How do you deal with anxiety caused by dry eye problems?

[buntbean]

I'm starting back up on the "hampster wheel" of doctor appointments and trying some new medications, blood serum drops, etc. It entails traveling and bringing up some post traumatic stress issues. I've lost 9 lbs from my constantly upset stomach and the increase in hiking up mountains to try and deal with my anxiety. I try not to think about it but I can be completely engaged in conversation, a movie, etc and it's like an unexpected wave from the ocean crashes over me and I'm blindsided by it. What do you do that help? Thank you.

[Katewest]

Listen to NPR on my phone, take baths --short term. long term-quit my job

[Rebecca Petris]

This made me think of part of what a friend posted recently on FB:

Go slowly
Breathe
Do the next thing… like breathing
Move your body however possible
Breathe some more

I know that when I experience anxiety, it's because I'm living future stuff in advance, which is always so much harder than just living in the moment. When it spins out of control it's paralyzing. I have to shrink that world so I don't go nuts. I step off the merry-go-round, I breathe, pray, and eventually just start doing the next thing, without looking beyond it. Even if that next thing is something really small. Anything that can become my entire focus will work.

I used to work off anxiety with frenetic activity. I guess it worked for me then, in a way. Wasn't very kind to my body though. Over the years I guess I've learned more about what it looks like to be kind to oneself. Got a long way to go though.

[buntbean]

I have to stay very busy with activity when I get like this. It does end up hurting my body though. I appreciate that others do understand how "paralyzing" this can be. I have a tendency to either fear that things from the past will happen again (like bad reactions to medications, etc) or I fear what might go wrong in the future. Sitting in church Sunday I felt like a caged animal that just needed to escape and run away. Meditation, yoga...they don't work for me. It's funny because my most recent trip into Boston the doctor told me that intense cardio was a recommendation because it elevates our feel good hormones and helps with the pain. I had a rough day yesterday and wasn't sure I could get thru it. Today is somewhat better. I guess it comes down to it's not always day by day but minute by minute or even second by second. Thank you for the support.

[runnergirl]

Because I have blepharospasm as well as dry eyes, I get scared quickly and have anxiety. I pray alot which helps. And like Rebecca said, I also remind myself that this is the moment, not the future. I have to remind myself that there is hope and healing comes at different times for all of us. It is in Gods hands not mine. I can not afford to shut down. I have a family and job. So I have to fight the urge to go into "alarm phase" when I am having a bad day. Because I have acquired post traumatic stress through all of this, my body instictively goes into "fight or flight" mode. I begin to shut down and panic. yesterday was one of those days for me. I wanted to leave work and quit, go home and climb into bed FOREVER. But I can't. When that happens, My body suffers. I get an upset stomach, I can not eat, I have the runs,tension builds in my neck, back, face, I shake everywhere and I seem to care about nothing or anyone. No one can live like that. I have to immediately live in the moment. I have to back up, take about 4 long deep breathes. Sit up straight breathe in deep, hold the breathe for 4 seconds, then let it out slowly counting to 7. I work on my mind, not thinking of anything except what my breathing is doing. I do that about 3 times, then I pray. I am usually OK after that. When I get home, I usually cry a good cry, then I make myself be over it because tomorrow is a new day and in the big picture, we all may be suffering, but if we think about it, we are all blessed in other ways.....focusing on the blessings and not the future is also helpful. Hope this helps. I am starting to learn meditation to help too.

[LaDiva]

You might try Reiki or acupuncture. Anti-anxiety meds help. I agree with Rebecca and runnergirl about prayer. Sometimes we must trust there is something bigger than we are, and hand everything over to that higher power. Just say "here, please take this from me, I trust you will handle this". I get caught up worrying about what might happen. Now that I am older, it seems like a painful waste of energy worrying about what might happen. I have some much bigger health issues than dry eye, and in order to stay glued together, I have had to hand it all to that higher power. It is such a relief, and I work on it daily. Best wishes to you. I know how you feel.

