Can depression and stress cause dry eyes?

[TRiBaL]

If you get alot stress and depression all the time could that lead to dry eyes or MGD?

I notice in someones thread they said not being depress helps.

[TRiBaL]

any1???.....

[Lucy]

Tribal.....I'll give this a shot and someone will probably give me a shot back down.

It seems to me that a lot of stress and depression cannot cause dry eyes. Not getting enough sleep can give you dry eyes. Bad diet, bad hygiene, too much alcohol, too much computer. Lasik surgery can give you dry eyes.

Now, having made that observation, I'll say it's more likely that the dry eyes adds to stress and depression. I tried anyhow.

Lucy

[calli66]

The question you're asking is pretty general...and probably not a direct "cause and effect" situation. Clinical depression or less severe depression can have different causes, some of which might give a person dry eyes. I'm thinking chemical or hormonal imbalances. And stress depletes your body's energy reserves.

The hardest thing is to "try to not be so depressed"----I mean, there are things you can do so you don't feel so "down," like going outside, getting together with friends, listening to music....whatever gets you out of your head. I've always found that I shouldn't dwell on my problems late at night---things seem worse late at night and better in the morning.

But whether anything you do like this improves your eyes---it's hard to say. Probably does, but it's subtle.

I find that I have flare-ups and "bad days" no matter what state of mind I'm in---depressed, happy, stressed, etc. I haven't figured out yet what sets things off (I've had dry eyes over 4 years), but I've figured out lots of ways treat my eyes so that they feel better.

Calli

[Rojzen]

brave to say Nope, not particularly likely

I'm with Lucy on this. . .I would need to see some serious studies establishing depression as a cause of DES before I accepted the linkage in that direction. . .

On the other hand, there HAVE actually been some studies that point to DES as a powerful cause of depression in a substantial per centage of those afflicted with DES. . .The first study of this sort that I spotted, about 8 years ago, indicated that the DES population studied featured quite serious forms of depression, at times. . .

As cautious as I would be on this, it strikes me that if one believes that one's depression is contributing to DES, then that depression must absolutely be gotten under control, to the extent possible. . .This imperative is not less pressing if it is the DES that is causing the depression, instead. . .

Bottom line is that regardless of the answers to these questions of causation, all stigma attached to depression (and to anything caused by it) needs to disappear in this world. . .What a blessing that here at DEZ, there don't seem to be any traces of the stigma. . .As always, suffering forges truly sublime bonds...

[Lucy]

Indeed, it matters not so much the cause as to find the cure for a particular person.

In other words, Lasik caused my initial dry eyes. But, so what? I only have available the same treatment as everyone else. It's sort of like trying to find out "why" our individual Lasik turned out bad. That's the best example I can think of. In the end, our energy is best tempered to finding what might work, not looking at why.

No one touched this post until I did and I felt like I was winging it! It took less than 10 seconds after my post for two others to post! I hope we have helped Tribal.

[TRiBaL]

well i usually im always looking in the mirror at my eyes and stressing over it well i stop looking into the mirror and my stress level went down and my eyes felt better

sooo UMM i dont know if thats the cause haha

[Lucy]

There you have it Tribal--don't look in the mirror! No mirror, no stress.
Cover all the mirrors in your house.
Lucy

[Francesco]

right...Tribal ...i'm 23 ..and have red eyes since 16 - 17...in the first years i was almost obsessed by mirrors ...everytime i watched my eyes i was very sad...now i look at my eyes just a couple of times during the day...it's better like this to have less stress; ....i just trust my new doctor (Latkany) now and hope that something will change ...like he says: there is always hope. so don't worry everything will be fine for your too god bless you


p.s. i think stress is not so good for eyes since you get tired faster and so they get more dry ...i'm sure that if now i was in a nice suite in Hawaii my eyes would be better !

[stella]

I once asked an eye doc that same question and he said yes - that DE was stress -related (one causal factor only )
Certainly having the condition makes you stressed and depressed
So it is a vicious circle - You are stressed and depressed and that makes your DE worse which then causes you more stress and depression.
To break the circle you need anti depressants which in turn make your DE worse (I think some antidepressants are less drying than others ) also there are other ways of dealing with stress eg yoga ,relaxation ,coignative behavioral therapy ,prayer ,meditation,better life style choices ,excercise, - depends whats causing he stress

[Rojzen]

antidepressants dry only at a relatively low frequency

Just needed to chime in that in actuality, the per centage of people who take antidepressants, and who experience dry mouth, is quite low, if you check the Adverse Reactions section of the antidepressant monographs. . .Drying of eyes is so rarely reported, moreover, that it is not usually even listed among the possible side-effects of an antidepressant. . .

That said, whether one will get dry from an antidepressant is completely unpredictable, and so to avoid antidepressants solely because one has a TINY chance of getting dryer in the eyes doesn't make good sense to me. . .ESPECIALLY since one needs only stop the antidepressant, in order to restore moisture, if any has been lost (The same cannot be said of Accutane, the skin drug, which CAN cause permanent dry eye.)

Not to mention that the type of antidepressant bears directly on whether it has the potential to affect the systems that regulate secretory, exocrine glands. . .I believe, for example, that the tricyclics, like amitriptyline, have a higher likelihood of drying than do the SSRIs. . .

AND YET: I tried Zoloft (an SSRI) once, and experienced severe drying from it; I later took amitriptyline, for several years, and not only did it NOT dry my eyes, it actually seemed to help my meibomian function, and essentially eliminated all my eye burning pain. . .

Anyway: Under the supervision of a good prescribing doc, those of us unable to kick depression through yoga and other holistic therapies may do just fabulously with the RIGHT medication.. .The choices of these, today, are enormous. . .

[stella]

Thanks for that post Rojzen- ---
did'nt mean to give us all no hope of using antidepressants.I used them myself before i had DE ,but kind of ruled them out now i have DE - your post makes them a possibility-
My mood has lifted for the moment with the use of an HRT which has a weak androgen in it which hopefully will help my DE
I am aware my present attempt at a solution can only be tried by a small % of DE sufferers - namely peri/post menapausal women
Cheers
Stella

[TRiBaL]

This is really and truly weird it seems as if I stay happy and stress free my eye pain slowly goes away, and I even tear more. I don't know this is crazy...

[Lucy]

My mood has lifted for the moment with the use of an HRT which has a weak androgen in it which hopefully will help my DE

For different health reasons, I had to stop HRT therapy (after many years) cold turkey. This was several months ago and I do not notice any difference in my eyes. I noticed some difference in "other things" but the eyes, no.

Lucy

[stella]

Thats interesting Lucy
I'm giving it a go for 3 months- I had all the classic symptoms of menapause when i stopped estrogen only HRT, so for that reason alone i restarted -this time on tibolone(livial) which is unique here in GB 'cos it is a precursor of estrogen/progestrogen + a weak androgen.
I actually thought it was helping ( unless i am having a bit of a remission ) ,'cos i was able to stop the doxy after being on it 5 months .
DE is SUCH a a hard thing to analyse - I mean which treatments actually help and which factors actually make it worse
Thats why it is sooo hard to treat - no one seems to be able to get a handle on it--- SO FRUSTRATING!!!