Worrying about dry eye making it worse

[msienkiewicz]

At my worst, I too was having panic attacks. I volunteered in my kid's school kitchen for months so I wouldn't have to be alone. I would then rest in the church for an hour before school got out. This went on for months.

Finally, I started seeing a counselor who had a disability herself. She helped immensely. She said the same thing. Enjoy the good days, and make the best of the bad days.

Have a back up plan for the bad days. It helped me to feel more in control of the situation. Sometimes, my husband would take me for a walk, and I would spend hours of the day with my eyes closed listening to TV or a book on tape.

Slowly, I started gaining confidence to deal with this, but it took help for me.

Take it in baby steps, and remember we're here for you,

Melissa

[GinaJ]

Hi. I have another neuro/pain condition and this. Anyhow I went to a pain program and part was learning to not focus on your pain and condition. Now for me this is hard but a work in progress I guess. First though it did not take away the physical pain I did go back to a psychiatrist and got on mental meds for anxiety and depression. It has helped my outlook and coping. Also I remind myself to stay in the day and get through that day. My pain doc said something to me that I try to remind myself. He said on your good pain days do the most you can and on the bad pain days do the best you can. With both of my conditions I fear making it worse too. I try to just be careful but do more things in life slowly to build up my confidence and that I can do more then I think and not harm myself. Feel better

[fed up kate]

hey

well i can promise that im the same i worry 24 7 about my eyes to the point where its driving me insane,i suffer from panic attacks and had it all under control before i got this problem and now im a wreck,im depressed miserable and irritable with everyone around me cuz i get so frustrated that no one understands how it feels.
i say to my partner wish you could have it just for 1 day to see what i have to deal with.
i know im makin my self worse but its so hard not to worry.

its like if you get a sore arm or leg you just dont use it but you cant not use your eyes or foreget about them so how can you forget about the problem.

your not alone

[Pinky]

Hi dgreen,
Have you considered taking NAC? It is supposed to help blepharitis and I have also read that it is used to treat OCD. I started it recently, and have noticed that I feel a little more relaxed and less worried about my eyes. Also, I think it is helping the eye pain.

Pinky

[Lucy]

I think it does make things worse. I don't know from studying like someone above, but in being on boards such as this for 10 years, we see lots of trends.

The hardest thing to tell someone who is suffering from horribly painful dry eyes to "try to do something to get your mind off it." They'll think you're nuts because they can't do anything but think of their eyes.

One must find something they can manage. When my eyes were the worst, I could usually manage to go to a movie with someone. I'd wear goggles and take my eyedrops and even shut my eyes if I had to. If all I could do was listen, then it still got my mind off my eyes for a couple of hours.

Someone else may be able to shop, go to the beach, have coffee or lunch with someone. You have to try and find your "thing" you can do, even if you don't want to. Being focused on nothing but your eyes is not helpful. Please don't take offense at anything I've said. I've lived it all. Lucy

[willwork4tears]

Have you tried cognitive behavioral therapy to learn techniques to manage and redirect the obsessive thoughts? I know it can be effective for ADHD and OCD. My undergraduate degree is in psychology and I know that CBT is one of the most effective therapy methods.

Anybody ever think that their worrying about dry eye is actually making the problem worse (or seem worse than it really is). I have OCD and ADHD so when I get a problem I tend to obsess about it and overworry. I'm wondering if my constant worrying about my eye strain and dry eye is causing it to actually be worse than it really is. What do you think?

[dave25]

I have often wondered this myself. I know that high amounts of stress can be very unhealthy, I'm just not exactly sure what it does to the eyes specifically. I think I have read in the past that people with dry eye have an increased amount of cytokines in their eyes and stress can increase these levels even further. So I really think the best thing to do is to try to reduce stress as much as you can because it will most likely make your entire body healthier, including your eyes.

Definition of cytokine -

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/...ticlekey=11937

[dgreen97]

Anybody ever think that their worrying about dry eye is actually making the problem worse (or seem worse than it really is). I have OCD and ADHD so when I get a problem I tend to obsess about it and overworry. I'm wondering if my constant worrying about my eye strain and dry eye is causing it to actually be worse than it really is. What do you think?