Can Stress Cause Dry Eyes

Intestinal Or Metabolic Disorders

Several conditions affect the intestines and your digestion that could result in problems like chronic diarrhea. Inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome can cause chronic diarrhea. Microscopic colitis can cause chronic diarrhea that can subsequently lead to ongoing dehydration. When this happens, you could experience dryness of all kinds, including in your eyes and mouth.

Stressed Out How Stress Affects Your Eyes

If youre going through a busy patch in your life, you may be feeling the effects of stress. Maybe youre grouchy, tired, and on edge, or maybe you constantly crave comforting foods, no matter how unhealthy they are.

However, did you know that stress can also affect your eyes? During this difficult time when your life feels much too busy or difficult, your eyes can pay a price like the rest of your body does. Learn what eye symptoms can result from too much stress and what to do about them.

Keep An Eye On Your Eating Habits

Stress and anxiety can sometimes increase your appetite as you turn to food for comfort. However, these cravings for sugary, carb-heavy foods can be problematic as Marianna discusses in her blog, 7 suggestions for changing stressful eating habits.

Your eyes certainly wont thank you for binging on these types of foods either which is why you should try to maintain a balanced diet full of lean protein, antioxidant-rich fruit and veg and healthy fats. Its also important you look at what youre drinking too dehydration can definitely impact your mood and energy levels so make sure youre drinking plenty of plain water, at least 1.5-2 litres a day.

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Can Anxiety Make Your Vision Blurred

Blurred vision is defined as a loss of focus and sharpness in ones eyesight that makes it difficult to see objects clearly.

Blurred vision is most often associated with nearsighted or farsighted vision and is commonly treated with corrective lenses. But there are other underlying causes of blurry vision that have nothing to do with the strength of your eyes.

Although anxiety isnt a common cause of blurred vision, there may be some link between anxiety and blurry vision. In order to understand why anxiety might cause blurred vision, its important to first understand what happens in the body when you become anxious.

When you become anxious, a response known as the fight, flight, or freeze response kicks in.

During this response, the body undergoes a variety of physiological changes due to the release of two primary stress hormones, adrenaline, and cortisol. These stress hormones cause you to experience changes in blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, and more.

Generally, your vision actually becomes sharper when youre anxious rather than blurrier. This is because the stress response improves your vision to help you more easily identify threats.

But there may be a few reasons why some people experience blurred vision when anxious. When your stress response kicks in, your heart starts to race, your blood pressure rises, and your movement can become quicker as you scan for threats.

Other symptoms of long-term anxiety may be indirectly linked to changes in vision.

Hormones And Aging Changes

Hormones such as androgens, glucagon, and corticotrophin all affect tear production. Cells that secrete mucus to help build a healthy tear film do not have nerves connected to them. They rely on hormonal communication with the rest of the body. When hormonal changes occur in postmenopausal women, for example, these cells may not get turned on to secrete the right amount of mucus and a dry eye condition occurs.

This can also occur in women who use hormone replacement therapy and hormone-based birth control. Proteins that help make up the tear film are also known to decline as we get older. In addition, the volume of tears produced grows smaller. Furthermore, certain natural antibiotics and oxidative damage control proteins decline, creating an imbalance in the tear structure and dry eyes.

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What Causes Dry Eyes

Sometimes, there’s a lack of balance in your tear-flow system. Or your air conditioner, heater, or other things around you could dry out your tear film. Other causes include:

• The natural aging process, especially menopause
• Side effects of certain drugs like antihistamines
• Diseases that affect your ability to make tears, like Sjogren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and collagen vascular diseases
• Problems that donât allow your eyelids to close the way they should

What Is The Treatment Of Eye Problems Related To Stress And Anxiety

Mental Rest is one of the best ways to reduce the effects of eye problems due to stress and anxiety.

Notice that I didnt say rest? Thats because people dealing with high-levels of anxiety can sometimes sleep all they want and it doesnt alleviate the issues they are facing.

So rather than just sleep , focus on activities that recharge you particularly.

