Vision/eye problems TMS?

Hi, has anyone experience in vision or eye problems are TMS? I have severe pressure,tension in my eyes and on the sides of my head . Reading on the computer makes me dizzy and seeing in general feels very difficult, like my eyes are working so hard in order to work together. There is a condition which causes this symptoms and you need prism glasses for that. But couldnt it be that TMS cause this tension and so my eyes dont work good together anymore ? Or can vision problems actually cause some discomfort ? Didnt find much online
Thanks!

 

There are a few stories in one of my psychology books (Understanding Abnormal Behavior) about people with vision problems who don't show any ocular abnormalities. The theory is that their vision problems are psychological.

 

@gx92, absolutely the underlying stress of TMS can cause any type of symptom, including vision issues.

As always, I would like to remind everyone that you want to rule out underlying physiological issues before assuming that something is only TMS. That being said, stress/TMS can make any physiological condition worse - be it illness, injury, or chronic condition - and stress/TMS can impede normal recovery. So even if you DO have a physiological issue that can be clearly diagnosed and medically treated, addressing the TMS aspects can only help you in the recovery process. This is actually a well-documented fact in medical practice.

 

You should have your eyes examined first, then report back. Eye Exams are thorough and they can detect many things. It certainly could be TMS but dont leave it up to guessing and have your eyes checked.

I am having a similar issue and I had my eyes checked last spring - back then the issue was kind of blurred vision and they found nothing. This time I have one eye that feels tense all the time on the inside of my eye near the tear duct. There are times when it goes away and they feel fine. I need to schedule another eye exam.

 

Hello,
Let me tell you about my own personal experience. I went on vacation by car last summer. My partner and I drove about 10 hours to our destination and then back again. Half way back home I felt so tense, every muscle in my body was tense so I asked my partner to stop the car so that I could stretch. When I stretched my arms I felt as if I had pulled something in my neck and face. The pull went all the way up to and around my left eye. I got sooo scared! I had never felt tension in my face before, just in my jaw. The tension around and behind my eye lasted a few hours. After that I would feel the same everytime my neck got tense and painful. The tension would go all the way up to my face and left eye. I wonder if it's your case as well.

 

I did many health exams, all came back normal, but one expert want to sell me prism lenses because he says my eyes are not in line perfectly and this strain can cause those problems. But 80% of people have that without problems. and i also never had this problem but since 8 month suddenly. I noticed if i need to work concentrated on the pc, its so difficult its insane. Sometimes it gets better sometimes especially when working it gets worse. its persistant 70% of the day. Ah i dont know what to do, i put one some prism glasses but right now, its not helping. People cant believe how misserable i am feeling. I cant go out rly because everywhere i look is stressing the f*** out of me, even walking in a piecefull forest, which should calm my nervous system is stressing me out because of my eyes. Shopping is impossible because i cant look at all the products without tension in my eyes, its ridicoulous sadly

 

Stress can cause changes in your eyes for sure. I have taught art and in those classes, when the students feel stressed they will get cone fatigue, where their ability to see color somehow seems to fade. Then they take a break and come back to the piece and see they have grayed the whole thing down. Strain in your eye muscles can cause your eye shape to change a bit, you can have dry eyes along with that which will farther cause problems - they are temporary though. As a person who uses their eyes a lot to make a living I found myself being very preoccupied with my eyes when having a TMS flare. Just recently I was having eye pain in one eye and it would come and go. Eventually I did get to the bottom of my stress and it went away after having it for 1.5 months.

IF your job or being on the computer is triggering this possible TMS then you have to try and make a new association, that being on the computer is fine and safe and not stressful. I know a lot of people spent a ton of time on the computer because their jobs went remote during the pandemic. A lot of times we aren't aware where we are holding stress in our bodies during these jobs or tasks.

 

I've had eye issues as a TMS symptom on and off for years. It really got me down initially. I work on a computer and feared I'd have to change jobs.

