Addicted to Eye drops for Red Eyes

[baddabingtim]

Update on my email address

Here is my story - When I was young I had problems with my eyes that I can only attest to flourscent lights. My eyes would burn when I was in school. They were always red, I tried every eye drop - the only one that would give me some temporary relief was clear-eyes - Anyway I am obviously addicted to them - I wake up with red eyes and the only thing to remove them is clear eyes - Does anyone have any advice - I have went to a doctor and theey always give me dry eye drops - which I try - I have dakrina and am trying to use that more....

Tim@timcarroll.net - please feel free to email me

[Faith1989]

Eye Drop Addcition Help!!

hi everyone!

I have been addicted to Visine for about two years. I STOPPED six months ago cold turkey and all hell has broken lose. About three days after I stopped, my eyes were on fire..dry..red..irritated like no other! I need some sort of hope this craziness will go away..ive been to ophthalmologists who have said I have "dry eye" which I got treated and my doctor said I no longer have dry eye..but the redness is STILL there.. Could it still be due to my two year visine addiction? Is six months not long enough for them to clear? I NEED HELP/HOPE! HAS ANY ONE ELSE GONE THROUGH THIS?!

[howdryiam]

Hello everyone - I started this post - my new email is tim@timcarroll.net - www.timcarroll.net - Hope everyone is doing fine, please feel free to contact me for
questions about addiction on clear eyes

[Rebecca Petris]

Rick - welcome. So glad you're here (though sorry you have reason to be!)

GOOD JOB going cold turkey. That is really hard to do under any circumstances let alone with the professional pressures. I am impressed that you're already seeing some improvement. I think that the Freshkote regimen is a truly excellent way to go. Don't get discouraged if progress is slow and you have some ups and downs - that is par for the course with any kind of dry eye condition.

[Richard2]

No Where to Hide & Cry in Providence

OMG...Rebecca, I just read through this chain and see myself in so many different ways, it is scary. I have been addicted to Vasoconstricters for over 12 years since I moved to Boston and contracted some kind of viral conjuctivititis which was severe and they put me on Tobradex...which worked almost immediately within a day. The problem was when I got off the Tobradex, I looked like a vampire and my eyes were totally dry. So I freaked out and tried every over the counter remedy imaginable including the homeopathic ones...went to several Opthamologists including the Mass Eye and Ear and they took a biopsy which revealed an autoimmune disorder (not Srojen's syndrome). I think I screwed around with my eyes so much starting with the steroid drops that it was cumulative. I just recently this last week got FreshKote lubricating tears after trying Restasis for a week (which I did not like nor did my eyes). I went cold turkey 2 days ago on my Bausch & Laumb Anti Allergy Redness drops (which worked the best for me for years but of course had rebound effects). I am now just using FreshKote and Genteel for Moderate to Severe Dry Eye....2 days ago, I looked like a vampire. Yesterday, I looked bleary eyed. Today, my eyes are 50% clearer with using Freshkote 4 times a day and I am hopeful that the % of clearing increases tomorrow and the next day, and so on. I have to give presentations and meet 20 people a day on average so I know what it is like to want to have clear crisp eyes that feel good. It boosts my self confidence along with my feeling of general good health. So I really feel for everybody here...it can make you want to hide and cry (even on those days, you have no tears to do so).

I hope this story gives someone else the courage to try to something different even when the fear of doing something different is so great.

Thanks, everyone for your stories.

Take care.

Rick

[alisonW]

Great news!

Well its been 4 yrs folks - no more dry eyes - no more drops - I am even going for my PHD - anyone ever need advice or help

Are your eyes still affected by flourescent lights at all? Any redness or dryness anymore? Did you do anything other then quit the redness relieving drops?

I'm curious since redness is still a problem for me, and flourescent lights make it/them even worse. I've only use drops with vasoconstrictors a handful of times over the years.

Any info or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[howdryiam]

hello any addicted to eye drops

Well its been 4 yrs folks - no more dry eyes - no more drops - I am even going for my PHD - anyone ever need advice or help -


timothycarroll@verizon.net

Thanks

[calcan]

Understandable, but I am only offering suggestions. For people like me, for example, cannot explain why my eyes are red a lot, but other times I often notice they are white as snow. When I am doing pleasant things, for example, when I was fishing with my best friend and havent used drops for 3 hours, we got into the car and I looked into the mirror and notice they were extremly white. The next time I looked, roughly 5 minutes later, they were glazy red again. Another time I remember I was fishing on my boat with a friend, have been drinking for a while and felt they were really dry. I asked him if they were red and he said they were not, but they were dry. When I am around a lot of people at times, also in buildings that could not explain the reason for my dryness, they were red. Yes, you can blame perfumes and other ******** for the redness, but what about other places where no fragrances are in the air. Just saying, I think a vast majority of people can become free of red eye by following this method. The body has a wonderful ability to heal itself if given the chance. I rather not read any diseases infesting the eye for the fact it may frighten me, when I know for a fact my eyes are fine.

