dry eyes

Hello, a couple years back I had stomach issues/ibs to the point where I had to be homebound for a while. This I believe ended up being tms as it went away when I stopped thinking about it and kept living my life. However now for the past year I’ve been dealing with severe dry eyes and nothing has been helping. I can hear my blinks sometimes, my eyes have grown blood vessels, and just overall discomfort. My doctor told me I have Meibomian Gland Dysfunction which clogs the oil glands in my eyes but treating this hasn’t helped at all. I was wondering if anyone has had MGD and it ended up being tms.

 

This is a symptom I have had. I keep my eyelids clean, apply drops when uncomfortable and choose less irritating cosmetics (which I don’t wear often. I don’t think about it or worry about it. I spend time away from screens.
I have done much more work (as Jan suggests) than ignoring it, which is not Dr. Sarno’s recommendation. He suggests to Think Psychological and look for your unrecognized anger, and how personality traits trigger stress.
Nichole Sachs has some dry eye success stories on her podcast.

 

: 2"]You might get some specific responses, which mine is not - but my advice is to ask yourself this question: what is the downside of assuming that you are suffering from TMS, and that this physiological diagnosis could either be the direct result of a disregulated immune system/inflammatory response to emotional stress and distress, or it could at least be exacerbated by a disregulated immune system/inflammatory response to emotional stress and distress?

The correct answer is: there is no downside. Applying TMS principles can help anyone who is suffering from any condition, no matter the cause, and that includes obvious illnesses or injuries.

You may be one of the many people who, although you've had success with what we call "the book cure" or the "knowledge cure" in the past, actually need to make a commitment to doing the emotional work. I certainly could not have achieved as much recovery as I did, 13 years ago, without applying myself to the emotional work.

Below is the quick-start list of all things TMS. If you've read a book by Dr. Sarno in the past, read it again, and access the resources on the rest of this list:

FYI, not everyone realizes that the main website associated with our forum is at https://www.tmswiki.org (The Tension Myositis Syndrome Wiki), inspired by the ideas of John E Sarno, MD.

To learn more about TMS we believe that it is essential to first read one of Dr Sarno's books. Here is a short biography and bibliography: https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/John_E._Sarno,_MD (John E. Sarno, MD) Many public and school libraries carry his books, and they are readily available as used copies as well as audio and e-book formats.

There are two easy and anonymous self-assessment tests that we recommend:
1) https://ppdassociation.org/ppd-self-questionnaire (Self Quiz — Psychophysiologic Disorders Association) from the PPD Association (the professional group of mindbody/TMS doctors, therapists and other practitioners)
2) https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/aces-quiz-online-printable-versions.27061 (ACEs "quiz" - online & printable versions) (this is a forum post which describes and links to the well-regarded ACEs test for childhood experiences).

Anxiety is a common TMS symptom, and needs to be addressed directly as part of the recovery process. Resources by Dr. Claire Weekes are very effective in dealing with anxiety. You can find more here: https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Overcome_Anxiety_with_Dr._Claire_Weekes (Overcome Anxiety with Dr. Claire Weekes) or read her seminal book "Hope & Help For Your Nerves" which is also readily available in multiple formats.

The TMS Wiki has a free online program which does not require any kind of registration and is accessed via easily managed modules: https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Structured_Educational_Program (Structured Educational Program)[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the help, the issue I have with treating it as tms is that through research and my doctors I learned that MGD/dry eyes are a progressive condition and if I take the tms approach and stop my dry eye treatments (drops, heat mask, cleaning that don’t help at all) my dry eyes could end up getting worse. Another thing is I used to wear contacts comfortably all day long and now I can’t tolerate them, this with the red veins that appeared in my eye and the audible blinking makes it really hard for me to believe it is tms but I wish it was as it’s been destroying my life.

 

I was diagnosed with MGD and Blepharitis at the world famous Moorfields Eye Hospital in London (I'm a Brit). I treated my MGD and Blepharitis in the usual ways. I list what I did for my MGD below, right at the end of this posting, just in case I used something you haven't tried that might help you -- but I'm not up for an in-depth discussion of what you have and haven't tried to alleviate the dryness as this forum is meant for discussion of mind/body work.