Maybe you are busy with kids, parenting, school, work, career, obligations and the like.

Look I dont have to tell you that life can be stressful, but the only one in charge of your care is you. You have to get clear on what recharges your batteries and create a plan to live that way.

My husband likes nature. He plans to get out in nature every Friday even if it is only for a few hours. My workout time is precious to me.

Find what fills your tank and go for it. Take a vacation even if it is only for 2 hours.

If you are even reading this, then chances are you could use and deserve a little R& R . But one of the things that people who are stressed or who experience anxiety do is worry about what will happen if they take time off.

So how do you stop worrying about what might happen or not get something done? One of the best ways to deal with this is the brain dump.

Simply write out everything that you have to get done. Sit with a paper and a pencil. Once you get the ideas out of your head and onto a sheet of paper, you will not only feel better, you will have the ability to start prioritizing the tasks on the paper.

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Treatment For Dry Mouth And Eyes

Treatment for dry mouth and dry eyes can be relieved with hydration, by drinking fluids or using eye drops. However, this really only helps when dry eyes and mouth are isolated problems. If they are symptoms of a bigger issue like Sjögrens syndrome treating the underlying condition is key, but symptom relief can still help.

Study Design And Population

This is a cross-sectional study that included 566 paramedical workers including nurse and medical technicians at Kangwon National University Hospital in Korea.

Only workers who fully understood the nature of the survey and agreed to participate were included. Exclusion criteria included active ocular surface inflammation, such as, infectious keratitis, infectious or allergic conjunctivitis, glaucoma, connective tissue disorders, history of ocular trauma, history of ocular surgery other than refractive surgery, systemic vasculitis.

Every participant was contacted by trained interviewers and requested to fill out a survey that comprises three categories of questions, as follows: questions regarding dry eye symptoms, questions about demographic data and potential risk factors of DED and questions regarding psychological stress.

First, a Dry Eye Questionnaire was administered. The DEQ, which consisted of 9 questions pertaining to dry eye symptoms, was generated by modifying dry eye symptom questions suggested in the literature ,,. Each participant was asked to indicate whether each of the 9 symptoms related to DED was experienced rarely, sometimes, often, or all the time. The diagnosis of DED was made when a participant reported to have 1 or more symptoms often or all the time during the past 2 weeks.

Table 1 Questionnaire for dry eye symptoms in the present study.

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How To Treat Dermatitis Around Your Eyes

Depending on how bad symptoms are, dermatitis can both be challenging to treat. Creams, ointments, and dietary changes can all be prescribed depending on your circumstances.

If youre dealing with an eczema flare-up that is limited to your eye area and isnt causing any swelling, or weeping wounds, then some basic TLC could be sufficient. Given how sensitive your skin is in that area, and its proximity to your eyes, an emollient cream could be the best starting point.

Whether youre dealing with atopic dermatitis or contact dermatitis, look for a scent-free moisturizer. We love La Roche-Posay Toleriane Ultra Eye Cream. Its specially formulated for eczema-prone skin and contains water from a French water source renowned for treating dermatitis and other skin conditions.

How Do You Treat Dry Skin Around The Eyes

Ultimately the best treatment for your dry skin will depend on the root cause of the irritation. There are tried and tested ways to treat each of the reasons for rashes around your eyes that we mentioned above. But before we go into those, we want to share some general advice for looking after your eye area.

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What Are Common Stress

Most stress-caused eye issues are temporaryif you have a consistent issue with your eyes, no matter whats going on in your life, the problem is likely with your eyes instead of your stress level. Make sure to see an eye doctor if you have persistent eye trouble.

