First Post. Bipolar I and Severe dry eyes.

[Tiera]

Hi my name is Tiera. Ive been on this site for about 2 months and just joined. Let me start off by saying hello my dry eye community. Im a 25 year old new dry eye suffer. I was told by numerous doctors that my dry eyes were caused by my medz. My question is if I were to switch medz or go to the all natural approach do you think the dry eyes would heal itself. I have extreme light photophobia and tired eyes also seems like some changes in vision which I think came from restasis(change in vision) im now only taking lithum for bipolar but all the other 8 medications I was taking befor Im pretty sure are still in my system. I was thinking of lipiflow but Im seeing to many mixed reviews. Ive been off restasis for about 4 days and Im using castor oil drops and putting 1-2 drops into my eyes at night. Too early to notice a change yet I guess. Does anyone here have zany insight about bipolar medz and dry eye. If I get off the medz and go natural will my dry eye clear?? Thanks

[Faith1989]

Hello, and welcome. I have had dry eye for about a year now. I have found treatments that help and some that have made me worse...dry eye is really a trial and error thing. Whether ur dry eye will clear without the meds or not is really a question you should be asking your doctors. Do you have an opthomologist yet? If not, I would definitely find a good one and ask the doctor the med questions! If you don't have a good eye doc yet, don't wait for the dryness to progress and get one soon If there is one thing I have learned its that having a good eye doc can make all the difference...

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi Tiera and welcome.

That's a really challenging question, one that probably few doctors will have direct experience of.

Can you share more information about your dry eye diagnosis? For example, is it mostly aqueous (lacrimal) production that's affected, or, as is more common, mostly the oil (meibomian) glands? Are photophobia and tired eyes your main symptoms? Do you have any pain?

[jenny2008]

Hi tiera,
Nice to meet you--i just asked my opthamologist today what type of anti depressant i could take that wouldnt dry me out more (i have mgd and sjogrens) -he said they are all drying.. Have you been to an Opthamologist yet? sorry i dont know much about bipolar meds-i knew someone who took them but didnt experience dry eye from them.. i would guess if you get dry eyes from a med you would have to have some type of dry eye beforehand... i am not sure tho.just a guess..

i had sjogrens years before it flared up and could take prozac, lexapro, antihisamtines no problem...and then my sjogrens flared up and i couldnt take any of it
good luck! i sure hope someone can help..just wanted to say hello and u are not alone

[yuckyIsand]

sahara mornings

Hi my name is Tiera. Ive been on this site for about 2 months and just joined. Let me start off by saying hello my dry eye community. Im a 25 year old new dry eye suffer. I was told by numerous doctors that my dry eyes were caused by my medz. My question is if I were to switch medz or go to the all natural approach do you think the dry eyes would heal itself. I have extreme light photophobia and tired eyes also seems like some changes in vision which I think came from restasis(change in vision) im now only taking lithum for bipolar but all the other 8 medications I was taking befor Im pretty sure are still in my system. I was thinking of lipiflow but Im seeing to many mixed reviews. Ive been off restasis for about 4 days and Im using castor oil drops and putting 1-2 drops into my eyes at night. Too early to notice a change yet I guess. Does anyone here have zany insight about bipolar medz and dry eye. If I get off the medz and go natural will my dry eye clear?? Thanks

Tiera,

I too am diagnosed bipolar and much like you, I've run the gauntlet of antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Congrats in getting off the meds! I know I'm a better person now because I've streamlined all of that to just 1 med - 150 mg topiramate. Please update us as to any progress you may be experiencing with the nightime use of castor oil. Do you also take daily oil oral supplements?

I don't want to go into my whole story here because frankly I'm long weary of having to deal with it. This problem has grown from an eye problem 4 years ago to a life problem now. I'll bet I get almost no REM sleep because of this problem. I perceive that my immediate family looks at me as being some kind of Frankenstein because I'm always dealing with an eye problem they have almost no way of visually detecting. My eyes are so freakin' dry when I turn my head to the side to get up every morning, I can clearly hear crud from my eyes and punta showering onto the carpet next to my nightstand.

[Tiera]

Hi is there a reason y I cant post any new threads!?

[Tiera]

Hi Tiera and welcome.

That's a really challenging question, one that probably few doctors will have direct experience of.

Can you share more information about your dry eye diagnosis? For example, is it mostly aqueous (lacrimal) production that's affected, or, as is more common, mostly the oil (meibomian) glands? Are photophobia and tired eyes your main symptoms? Do you have any pain?

Hi rebecca, is there a reason y I cant post any new threads¿

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi rebecca, is there a reason y I cant post any new threads¿

If you can make new posts then you can definitely make new threads - I'm guessing you're just not on the right screen when you try? You can't be in a thread when you make another one. If you don't see the blue "Post new thread" button towards the top of the screen, then you're not at the top level of a forum. Click on a forum name (like this) then it should appear.