What do you do with the depressed/anxious dry eye patient?

Do you have a patient with what appears to be mild or moderate clinical signs of MGD or classic dry eye – but who seems to be seriously overreacting? Very depressed? Angry? Unduly frustrated? Abnormally anxious? A patient that is terrified every new treatment won’t work or will have dangerous side effects? One who is compulsive about wanting to try every emerging treatment approach – while failing to give standard treatments enough time to kick in? One for whom you are the fourth or fifth eye doctor...

There is a dark, dark place where many of our members have been during some part of their dry eye journey and where some of you are right now. It's a place of shock, of deep depression, of sometimes paralyzing anxiety. It's a place where you are consumed with fear that things will never, ever get better. It's a place where you obsessively compare your situation with the others posting on the boards, alert to every shred of similarity between your situation and that of someone else who has be...

Some of the most common symptoms of dry eye:

• Feeling like there is something in your eye (foreign body sensation)
• Scratchy, gritty eyes
• Aching or sore eyes
• Smarting or burning eyes
• Eyes tire easily, particularly noticeable from reading, watching TV or using a computer
• Contact lens discomfort or intolerance
• Excessive mucus discharge
• Watery eyes
• Eyes easily irritated by smoke
• Sensitivity to light (photophobia)
• Fluctuating vision
• Blurred vision, particularly first thing

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Dry eye is a catch-all term for what happens to people when one or more things go wrong with the tear layer (tear film) on your eyes. A healthy tear film nourishes and protects your sensitive surface tissues and is also an important part of providing clear vision. An unhealthy tear film can cause many different kinds and degress of discomfort or pain and can interfere with good vision. Unfortunately we are stuck with this silly term "dry eye", which is both inaccurate and misleading. First, it's...