I think there's a lot of truth to what you say about the emotions/body connection. However, I believe this may be especially applicable to people who suffer from rosacea. My eyes can change from minute to minute as well, based on levels of stress, heat, etc. I don't think ALL people who suffer from dry eyes have as much of a mind/body connection.

[DanE1986]

Understandable, but I am only offering suggestions. For people like me, for example, cannot explain why my eyes are red a lot, but other times I often notice they are white as snow. When I am doing pleasant things, for example, when I was fishing with my best friend and havent used drops for 3 hours, we got into the car and I looked into the mirror and notice they were extremly white. The next time I looked, roughly 5 minutes later, they were glazy red again. Another time I remember I was fishing on my boat with a friend, have been drinking for a while and felt they were really dry. I asked him if they were red and he said they were not, but they were dry. When I am around a lot of people at times, also in buildings that could not explain the reason for my dryness, they were red. Yes, you can blame perfumes and other ******** for the redness, but what about other places where no fragrances are in the air. Just saying, I think a vast majority of people can become free of red eye by following this method. The body has a wonderful ability to heal itself if given the chance. I rather not read any diseases infesting the eye for the fact it may frighten me, when I know for a fact my eyes are fine.

[Rebecca Petris]

Hello,

Here is an exert from "The Divided Mind" by one of Sarno's colleagues,

pg 263-264 "Another interesting person I saw was a gentleman with dry eyes. The symptom had been there for a long time, and ophthalmologists had not found an underlying medical condition to explain it. The patient was so uncomfortable, though, that in an effort to relieve the symptoms one ophthalmologist tied off the return tear ducts so tears would linger in the eyes instead of finding their natural path into the nose. Somehow, he found his way to my office. At first I looked for rheumatic disorders that could cause dry eyes. Finding none, and considering the ophthalmologist's negative findings, this became a very challenging problem, that is, until I realized that he was obsessed with the dry eyes and very fearful of the gritty symptoms and redness that they caused. At one point I asked if he had ever cried at a sad movie. Suprised at my question, he said, "Yes". I asked if tears had fallen down his cheeks, and again he resonded affirmatively. If there were an organic reason for the lack of tears, this could have not happened. This recognition was the true beginning of his loss of fear and ability to get better. The eye symptoms began to recede and he started psychotherapy, the true path to healing".

Medically, I'm afraid this writer's response to the fellow's ability to cry is absolute nonsense.

Most people with "dry eye" can cry. Dry eye does not mean you have no tears. Dry eye is a catchall term for many different conditions (collectively called ocular surface disease among other things) affecting the tear film. Many people have reflex or emotional tear production but have reduced basal tear production. You may want to read up on dryeyezone.com about the nature and forms of the disease and the various symptoms.

Emotion is a big part of the journey for people with dry eye pain. Depression and anxiety can prolong and exacerbate pain. But they are not what's causing the disease in the vast majority of people. Rather, depression and anxiety that RESULT from eye pain and other dry eye symptoms often escalate into serious problems of their own. If you take the time to read much on this forum you will come to see this clearly through the experiences shared here.

[DanE1986]

hope for clearing up after addiction

Most of you may not know, but if you go to the eye doctor and they can't find anything pathologically wrong then it is mostly pshycosomatic chronic red eye. Research Dr. John Sarno and his theory of TMS (Tension Myoneural Syndrome), repressed emotions such as anger,fear,anxiety,guilt,worry are terrible on our bodies and the brain can affect any organ that it feels neccessary if these emotions/painful life experiences are not dealt with accordingly. Reduced bloodflow caused by the Autonomic Nervous System is the culprit. Becoming obsessed with the red eye is only fueling the anger, fear, anxiety, and worry about the red eyes and most likely keeping them red. I am a opcan a obsessed user as well and am quitting cold turkey hear soon. Dr. John Stracks from Chicago (a colleague of Dr. Sarno) said by stopping the eye drop use the eyes should clear up in a month or two as long as the obsession is diminished both consciously and subconsciously. Here is an exert from "The Divided Mind" by one of Sarno's colleagues,

pg 263-264 "Another interesting person I saw was a gentleman with dry eyes. The symptom had been there for a long time, and ophthalmologists had not found an underlying medical condition to explain it. The patient was so uncomfortable, though, that in an effort to relieve the symptoms one ophthalmologist tied off the return tear ducts so tears would linger in the eyes instead of finding their natural path into the nose. Somehow, he found his way to my office. At first I looked for rheumatic disorders that could cause dry eyes. Finding none, and considering the ophthalmologist's negative findings, this became a very challenging problem, that is, until I realized that he was obsessed with the dry eyes and very fearful of the gritty symptoms and redness that they caused. At one point I asked if he had ever cried at a sad movie. Suprised at my question, he said, "Yes". I asked if tears had fallen down his cheeks, and again he resonded affirmatively. If there were an organic reason for the lack of tears, this could have not happened. This recognition was the true beginning of his loss of fear and ability to get better. The eye symptoms began to recede and he started psychotherapy, the true path to healing".

