does anybody blink like a million times a minute and sometimes without knowing it????

[fed up kate]

hi all

ive got a really anoying problem and ive been more and more paranoid about it the more people tell me i do it.
obviously with dry eye you want to blink all the time but people tell me i twitch alot if that makes sense and squeeze my eyes alot.
know i dont know how to stop and feel a bit daft when i do it but i dont know im doing it.

like i was watching my holiday on camcorder and i could see me doing it and im mortified of how bad it looks.

please does anybody do this or is just me and is there any way of controling it because its getting worse.

any help would be great and i would feel slightly better if im not alone

thank you

kate

[gary]

Hi Kate
I had the same problem,mine has gotten a lot better on its own,but my doctor said that I had blephraspasms and recommended botox and it probably would have stopped the excessive blinking,only thing the side effects was dry eyes.

I had read about a guy that had same problem and he took the botox and was very satisfied with the results.

If I am doing something that requires a lot of concentration then the blinking slows down a lot,like right now I am restoring my old car that I drove to high school, as soon as I quit then my eyes starts to get that dry,sandy,gritty feeling. Then if I lay down and close my eyes and rest for about 45 minutes my eyes are a lot better.

Do a research on blephraspasams and see if that applies to you and go from there.

HTH
Gary

[dave25]

I actually have been told that I don't blink at all. Which is probably part of my problem with dry eyes. So I try to make a conscious effort to blink and I think it may be a little more noticeable to people when you are trying to control your blinking. Most people who don't have dry eyes can really never fully understand this problem or other problems we dry eye suffers go through. I have had some problems with twitching in my eyelids and my doctor said it may be an inflamed nerve, but luckily it went away after a while. It still comes back from time to time but the thing I have noticed is that it always starts when I get stressed out. So if I control my stress levels it usually stays away. I'm sorry I can't give you any more advice but it sounds like Gary has some really good ideas.

[fed up kate]

gary

thank you so much for that,i will look into it as i really dont know how to stop it because im so use to doin it out of frustration to heavy blink and squeeze them that its all i do now and get embarrassed when im talkin to someone and im probably doin it.

like my auntie says "do you know your blinking alot " im like yes i do know but thanks for pointing out(not) lol.

thanks again i will do some research

kate

[irish eyes]

Hi Kate

I screw up my eyes a lot but it provides a measure of relief.

The drier the atmosphere, the more I have to do it.

[fed up kate]

dave25

its mad how everyone has alot of different symptoms with dry eye but i know what you mean about the twitching i get that from time to time to,my optican did name it but it was a long typical wierod name so ive forgotten it lol but thanks for your input thou it does help

irish eyes

oh yay its not just me then hehe
but now the heatings on full blast i feel way worse than normal and im going thru bad times with my job so like dave25 says my stress levels are thru the roof and that doesnt help as i hear on here that stress plays a huge part but i dont know how that is.
but my partner keeps tellin me to stop screwin my eyes up and im like i cant help.
so frustrating when no one understands so you sayin you do it makes me feel loads better
thank you

[irish eyes]

Hi Kate

No - it isn't just you!!

I'm sorry to hear that things aren't going that well with your job; that will certainly add to the stress. (You take care of yourself with that one.)

I can't cope with central heating so we burn logs - it isn't as instant but it doesn't dry out my eyes like the gas fire would do.

[fed up kate]

aww thanks for that.
may have get a new fire then an open one lol if it isnt as bad.
me own fault really got radiators on full blast but im so cold.

so humidifers workin over time.
just no part of the year where nothing botheres it

kate

[Guest]

I blink LOTS... it's funny you should mention this actually... I was out for dinner the other day with some people from work... I found myself watching to see how often everyone blinked heehee... most people took FOREVER to blink (lucky them... they don't have dry eyes!!)... but one girl (who wears contacts) was blinking almost as much as me... I was thinking that at least I'm not the only one here blinking like mad!

[fed up kate]

saag

hahaha thats so funny cuz i may sound crazy but like on tv i sometimes see how long it takes for people to blink as well and i think how long it takes for everyone else .
but like you say they have normal eyes

so reasurring to know

[lmdahlberg]

long blinks- meige syndrome

I have a blinking problem that has been diagnosed (finally) as Meige Syndrome- excessive and long blinks due more to a facial nerve tic than to dryness, although dryness can play a role in it. Treatments are botox or acupuncture-- with varying debrees of success.

[fed up kate]

hmm i will have to read up on that
rebecca posted a story on here about someone who got botox done and ended up in alot more pain but i have been thinkin of accupunture,mite give it a go as im sick of this constant blinkin

thank you for your input

[Moonraker]

I read somewhere that the average person blinks every six seconds - or was it six times a minute. In recent weeks my worst dry-eye days have been after staring at a PC screen for some hours - I do try to force a blink every few minutes, but obviously that's not enough.

A couple of years ago my dry right eye was reacting to the air conditioning in my GPs' waiting-room. The doctor on duty was an elderly locum - a former gynaecologist - who is very chatty; nice, but it does mean a lot of slippage with appointments and I'd been there some time. He noticed that the right side of my forehead was twitching and suggested Botox might cure it, but I said no.

Following the excision of an acoustic neuroma in 1996, the skin on the right side of my forehead is taut, whereas on the left it has the typical wrinkles of a 65-year-old - looks a bit like like half a face-lift. I've vaguely wondered about having the wrinkled side "lifted", but no-one has remarked on the disparity.