As I have other symptoms that are TMS, I did TMS work after receiving my diagnosis of MGD and Blepharitis and didn't stop treating my eyes. Eventually, after quite some time, I was able to stop treatment and I don't have MGD or Blepharitis anymore. The symptoms were very real; when I heated my eyelids and used a cotton bud (Q-tip) to massage the heated up oil in my oil glands to get it flowing, I could see in a magnifying mirror the oil coming out and I had also suffered some meibomian cysts aka chalazions before I was diagnosed -- so I don't believe that I was wrongly diagnosed by the eye doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital. The brain can cause all manner of bodily symptoms!

I do, however, still have dry eyes (I have another rare eye condition that causes this) so I continue to use drops during the day (preservative free Celluvisc 1% aka 1% carmellose sodium, the latter being the generic name for the drops) and preservative free eye ointment at night (Xailin Night). If you haven't already done so, I would recommend experimenting with eye drops and eye ointments (as the majority of the drops that I tried were pretty useless and some even irritated my eyes). Also, there are drops that can be prescribed for extremely severe dry eye and there are other things that can be done including lacrimal punctal plugs so, if you haven't already done so, as you say that the drops and cleaning aren't helping you at all, I would suggest getting an absolute expert's opinion at some point soon.

The advice with dry eye is to avoid contact lenses. This may be upsetting to you but imho there are worse things in life than having to wear glasses instead.

What made all the difference to me with regard to keeping my eyes comfortable whilst I had the symptoms of MGD and Blepharitis and also now, is keeping my eyes shut and moist at night. Before I did this, I used to awake at night with my eye balls either burning like hell or extreme streaming and watering (as you will know, with dry eye, eye watering is common but doesn't actually relieve the symptoms; the body attempts in vain to correct the dryness).

After I put my night eye ointment in, I use some 'Glad Press and Seal' to do this, see this video if you've not tried this yourself https://chronicdryeye.net/video/glad-wrap (I Use What on My Eyes at Night?! | ChronicDryEye.net). Before I used 'Glad Press and Seal', I just used cling film (Saran wrap) - a strip of two thicknesses of it (like an eye mask) across both eyes and the bridge of my nose and used a few pieces of hypoallergenic tape to secure it in place (any residual stickiness from the tape can be removed with a little bit of baby oil on a cotton pad). I checked with my eye doctor if it was okay to do this and he said yes as long as I was careful to keep everything as hygienic as possible, wash my hands before handling the film etc... He told me that they sometimes use 10cm squares of cling film to cover and keep the eyes of patients closed and moist who are unconscious in intensive care. Obviously though, my advice has to be to check with your own eye doctor(s) that there isn't anything about your particular case that makes it inadvisable for you to do this, should you want to try it.

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What I used for MGD and Blepharitis:
I couldn't tolerate the cleaning solutions that you can buy - they irritated my eyes - so I just used cooled boiled water and cleaned and massaged my eyelids with cotton buds (Q-tips) after heating my eyelids with this heat pad (not sure though if it's available in the US, if that's where you reside): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clinically-Treatment-Conditions-Materials-Previously/dp/B09LD65RCT/ref=sr_1_9?crid=3VHF9IZWGFUCH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.L0yiXgM4hvzwbzxvPAtwyaNcmlpkWsJpy9gOf0YLEaC_O1Z0ONi4W7k9B9n4o5dxe3QNkahmFE8az9jDrLYEUxSlX_8bB0mvnthd5PUXcfQLVpjEwaAhGtT5lalwmmWpAjpmY2iUESTuHon4gdHJ49pkvCBwFX1g5evH0Nz9EdPbEQ3wukAdzQp7N1uQgesDLRMpZMxYcbjC0UEZ7ce9xXb_zllx0VUh_o1e_UANUUo17v_kKji399HmWNCz5FAuBmoL4FRBkRoWo6aD4lG6Kjig4DqEh3WkQjw8KZHFis0.X8V-fMaUyNBext9dBjzsHpFt4SAAd8a0aaedQVuvuyI&dib_tag=se&keywords=heat+pad+for+eyes&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1727220949&sprefix=heat+pad+for+eyes,aps,94&sr=8-9

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I hope that something I've mentioned helps you.

 

There is a lot of emphasis in Sarno's book on anger, but nothing about sadness. Whenever I have (minor) issues relating to my eyes, I usually assume it's related to suppressed sadness/tears...

 

But sorrow and anger are both deeply interconnected are they not? Being angry at the dearly departed for not being there to take care of you certainly intensifies anger in the child mind?