Very Stressed about potential dry eye

[bradwiggo]

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.

[bradwiggo]

Update to this: Still unsure about the overall condition, however have noticed that if I open my eyes without blinking for more than about 30 seconds, they will hurt.

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi there and welcome! Sorry I didn't see your first message. I'm going to respond to the 2nd message first:

have noticed that if I open my eyes without blinking for more than about 30 seconds, they will hurt.

This is normal. They SHOULD hurt. 30 seconds is enough time for even a healthy tear film to evaporate, and a dry surface will very quickly become uncomfortable.

Now reading the original message and will reply shortly.

[Rebecca Petris]

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?

To me, it sounds like a little bit of both - like a mild problem and a mild hypersensitivity/hyperawareness of sensations, but you won't know until you get examined for dry eye.
Even without a history of health anxiety as you've mentioned that you have, lots of us start becoming "hyperaware" of eye symptoms once they start. We are biologically wired to fear vision loss, so we notice stuff. And eyes can get very uncomfortable very quickly.

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?

Absolutely not!
Don't listen to that kind of thing. There are some forms of dry eye that persist, but it should not be generalized.
Here's what you need to keep in mind. You might be absolutely fine and just having some transient symptoms, or you might be having some kind of dry eye onset. If it's the latter, it didn't happen overnight, even if the symptoms seemed to start suddenly. For MANY people symptoms start suddenly but the condition itself was 'brewing' long before. Just as it takes time to get to a certain point, it takes time to reverse as much as possible.
If you haven't already, please see an eye doctor to get some feedback on whether in fact you have an issue. In the meantime, there are very simple home remedies such as gentle warm compresses and lid cleansing that are good maintenance type things, can't harm, and may help. Look up blinking exercises - pretty much anyone using computers heavily may benefit from these because a low blink rate during computer use is a big part of increasing dry eye symptoms. Drink more water. Lower your computer screen so you have less exposure. Blink more frequently at the computer. All simple things that can help.

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)

You're generalizing about "it". There's no such thing. There are so many different types of dry eye situations, involving all different parts of the tear system.
As for "you have to stop using computers and watching TV forever or it will continue to get worse" that's nonsense. We live in a world of computers. For most of us, our solutions involve strategies to make computer use more comfortable for our eyes. There's all kinds of adaptations.

So I think my 'big picture' advice to you is not to succumb to binary thinking about dry eye (do i or don't i? is it manageable or no?) It's more nuanced to that. And please, if it persists, see an eye doctor

[bradwiggo]

To me, it sounds like a little bit of both - like a mild problem and a mild hypersensitivity/hyperawareness of sensations, but you won't know until you get examined for dry eye.
Even without a history of health anxiety as you've mentioned that you have, lots of us start becoming "hyperaware" of eye symptoms once they start. We are biologically wired to fear vision loss, so we notice stuff. And eyes can get very uncomfortable very quickly.


Absolutely not!
Don't listen to that kind of thing. There are some forms of dry eye that persist, but it should not be generalized.
Here's what you need to keep in mind. You might be absolutely fine and just having some transient symptoms, or you might be having some kind of dry eye onset. If it's the latter, it didn't happen overnight, even if the symptoms seemed to start suddenly. For MANY people symptoms start suddenly but the condition itself was 'brewing' long before. Just as it takes time to get to a certain point, it takes time to reverse as much as possible.
If you haven't already, please see an eye doctor to get some feedback on whether in fact you have an issue. In the meantime, there are very simple home remedies such as gentle warm compresses and lid cleansing that are good maintenance type things, can't harm, and may help. Look up blinking exercises - pretty much anyone using computers heavily may benefit from these because a low blink rate during computer use is a big part of increasing dry eye symptoms. Drink more water. Lower your computer screen so you have less exposure. Blink more frequently at the computer. All simple things that can help.

I'm hopefully going to get an appointment soon at an optician, I live in quite a rural area so they aren't open too often, but I think they are a bit quieter atm.

I think my worry that it could be permanent came from a lot of the general health sites, places like healthline and webmd say stuff like "it's generally considered chronic and is normally treated not cured" Is that wrong or is it just referring to later stages of dry eye that can be really serious and permanent?

From where I am now, would it be a case of treating it with eye drops temporarily, while also doing stuff like heat treatment of the eyelids to reverse it until it's gone and back to normal?

You're generalizing about "it". There's no such thing. There are so many different types of dry eye situations, involving all different parts of the tear system.
As for "you have to stop using computers and watching TV forever or it will continue to get worse" that's nonsense. We live in a world of computers. For most of us, our solutions involve strategies to make computer use more comfortable for our eyes. There's all kinds of adaptations.

So I think my 'big picture' advice to you is not to succumb to binary thinking about dry eye (do i or don't i? is it manageable or no?) It's more nuanced to that. And please, if it persists, see an eye doctor

I use a blue light filter on my computer, does that make it better or could that be making it worse? My monitor is quite low, but I also have pretty bad posture so I often end up leaning in and it ends up at eye level, I definitely need to fix my posture.


In regards to the tear film, I timed it a bit better and I get pain in my eye (weirdly both of them not just the right one), if I keep it open for more than about 15 seconds, after around 25 seconds it becomes too sore and blink reflex kicks in. Does that sound about normal? It's quite a bit less than 30 seconds, not sure if thats normal.

[Rebecca Petris]

I think my worry that it could be permanent came from a lot of the general health sites, places like healthline and webmd say stuff like "it's generally considered chronic and is normally treated not cured" Is that wrong or is it just referring to later stages of dry eye that can be really serious and permanent?

From where I am now, would it be a case of treating it with eye drops temporarily, while also doing stuff like heat treatment of the eyelids to reverse it until it's gone and back to normal?

I understand. Personally I think it's very unfortunate that they make those kinds of generalizations online, because there are so many different things that get classified (not always accurately) as dry eye and the outcomes can be very different depending on specificis.

I think doing simple safe things to help your eyes feel better (drops, compresses) is a good idea till you can see an eye doctor.

Blue light filter can't do any harm, and seems to help some people

Regarding the tear film, not sure how to comment on that, you really can't self-diagnose by how long it takes for your eyes to become sore.

[bradwiggo]

I understand. Personally I think it's very unfortunate that they make those kinds of generalizations online, because there are so many different things that get classified (not always accurately) as dry eye and the outcomes can be very different depending on specificis.

I think doing simple safe things to help your eyes feel better (drops, compresses) is a good idea till you can see an eye doctor.

Blue light filter can't do any harm, and seems to help some people

Regarding the tear film, not sure how to comment on that, you really can't self-diagnose by how long it takes for your eyes to become sore.

I saw an optician (not sure the actual title of the person) today. They looked at my eye. They put some orange dyed water in them and then examined them with a light (think it was a slit lamp). They said that a) there was no cornea damage (I didn't really think there would be though), and b) that the left eye has slightly less tears than the right one (the right one is the one I have pain in).

They didn't really do any tests on the glands though, they said they had looked at them and they looked fine, can they tell that just by looking? I thought they had press them or something?

I'm not sure if they did a tear break up test, when examining my eyes they told me to look up, then down etc, and they also did at one point (in each eye) tell me to blink, and then they kept looking in the eye, but I don't think they kept looking in it for 10 or 15 seconds, so I'm not sure if that's actually what they were doing.

So I'm still not super sure whether the problem is real or not. I'm a bit concerned that they didn't really do many checks on the glands, but on the other hand they did say the left eye has fewer tears overall, is it possible for one eye to have a slight aqueous deficiency but then the OTHER one has MGD, or would it likely be the same one I assume?