes me travel sick if I dont wear them in the car. x

[alba]

yeah i too got that dry eyes, eye strain, can't focus, dizzy, giddy, light headed, ther's once, i can't focus my eyes, it is so blury and blindness in 1 corner of my eyes, i panic like mad, then having heart beating extra fast (always).