Background:
I am 18, male, use computers quite a lot. Thought lockdown I have used my phone and computers a lot, although I would say I actually use computers more intensely about a years ago, when I would be on them 5 hours straight most days.
There is one thing I have which complicates all of this. I have quite bad health anxiety which often leads me to get "fake" psychosomatic symptoms. A perfect example of this is that during August and September I had sore wrists, not because there was actually something wrong with them, but just because I was worried about it. It went away once I realised there wasn't actually anything wrong (which in itself is far too complicated to explain)
My problem right now:
2 weeks ago I no for a fact that I either a) had no problem with my eyes, or b) it wasn't bad enough for me to really notice/care about (i.e., two weeks ago I was fine).
Over the last 2 weeks I have occasionally been getting pain in my right eye, now this is something I've experienced before, essentially anytime I get eye strain from using a computer for too long, it's only in my right eye. I have no idea why, although I have a (slight) prescription in my left eye, and I always forget to wear my glasses, so possible it's because my right eye is compensating for the left one, idk.
Because the pain over the last 2 weeks wasn't really bad, I am having difficulty remembering when I actually had it/how bad it was.
I know that last Friday I was really quickly skimming though loads of webpages trying to find something out, and I definitely had a bit of pain in my right eye, and it was watering quite a bit, when I was doing that.
Saturday evening, my eye isn't hurting (at least I don't think it was), until I start reading about dry eye (I was concerned about another aspect of my eyes which is what led me to this), and then (pretty much) immediately it starts hurting (within about an hour). Then it's also sore the next day whenever I look at a screen.
At this point I'm thinking "well this is clearly just psychosomatic", so I tried to "test" it (essentially doing something that will distract me from the "pain" so I can see if it's real or not). So I put my headphones on and listened to a podcast, while playing a video game, to try and focus my attention on other things. This didn't really work, and my eye was still sore (it kindof burns and waters a lot) (also again this is only the right eye), although I did feel like I was fully distracted into the game and what I was listening to. That night in bed I was watching a video on my phone for about 15 minutes in the dark and my eye wasn't sore, which to me maybe indicated it isn't real?
Then yesterday I did the same thing and the pain did mainly go away after about 15 minutes, then I noticed after about 30 minutes that it was gone, after which point it came back and didn't really go away again. Now it was also sore yesterday throughout the entire day (very slightly, pretty much whenever it was focusing on something for more than 5 seconds. tbh I wouldn't really even describe it as "pain", more a weird feeling). So I'm not sure whether the "weird feeling" is real, or maybe that is the "fake" bit and the pain I got after playing a game for 30 minutes was real, idk.
The only symptoms I have are sore and kindof watery right eye. My eye looks a bit bloodshot, but they both do and have for ages. The right eyelid si a wee bit more red than the left one, but I think that's because I keep rubbing it when it's sore. No gritty feeling.
(There is also the fact that out of all the times this could develop, over the last week seems like a weird time. Last year I was regularly spending 5 hours on a PC without a break, and even recently, in fact up until about a week ago, I was looking at my phone watching videos for a long time every day, but I kindof stopped that about a week ago, so it just seems a bit weird that this is the time it decided to develop).
Questions:
1) Does this sound like a genuine problem, or does it just sound like I started to panic when reading about it, and got psychosomatic symptoms, and then remembered it was sore a little bit a few days ago, which made me doubt whether it was fake?
2) If it is real, is it too late to fix it? I have seen loads of people/websites say "It never gets better, only treated" or something like that. But if I have only had it as a real problem for a few days, could taking a month or so break from focusing on stuff like screens or reading, potentially get rid of it and I would be back where I was a week or two ago?
3) If I do have it to the extent it is now, and I can't get rid of it, is it going to be a huge problem for me? On the one hand I have talked to a few people in real life who are older and have it and they just say casually "yeah I have it, I just use eye drops twice a day and it's pretty much fine", but then on here and in a few other places I see people saying "you have to stop using computers and watching TV forever or it will continue to get worse", which really scares me as 1) that's pretty much impossible if you want to live these days, and 2) I'm going to Uni in a year to do computer science. (although tbh anything at Uni will probably require you to look at a computer for 5 hours a day)
Extra: I just want to add in a bit at the bottom to say I am in no way implying that dry eye is "fake" or that symptoms are fake, just that in my case there is decent chance they may be, as I suffer from health anxiety, and get psychosomatic symptoms, and this kindof thing has happened before.