[PotatoCakes]

Ditto acupunture. It's amazing how wonderfully soothing it can be especially if you find a practitioner you really like. It didn't help my dry eye symptoms but the mental benefits were very worth it to me. When I'm in high periods of stress, which exacerbate my disease, I make an effort to go back because it helps my stress level. Cupping was also great for me but not to the degree that acupuncture was.

3 very deep breaths (breathe in, hold, breathe out through mouth) can be very soothing when you are in a pinch.

Exercise helps me because of the endorphins. I've noticed that some posters have said the same about eating.

The other thing that I've done that helps stave off some of my anxious moments is to keep preservative-free eye drops EVERWHERE. It's not practical for me to keep my serum drops with me everywhere I go throughout the day so I have small containers (http://www.storables.com/3-oz-rectan...ontainers.html but I've used others too - I always have extras because I'll put partially used drops in them after opening and so I like to stick them in the dishwasher periodically) that I fill with eye drops and keep in my car, my purse, my husband's car, a huge stash in the downstairs bathroom, extras at my parents' house, if there's a place I go frequently, I keep eye drops there. I even keep an emergency stash at my hairstylist's and I keep a set in each suitcase. You'd think that with my eye problems, I'd never forget but on occasion, I've run out or felt so good when I've left the house that I've forgotten my stash. Having those backups have been a lifesaver. Most of the time I don't need them but when I do, they are there and knowing they are there gives me a lot of confidence.

[spmcc]

Has anyone ever tried EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)?

I heard about it years ago (pre-dry eyes)... a short program on TV... I remembered it one day and use it whenever I find myself in a state of brooding, stressing, anxious, negative-thoughts-trapped-in-my-head, etc.

I've never been trained in it (I understand that professionals would want to train people to use it). And I don't know all the research behind it (I heard it's for PTSD... a counselor once told me that I do not have PTSD just because I have dry eye pain... but I feel like there's a connection... chronic pain, chronic worry, chronic stress, chronic anxiety etc.)

I think one of the main things I like about eye movement is that it doesn't involve talking. For me, I seem to get mentally worse when I talk about all the problems related to my "silly" dry eyes. So this (even if I'm not doing it correctly) seems better.

Anyway, there's a YouTube video I found. It's interesting because I've only done the horizontal eye movements to try to "get out of the negative thoughts in my head". This video has additional eye movements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55BLzhHBkVc

I am putting this out there without know much at all... but I doubt very much it will hurt anyone.

Oh my gosh, I guess I should recommend that people NOT stare, but remember to blink, when they do it!!

[RFREITAS]

Actually... When I am really anxious... I try not to come here!
Please don't take me wrong... most of the time when people write here, are not at their best and read their testimonies usually has the opposite effect in me.
So over time I learned to not read everything and not reveal all ... other than that, I avoid writing in a very negative way.... I know how it was hard me when I first came here.
I am very grateful for all the testimony, but some create me anxiety!
So when I am worse I make an effort not to peek at the forum.

[RFREITAS]

One more thing... try to see / read inspiring stories. Like as TED conferences, or someone who has a rare / strange / difficult disease ... They are great examples and allows me realize that life goes on.
Also, sometimes I do something really stupid (eehehe) I search online for new drugs under study. That helps me to keep faith.
Like this one:
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT02101281
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-rel...268221482.HTML
I was reading something about a new drug for a eye disease and in the article they say that is also being study for dry eye!! Yupiii!!

The thing that really hepls me is pray

[No tears in ATL]

I'm one of those people that likes order in my life, so having dry eye was definitely a disruption. There is no way to control when I'm going to have a bad eye day. I'm still working on managing the stress/anxiety, frankly. A few things that help me (if you're the control freak sort, haha):

Try to control any other potential chaos in your life as best you can. I've always been a list maker and I map my day out in the morning. I cook meals for the week and I have a daily, monthly, and quarterly cleaning schedule. When the other aspects of your life are in order (including a clean house, mowed lawn, as silly as it seems), any disruption from a bad eye day doesn't become as much of a "pile on."

Meditation, yoga, and "peaceful" activities never worked for me, I guess because I can't sit still, but listening to a really interesting podcast while handling daily chores makes me not only productive (crossing stuff off a list makes us control types feel good) but keeps the mind off the eyes.