Has dry eye been addressed?

Hello once again. I've been still doing quite well with some minor blips. I've recently wondered if dry eye is TMS or not. I have dry eyes and have to carry eye drops all the time.

I recently was told that I have a penguacula. Upon finding this out I've had more eye throbbing sensations where it is located on the inside of my left eye. Before that I had only dry and red eyes.

Anyway I have no idea of anyone here had addressed dry eye or if it's not TMS.

 

I suffer dry eyes sometimes - it seems more weather related but i carry drops...
But - I assume nowadays that any symptom i get may probably be TMS! So i proceed as if it is. When any symptom arises - I straight away think - 'how do i feel?' 'what is going on in my life?' 'Are there any triggers present?'
Almost always there are... so i get journalling and that generally gives me the answer as to why - perhaps a family occasion is coming up and i feel i will be coerced - or I have taken too much work on and feel overburdened....
So I think it is worth doing the TMS stuff and if the symptom hangs about - treat it but don't give it unwarranted attention. We walk a tightrope - but the TMS work is the huge net that catches us!

 

I know this is an old post but I just want to tell you dry eye is 100% tms I have had it before and can attest that it is and goes away when you least think about it….

 

My dry eye has gotten way worse and then some days it's not too bad and I've had an occasional no dry eye problem. Some days I wake up and my eyes are blood shot. I went to the optometrist and they did regular tests and found nothing wrong with my eyes other than I need reader glasses.

It's a process for me treating it as TMS maybe because it's been with me for so long. Most other symptoms seemed easier to overcome.

 

I'm sorry you're suffering, I know the irritation having your eyes hurting can cause.
But if the doctors really haven't seen anything wrong... I'd feel assured. Dry eye is easy to spot and hard to miss - I'm assuming you got tested for it one way or another, and they all work fine really. A dry eye has clear physical characteristics, so I was told right off the bat that I had it once they looked at me on the slit lamp. And mine is mild! My experience of its symptoms has been very up and down, in part because there's allergies connected to mine. (Still possibly TMS lol.)

Additionally, I truly believe a lot of the structural abnormalities seen in dry eye are kinda like the herniated disks in MRIs... They come about naturally as we age, and come faster nowadays due to deceased blinking from screen use. Despite that, some become symptomatic and some don't ; but what makes the difference, if not those abnormalities? IMO, that's a big TMS flag.

Instead of it being strictly dry eye, I'd also suggest it could be something like an ocular rosacea/a microbiome issue if you're looking for a more medical answer, which ARE both very stress sensitive -> therefore can be TMS.

I hope you get comfort/relief soon, whatever the case. Take care.

 

I never heard of ocular rosacea, but I looked it up. To be honest I wouldn't know the difference between that and allergies. My optometrist never mentioned it, I've had my eyes checked many times like 2 years apart. I was convinced my eye sight was going south many times. Every time they did an exam they said "You have 20/20" and They just told me I needed refreshing eye drops because I had dry eye.

My eyes can go red to normal in the same day. Days apart can be a huge difference. I get instant relief with Visine, which you're not supposed to use them a lot, but I rarely get relief with regular eye drops that rewet your eyes unless I use them a ton, even then it's not as good for as long.

I'm sure there is TMS in there, I'm sure of it. Whether it's responsible for the whole thing I don't know. I've had issues with eye strain making my vision blurry, and this might just be the cause of the whole thing also and I may not be aware of that portion.

I can see the link here for sure. I do visual art so my eyes are important. I have read all the TMS stories about tennis players being plagued by TMS, piano and guitar plagued by TMS carpal tunnel. So I have to do some more work here to see what I can do in terms of TMS to see more relief.

 

I am so confuse about dry eyes. I been suffering severely everyday with eye pain. I would say I have severe dry eyes but doctors said it's not severe from them looking at me. I can not even walk without having to shut my eyes because I can't keep them open, they burn. Also on top of that my vision is getting worse. I have worked with TMS therapist so many times and nothing has helped. Now doctors can't even help me. Has anyone else have severe problems opening up their eyes because they burn?

 

Here is a very old thread where someone reports pain with dry eyes.
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/eye-issues-ruining-my-life-tms.15903/ (Eye issues ruining my life. TMS?)

what type of TMS work did your therapist/coach take you through? There are a few different approaches, and sometimes folks just need to switch things up.