I am 18, male, use computers quite a lot. Thought lockdown I have used my phone and computers a lot, although I would say I actually use computers more intensely about a years ago, when I would be on them 5 hours straight most days.
There is one thing I have which complicates all of this. I have quite bad health anxiety which often leads me to get "fake" psychosomatic symptoms. A perfect example of this is that during August and September I had sore wrists, not because there was actually something wrong with them, but just because I was worried about it. It went away once I realised there wasn't actually anything wrong (which in itself is far too complicated to explain)
My problem right now:
2 weeks ago I no for a fact that I either a) had no problem with my eyes, or b) it wasn't bad enough for me to really notice/care about (i.e., two weeks ago I was fine).
Over the last 2 weeks I have occasionally been getting pain in my right eye, now this is something I've experienced before, essentially anytime I get eye strain from using a computer for too long, it's only in my right eye. I have no idea why, although I have a (slight) prescription in my left eye, and I always forget to wear my glasses, so possible it's because my right eye is compensating for the left one, idk.
Because the pain over the last 2 weeks wasn't really bad, I am having difficulty remembering when I actually had it/how bad it was.
I know that last Friday I was really quickly skimming though loads of webpages trying to find something out, and I definitely had a bit of pain in my right eye, and it was watering quite a bit, when I was doing that.
Saturday evening, my eye isn't hurting (at least I don't think it was), until I start reading about dry eye (I was concerned about another aspect of my eyes which is what led me to this), and then (pretty much) immediately it starts hurting (within about an hour). Then it's also sore the next day whenever I look at a screen.
At this point I'm thinking "well this is clearly just psychosomatic", so I tried to "test" it (essentially doing something that will distract me from the "pain" so I can see if it's real or not). So I put my headphones on and listened to a podcast, while playing a video game, to try and focus my attention on other things. This didn't really work, and my eye was still sore (it kindof burns and waters a lot) (also again this is only the right eye), although I did feel like I was fully distracted into the game and what I was listening to. That night in bed I was watching a video on my phone for about 15 minutes in the dark and my eye wasn't sore, which to me maybe indicated it isn't real?
Then yesterday I did the same thing and the pain did mainly go away after about 15 minutes, then I noticed after about 30 minutes that it was gone, after which point it came back and didn't really go away again. Now it was also sore yesterday throughout the entire day (very slightly, pretty much whenever it was focusing on something for more than 5 seconds. tbh I wouldn't really even describe it as "pain", more a weird feeling). So I'm not sure whether the "weird feeling" is real, or maybe that is the "fake" bit and the pain I got after playing a game for 30 minutes was real, idk.
The only symptoms I have are sore and kindof watery right eye. My eye looks a bit bloodshot, but they both do and have for ages. The right eyelid si a wee bit more red than the left one, but I think that's because I keep rubbing it when it's sore. No gritty feeling.
(There is also the fact that out of all the times this could develop, over the last week seems like a weird time. Last year I was regularly spending 5 hours on a PC without a break, and even recently, in fact up until about a week ago, I was looking at my phone watching videos for a long time every day, but I kindof stopped that about a week ago, so it just seems a bit weird that this is the time it decided to develop).
Questions:
1) Does this sound like a genuine problem, or does it just sound like I started to panic when reading about it, and got psychosomatic symptoms, and then remembered it was sore a little bit a few days ago, which made me doubt whether it was fake?
2) If it is real, is it too late to fix it? I have seen loads of people/websites say "It never gets better, only treated" or something like that. But if I have only had it as a real problem for a few days, could taking a month or so break from focusing on stuff like screens or reading, potentially get rid of it and I would be back where I was a week or two ago?
3) If I do have it to the extent it is now, and I can't get rid of it, is it going to be a huge problem for me? On the one hand I have talked to a few people in real life who are older and have it and they just say casually "yeah I have it, I just use eye drops twice a day and it's pretty much fine", but then on here and in a few other places I see people saying "you have to stop using computers and watching TV forever or it will continue to get worse", which really scares me as 1) that's pretty much impossible if you want to live these days, and 2) I'm going to Uni in a year to do computer science. (although tbh anything at Uni will probably require you to look at a computer for 5 hours a day)
Extra: I just want to add in a bit at the bottom to say I am in no way implying that dry eye is "fake" or that symptoms are fake, just that in my case there is decent chance they may be, as I suffer from health anxiety, and get psychosomatic symptoms, and this kindof thing has happened before.
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