Does anyone fear going blind?

[justjem]

This is becoming more noticeable with me lately.....at night im opening my eyes every few minutes and looking at the window to make sure that I haven't gone blind.

y pills (duloxetine) can cause increased pressure in the eyeball and sometimes i can "see" my pulse in my eye and im petrified of going blind.

Has anyone else felt like this?

[belle]

Hi..
Before i got really ill, i would worry about my eyesight, especially when i was out driving. I think because i was concentrating (obviously) my sight at times would become distorted. Now, i don't drive and i know my eyes are fine :)

[sheena]

When I could not go out I had an optician come to my home. I mentioned to him that I could see so well out of my left eye and he said I had damaged it and it would not get any better.

I got really bad and eventually I was able to visit the opticians in Town. I had cataracts in both eyes. Not really old enough but the optician said it could have been because of the meds I was taking. By now I my left eye was completely clouded over and I use to think what if the other eye clouds over and I am blind. How would I do things.

I went to the eye clinic and was put on a waiting list. I got so worried that I would go blind that I was going to get a loan and have it done privately. We did say that I would take a cancellation and thankfully it came through within 2 weeks.

It was the first time I had gone under anesthetic as well. My friend came with me and I was home the same day. Immediately I would see to read again.
I eventually had the other eye done.

So yes I do no about the fear of going blind. I would rather go deaf than live in darkness.

The fear still affects me even to the fact that I cannot go to sleep when I am tired I have to read to eventually I drop off.

I hope you can deal with this fear and maybe have a trip to the opticians.


Sheena

[Blackstar]

Hey Justjem,

Wow, I could have written your post myself! Apart from the medication part.

I have feared going blind so much, I've been to so many opticians and had test after test, even had that photo taken of my retina and asked the optician to explain it to me.

Just like you I wake up with a jolt and check that I can still see. I can't sleep in a pitch dark room because I wake up thinking I'm blind. I keep the eye hospital emergency number by my bed in case I wake up and have a black curtain or cobwebs in my vision (detached retina)...you name it!

Now the sensible part of me has to say that if you've been checked out and been given the all-clear, there's no reason for you to worry :D

I hope your demons leave you soon hun.

Take care,

Anna. x

[Southern_Belle]

Hi,

Without my contact lenses or glasses my vision is 20/800. That is legally blind. When I wake up in the middle of the night I can't see the window even if it isn't dark. I can't see anything clearly. I can't have laser surgery to correct my vision either. I'm not whining here it is just a fact and I have had poor sight and worn glasses since I was 5 yrs old.

If your eyes check out fine please don't worry, you will know if you can't see. I thank God every day for my contacts and my glasses. When I wake up in the night it doesn't matter if I can't see clearly I just roll over and try to go back to sleep. Try and take some deep breaths and focus your mind on something else. I hope this stops for you because fears in the night are indeed scary.

Take care,

Laura

[fairyloveheart]

Yes, often.

[rb1978]

I think fear of going blind is understandable...it's such a terrible thing to imagine happening.

It's not something I tend to have issues with a lot but I did go through a spell with this particular fear last year.

I have a lot of sinus trouble (which now thankfully is easing thanks to nasal sprays) and one of my doctors said I had a particular very common nasal condition. I happen to know of someone with an extremely severe case of this same condition. This person is the 1 in a million whose symptoms are so extreme that it really is absolutely out of the norm. And he once enquired about surgery. The docs thought it would be fine but there was a tiny tiny risk they could damage his optic nerve.

So..in perspective. This person i knew of was a 1 in a million case. Even for him, the chance of optic nerve damage was minute. Yet I then put two and two together and decided that I was going to go blind.

Typing it now it seems mad but at the time I was convinced.

And you know what..I started having blurry vision and I started to become very aware of my eyes and they didn't feel right and stuff was going out of focus.

I really really truly believe, in my case, this was all down to me getting myself so terrified about it that my eye muscles got all tense. It amazing what effects and symptoms you can produce in yourself.

For the record, this was a year ago and, after I stopped worrying, my eyes felt fine again and have been since. The thing that got me to stop worrying was my routine eye test coming round. God I was a nervous wreck in the opticians but all was well.

[hamzahtorres9]

Yes. A lot. I don't have eye problems but I'm still very scared because I could imagine becoming blind. It would affect my life a lot because I play sports and all that kind of stuff. But most importantly is that it would kill me not to see my family. People that I love. I don't wanna become blind because I know I will have trouble. I would probably become depressed. I want to see my friends and family and the people I love and my life would be much harder and I will never get to do anything that I enjoy like playing sports hanging out with my friends or anything. Imagining not seeing anything possibly for the rest of ur life especially ur parents because my parents are getting old and I'm always afraid that they would die considering the fact that they're smokers and I wanna spend as much time as possible and I wanna see them before they're gone forever.