I'm not saying anyone needs to see a psychoterapist to get better but just by recognizing nothing was structurally wrong was a big win, and soon starting feeling better. Here is a link to one of the TMS websites and some success stories on dry eye, and many other chronic pain syndromes that mainstream medicine cannot eliminate, only treat, because they do not recognize emotions for the most part in their practice.


http://tmswiki.wetpaint.com/page/Dry+Eye

There is hope for all of this, I hope I could be some assistance. Take care,

Dan

[bryan9182]

AHHHH I couldn't do it =( I had to use them again this morning for work. My eyes were as red as tomatoes. I couldn't stand looking at myself and knowing that people who looked at me probably wondered what drug I was on =/

I think the only help for me is to see an optometrist and see if they know of any type of drop or treatment that could help ease the redness in the withdrawal period.

[bryan9182]

No, I do not have any previous history with contacts. I don't do anything for the overnight dryness, however I have tried some overnight gels, but they just became extremely messy and didn't end up working. This may be obvious, the but the dryness I experience in the morning is relative to how much sleep I get. If I get to sleep in the dryness in the morning isn't always that bad. When I wake up for school at 6AM however, it is excruciating almost to the point where I cannot keep my eye open long enough to put in the tears.

The doctor I saw said nothing about my meibomian glands. As a matter of fact I'm not 100% sure if he was even an optometrist. Unfortunately there aren't very many optometrist's in my area. I asked about this same problem on another forum and a doctor said to me that permanent eye redness from overuse of OTC redness drops is not possible, so that's a relief.

I have read in other forums about the possibility of Lotemax to help ease the redness in the recovery? If you have any knowledge of this product, do you think it would be something I could suggest to a doctor?

[Rebecca Petris]

Thanks for all the added detail....

Any contact lens history?

I now suffer from extreme dryness/redness after sleeping.

Are you doing anything for this specifically? (Lots of discussion here about night protection.)

I had an eye examination a few years back, and a tear film evaporation test was done. My doctor said my tears deteriorated from the eye surface about 10 seconds quicker than a normal person. He tried punctal plugs but they didnt really do much. He also prescribed me to Restasis

Did he say anything specifically about your meibomian glands or give you any treatment for them? (There's some pretty cheap things you can do to help this... lid hygiene, warm compresses, fish oil supplements.) Rapid evaporation may suggest meibomian gland dysfunction. Any more recent eye exam?

I have work on thursday at 7AM and I know they're going to EXTREMELY red then if I dont use them =(

Try some cold therapy... no promises but it may help and it doesn't cost anything. Cold washcloth, or a ziplock baggy with ice water in it. Saline rinse too.

[/quote]If I were to make an educated guess I would have to say the main reason my eyes are still red are from the rebound effect of the Clear Eyes and the fact that the overuse of them has also made my eyes dry, although Lubricant drops only help the redness very slightly.[/QUOTE]
Yes... though you may have had something going on like mild blepharitis or something before you even started using the clear eyes. I think that for a lot of people here with chronic redness (some of them were vasoconstrictor users and some not) the redness and the dryness become related but separate problems, i.e. addressing the dryness does not bring any immediate improvement to the redness but... any potential for improvement to the redness can only come when the dryness is addressed.

[bryan9182]

If I remember correctly, I started using them one night while I was doing a term paper for school. I was on the computer for several hours straight and went into the bathroom and realized my eyes were bloodshot so I used Visine. I went back to the computer for a while longer, but the redness came back from staring at the monitor so I dropped Visine in again. This happened about 3-4 times that night. Woke up the next day and they were red again and thats how it all started.

I now suffer from extreme dryness/redness after sleeping. When I wake up in the morning it is a VERY scratchy dryness to the point where I almost cannot hold my eyes open. One drop of lubricant eye drops makes it go away and then redness after just waking up dulls down a little as I start to wake up. During the day my eyes are more of a burning dry, something the lubricant drops do not help at all with and something that the clear eyes drops make worse as well. I had an eye examination a few years back, and a tear film evaporation test was done. My doctor said my tears deteriorated from the eye surface about 10 seconds quicker than a normal person. He tried punctal plugs but they didnt really do much. He also prescribed me to Restasis, but I read online that Restasis can take up to 6 months to work, and I couldnt cut it for almost $50 for a months supply. I didn't use the drops today and dont plan on using them tommorow. I have work on thursday at 7AM and I know they're going to EXTREMELY red then if I dont use them =(

If I were to make an educated guess I would have to say the main reason my eyes are still red are from the rebound effect of the Clear Eyes and the fact that the overuse of them has also made my eyes dry, although Lubricant drops only help the redness very slightly.