I then read a book on improving your eyes which focused primarily on the bates method. It taught a few simple techniques for relaxing your close muscles and using your distance muscles more frequently, doing the exercised and the understanding around it took away the fear I was having around my vision and subsequently my TMS moved on to other symptoms.

I'd highly recommend looking into the bates method and practicing. I find I have to go back to it ever so often as I often find I neglect my eye health and my symptoms come back from time to time.

 

Yea the muscles in the eyes are so vulnerable to stress. Its sadly not just the computer , also walking around looking around, they only work together with much stress. Thats my feeling. Im just overwhelmed

Yea i cant really work right now because its so bad, i cant even go in a grocery store because everything is to intense. I didnt want to try bates method because i thought its like physiotherapy if i will do it especially for the discomfort and dizziness from my eyes. If bates method is all about relaxing the mind for relaxing the strain, TMS approach should work fine or? but im clueless anyways because nothing is helping since 8 Month :/. How long did it take until you improved with bates method? i did for 3 weeks but i gave up, wasnt enough time it seems i spend on it

 

Just throwing this out there but consider if there is something you don't want to "see". Perhaps ruminating on that question could open some pathways for you. You mention your work numerous times. Assuming if your eyes were ok, do you enjoy your work? Perhaps your body trying to tell you something about your employment. Do you have purpose?

 

I'll chime in with my previous experience and recent. In the throws of TMS, and I mean a 22 symptoms list at this time, I couldn't really see. Everything was blurry and wavy all the time. I remember I went for an eye exam because I was sure I was losing my vision. I still passed the eye exam with nothing wrong even though everything seemed blurred and wobbly. My vision eventually got better on its own as I rectified the TMS and fear and the 22 symptoms fell off over the course of like 2.5 years. There was a time before that that I had a vision problem and it was back when I had my first panic attack. I didnt know what a panic attack was or what was happening at the time. I went to meet a friend for dinner and I had a panic attack while waiting or him for some unknown reason, and the first thing I felt was my vision going blurry. I ran into the streets panic struck and almost ran into traffic. I remember being curled up in a corner of a building and calling my friend to pick me up because I couldn't see. After an hour or so it went away.

Recently, I was having eye pain for about 1.5 months. This was after discovering I had something called a Penguacula (spelling?), it was told to me by a regular physician not an optometrist and my brain started to freak out and from that point on it was burning and pain. I made an eye appt with an optometrist but it was weeks out. It took me about 1.5 months to accept it and move on and the eye pain went away. Exam came back perfect. During the exam they dilated my eyes. I had never had this experience before and It produced some serious panic similar to the time when I had the panic attack. The irrational fear that what If i stayed like this forever took hold. Eventually it wore off and I was left with a headache.

What all of these scenarios have in common is hypervigilance or fear or something that triggers the amygdala. During all this was a series of job interviews for potential jobs which i had to do a ton of prepping for and feeling like I was jumping through hoops in a circus. Underneath all of the interviews was a lot of fear, and hope or fear of hope. That these jobs would solve my problems financially. Anyway, once the whole thing was over my eyes went back to normal no more eye pain, just in time for the eye exam to catch and see nothing of course.

Anything you practice, techniques etc should be done with the intention to calm the nervous system , not to solve a problem. If you have recurring issues but have nothing wrong then you have a sensitized nervous system.

 

Good question, i got so many symptoms since i am studying , so it makes sense because i dont really like it but i have to do it sadly and i dont really know what i like, so i am very prone to tms, i will ponder about it more

 

Wow thank you for posting this. My eye symptoms also startet after something what felt like multiple blood pressure drops but my doctors didnt find something and they said panic attacks. I have also many symptoms , one of them some anxiety. Since that i am very hypervigilant, always observing controlling and fearing it every second. If its better i feel human again but if it comes im am so down. But thats the Problem. I am more and more convinced its tms. But loosing the fear and not getting depressed about it is really hard. I think i really need to work on myself. My optometrist didnt find anything wrong like in your case, she just looked at me if i would make jokes about her. Its crazy what strange symptoms tms can do