 

I feel like I have done a lot the past 5 years.
Lots of TMS therapy. Don’t think about, forget about it. Focus on others stuff, etc It all makes sense to me but nothing has helped at all. . it’s my eyes and it’s seems to be the hardest thing ever to do. I know crying doesn’t help the burning but I cry every single day. I am so frustrated by now on how this has effect my life. After I cry the pain in the eyes are so bad and I can not keep them open bc of the burning. I literally don’t know what to do anymore. I wish I could at least stop the crying.

 

I'm sorry @Believe
I'm sure you are frustrated. Frustration can continue symptoms, it can be such a catch 22!
Did you try to do any work around emotions, soft and kind allowing (not just ignoring, you can "ignore" but at the same time create a lot of internal stress and not even realize - it's all mindset).
Two of my new favorite resources are on youtube, by very kind and compassionate TMS coaches - one who is also a therapist. I find their approaches very personal and their insight is quite candid - it seems to resonate more than many others who offer less personal insights.
Tanner Murtagh https://www.youtube.com/@painpsychotherapy
and Lucy who has some especially great insights into emotional work you can do on your own https://www.youtube.com/@mindbodyintegrate
I used a few TMS coaches and I have to say, one offered nothing much, other other a few practices but neither offered a straight forward approach similar to the Structured Educational Program here (for free). It is Dr. Schubiner's work so it includes journaling for personality and emotions, some mindfulness to work with the nervous system and much more - both of the youtube channels above are very much in sinc with this program: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/forums/structured-educational-program.16/ (Structured Educational Program)

 

As a person who has experienced a ton of symptoms, all of which turned out to be TMS, I am using my TMS approach on my eye issues. I am now convinced with certainty that my eye issues are TMS. I have been dealing with dry eye since I was in college. At its worst my eyes would be blood shot, dry and sand paper like only visine would take care of the redness but they remained dry. I have a history of having worked outdoors doing ranch work, and I always assumed it was the dust and air, but even when I stopped that kind of work and moved to a humid climate the symptoms persisted. If I look back during those times I resented doing that work. I worked for my father. I started working with my father at age 11, helping out, but waking up at 5am on weekends and canceled school days and sometimes before school. At the time it made me resent my folks for their poverty and robbing me of my childhood. However, years and years later after therapy and processing these emotions I look back at those days and have an understanding and some fondness for having been able to experience that. It's weird to say that probably. But I forgive my parents and the world for the lack of power I had in ridding my poverty.

So why does my dry eye and other symptoms persist? Well, for me it's pretty simple. Fear. Stress and situations where I feel like I don't know what I am doing and expected to creep up and I feel a bit like I can't really help myself. Those are old feelings and memories that trigger a fear response and they manifest as tms symptoms. Our bodies remember these things.

When I wake up I have dry spots that show up as blur spots that go away as I blink and my eyes moisten. I have started to notice that with dry eye, the same patterns unfold as my other tms symptoms, they alternate and occur during times of stress. It's been difficult to catch as my symptoms have abated because fear and stress can be really low level and operate (mostly) unconsciously. Journaling has been a lot more helpful in this case.

So what am I doing now? Free writing until the things you can't imagine pop up and you realize they bug you and make you feel fear or stressed. For me, it's always the same kind of triggers. I am getting better at accepting the dry eye and not focussing on it so much, I'll add drops in the morning and go on with my day. The drops are mostly to address the discomfort initially but I have noticed some days when I process my emotional state (in a good way) my eyes feel less strained, and clear it's like having new glasses or something. I can't believe it. Of course because it's new then my mind focuses on "what if this doesn't last!" so it also goes away in about an hour. However, when you have those moment's of TMS showing it's inconsistency (provided you have had the prior exams) then you can really start to believe and do the necessary work to dismantle the old pathways that keep us in states of stress or fear.

Meditation - I use meditation to calm or check if it's a fear state. It works great now that I have a lot of practice. And yes initially it can really amp up your anxiety and fear, but slowly over time it feels like you're checking in with yourself like a friend. And we speak to ourselves internally. "How are you?" I have pain in my eyes my body says. "I know" let's feel it, I think, sometimes other feelings and emotions crop up. Sometimes not. Then I shift my focus to an area I have no pain or feel neutral and back and forth. It feel like a gentle rocking. I will say if I am at a 9 level of tms pain it's very hard to come out of this thinking you will be pain free. But if you can do it through out the day or times when you feel them at a 2 or 4, these are really great.

I hope this helps anyone reading this.

