Hi.

[Dave-T]

Hi
I'm new here. I've pretty new to having dry eyes. I've only been aware of the problem for about a year now. What I mean is I used to smoke canabis, I smoked it for around 6 years. For those of you that have smoked canabis you will know that when your on the high your eyes tend to go red and dry. Or at least I think that's why they was red and dry, I'm not 100% sure but the canabis use could have been ******g the real problem of dry eyes. I had an eye check up at the opticians and it was them that confirmed that I have dry eyes. I've also been to the doctors a few times but to be honest they just don't seem interested. They gave me artificial tears which to be honest seemed to make them seem dryer. I found that I was putting the drops in up to 50 times a day. The other thing is that the doctor said that I have anxiety which is a common thing when you stop smoking the canabis.
One thing I don't understand is why some days my eyes seem ok and others they really bug me. My eyes also seem sensative to light and when they are dry and I look somewhere quickly it's like my eye movement accross the socket is slowed down due to lack of moisture.
I'd love to know if anyone else has used canabis and found that it's caused dry eyes and also if anyone else suffers with anxiety and does it effect their dry eyes.

[Lucy]

I dunno know about canabis Dave, but anxiety can exacerbate dry eyes. On the other hand having dry eyes can exacerbate anxiety. Certainly the smoke from canabis (I think it's pot?) would be murder on your eyes. I can't comment on any of the other parts because I don't know. If you even think it's contributing, you should (or have) probably stopped this stuff.

[Dave-T]

Hi , yes I haven't smoked it for two years now.
I've noticed reading through the posts on this site that alot of people get alot of pain with their dry eyes. I don't get any pain, just a little burning and genrally dry soreness.

[Lucy]

Dave, most of the time people are referring to "pain" when they talk of burning and the dry soreness. You are having "pain" or you wouldn't be on this board. lol. Lucy

[irish eyes]

Hi
They gave me artificial tears which to be honest seemed to make them seem dryer. I found that I was putting the drops in up to 50 times a day. .

50 times a day is rather on the excessive side Dave.

Lucy is right - you wouldn't be visiting the forum if you weren't experiencing some kind of pain. Pain can cause discomfort, distress or agony. It may be burning, stabbing or aching. However you feel it, only you can describe it; your pain is individual to you and it cannot be checked out by anyone else. To get my point across to doctors, I developed a list of adjectives and paired comparisons to describe the discomfort. They got my drift after a while.

And yes, I had exactly the same experience with the drops when I was an outpatient at the NHS. Sadly, I still haven't solved the problem of finding suitable drops even though I do a lot of the `research' myself and I'm seeing a consultant privately.

Sorry that I can't comment on the cannabis issue as I don't know.