 

dry eyes or anything with the eyes have been my hardest thing for me and I have been through alot. Jokeysurf, what a story you have. Are you experiencing blurry vision as well as the dryness? My up close vision is very bad now. Glasses are not helping me, only 1.75 readers for up close but not within 10 feet out. Did your doctors say if your dryness is bad or just a little dry. I am having severe burning pain but all they can say is that it's dry but not that bad.
I have tried all kinds of TMS approaches and still no improvement yet. I do mediate

 

Well what I experience from time to time is weird for sure to say the least. Sometimes my up close vision is low and also my far vision. I will look over to another part of what I am looking at and it looks fine and is well lit and sharp. It feels like I am in a poorly lit room. And I have had my eyes checked for everything.

I used to get horrible vision right as the sun would go down and it would send me into a panic. The lack of contrast make everything feel unreal and I felt totally blind. Once it got darker the panic went away, it was only when things got grey rather than when it was actually night. Anyway, eventually it stopped happening. The problem with any symptom for me in the past was the constant chasing it and comparing it because you're not convinced that it is happening or you think is this really what is happening? Eventually I just stopped chasing it and comparing things to see if it's in fact blurry. That helped alot, I was learning to accept.

Yes my eye docs in the past said I had severe dry eye, however In recent eye exams they say it's just a little dry. I used to have severe burning also, for no reason, or I couldn't even rub my eyes. The burning could last sometimes for hours it went on for about 3 months on and off but it wasn't every day. It was unbearable. The eye issues improved when I was addressing other more pressing TMS issues believe it or not.

Acceptance is key or was key for me to have the symptoms finally break. It's super hard to do when something is painful. When your eyes are burning or bloodshot or feel like sand paper, It's really hard to practice acceptance. Acceptance as a word, at that time felt like I was being asked to give up. But it just meant that I needed to move on and live and stop the constant bewilderment. Claire Weekes, the author about Anxiety once mentioned that bewilderment is what keeps the fear alive. It took me a while to realize what that meant and how i was being bewildered, confused, in disbelief etc etc by the symptoms. If you take that word and realize that we are doing this by constantly trying to look for answers even after we have been check out by doctors.

It's hard to believe that our bodies can create these crazy inexplicable sensations isnt it? I know from my experience that as far as symptoms and sensations anything is on the table.

 

For me it was TMS, anxiety caused it.

 

I'm glad you were able to overcome it. I have been dealing with it on and off. I now sort of use it as a gauge to feel that I am feeling stressed or hyperfocussing. Taking breaks and doing progressive muscle relaxation through out the day has helped tremendously to send signals to my brain.

 

What is progressive muscle relaxation?

 

Google it! It's been around forever - literally decades.

 

I had a really bizarre experience but as I write this I think about how bizarre TMS is anyway. For years I've been having this dry blurry spot in my right eye. It's been there for really long time. I had my eyes checked several times and of course they didn't find anything they said you have dry eye. I already knew this. This blurry spot has been so consistently there that I just accepted it as a large floater. There is a name for it that I can't remember. I thought of it that way and not TMS. As of late my eyes have been bugging me, the usual, dry, strained etc. And I started to think about my job, and at the end of the night my lower back started hurting as I was sitting on the couch and I went to bed with lower back pain. Clearly TMS. However, while I was watching TV, I was really into this show. And sometimes I would get distracted by the blur spots but then for some reason the blur spot in my right eye went away completely and it was as clear as I can remember in my 20s! What the hell? This doesn't happen! And my left eye started to get blurry while my right eye was crystal clear. So maybe this stupid floater I thought was a floater, actually wasn't?

Anyway I have more processing to do. I am aware of the stress my job has, but I have to say I have come to really love my job! So for the most part it is fantastic. The problem is the 20% of the time that it isn't that is causing me pain and eye issues. I need to learn how to make friends with my job to a better degree.

 

Yes. It’s so weird that happens but why can’t we keep it like that. We can not distract ourselves all the time. Also our job can’t be 100% perfect all the time either. So is that dry spot still there?

 

True about work. I'm not saying I need to make it perfect, thats not possible. I'm saying I need to work on not getting as upset. I've started listening to meditations and they're helping me move through it easier.

No, that blur spot has been gone. It came back at work for about 1 hour but basically has been gone for 1.5 days.

Maybe I was distracted, that's one way of putting it. I like to think I was in a state of curiosity. I wasn't evaluating or judging or having a notion of what I should be doing. It seems that lessened some internal pressure. Not with my back but certainly with my vision.

The swap between eye stuff and back pain is the symptom imperative so I know what to expect. But this vision issue clearing up is a surprise so far.

I'll keep exploring what comes up.