But when you have a massive deadline or your children all get sick at the same time, you may notice these problems:

• Tunnel vision. You may lose some of your peripheral vision and feel like you can only see straight in front of you.
• Sensitivity to light. You may feel like bright light hurts your eyes or makes it difficult for you to see.
• Eye twitching. Maybe one, or both, of your eyes will randomly spasm.
• Very dry or very wet eyes. While these are opposite symptoms, either one can be caused by stress. It all depends on how your body responds to a difficult situation.
• Blurry vision. When caused by stress, blurry vision will probably be mild instead of severe.
• Eye strain. Eye strain may be caused by something simple, like staring at your computer screen too long at work. However, it can also be caused by stress.
• Eye floaters. Eye floaters are tiny spots that swim across your vision.

These symptoms are usually not terribleyou can live with them without seeing an eye doctor. The problems are more annoying than debilitating. However, if they last a long time or are very uncomfortable, you should still see a professional just in case.

Ways To Ease Your Stress

Since stress is practically a given in our lives, learning how to reduce its effects on our bodies, minds and our eyes is paramount.

Some of the most basic steps to reduce stress are simple and cost little or nothing.

Exercising, getting a full eight hours of sleep at night, eating a healthy diet, spending more time outdoors and meditation are great ways to relieve stress, Horn advises.

Other approaches like deep breathing exercises, stress management training, talk therapy and meditation are recommended to slow the progression of vision loss.

If these approaches dont work and stress-related vision symptoms persist, see your eye doctor for immediate attention. Detecting and treating problems early can help maintain good vision for the rest of your life, Horn says.

Schedule an exam

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When To See Your Doctor

While dry eyes are usually temporary and treatable, the symptom can become chronic. Ongoing dryness can cause inflammation and possibly permanent damage to the surface of your eye. If you can’t get your dry eyes to clear up, see a doctor to help you figure out what’s going on. You may need to see a specialist.

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What Causes Dry Skin Around The Eyes And Eyelids

Causes for dry skin in your eye area are varied, but weve broken down a few of the most common ones below. A quick trip to a pharmacist, primary care doctor, or dermatologist is the best way to get a correct diagnosis. Knowing the cause of your rash is essential for treating it quickly and efficiently, so its worth checking in for some professional advice.

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The Causes Of Vision Issues From Anxiety

Sore eyes may not seem like it should be an anxiety symptom. But there are literally hundreds of anxiety symptoms that don’t seem to fall under the idea that people have of “anxiety.”

Anxiety doesn’t specifically make your eyes sore. What it does do is increase the likelihood of making your eyes stressed, which in turn leads to soreness. It can do this in any number of ways:

These are just a few of the ways that anxiety may cause eye soreness. Another thing to remember is that when you have anxiety, you’re also more prone to noticing every single discomfort you feel in your body. Your mind becomes so attuned to the way you feel that any soreness, even if it’s normal, is noticed immediately, and when you focus on these types of aches and pains it’s not uncommon for them to feel more severe than they normally would.

Since eye strain is pretty common these days, experiencing some eye soreness in your day to day life is common even if you don’t have anxiety. If you also are more sensitive to your soreness and discomfort, it’s going to feel far more severe.

The Way Stress Shows On Faces

Chronic stress can show on your face in two ways. First, the hormones that your body releases when you feel stress can lead to physiological changes that negatively impact your skin. Second, feeling stressed may also lead to bad habits such as grinding your teeth or biting your lips.

Read on to learn more about the specific ways stress may show on your face.

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Ways To Reduce Stress

Taking some time to unwind is vitally important if youre feelingstressed out. Consider deep breathing routines, exercise, yoga or meditation asways to relieve stress in your life. Moreover, you can try and isolate theproblem that is causing you stress and if possible, try to resolve thatproblem. Other ways to destress include:

• Taking a warm bath, preferably with Epsom salts
• Going for a walk

How Theralife Can Help

1. TheraLife® Eye Enhanced -contains a blend of herbal extracts, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that help increase micro-circulation to ocular tissue, improve tear quality, and maintain healthy function of the lens and retina of the eye. This formula is optimized to bring accelerated relief for dry eye discomfort. It has been clinically shown to stimulate tear secretion glands intra-cellularly to allow you to produce balanced, natural tears from your own eyes. It works from the inside out so that the tear secretion is sustainable throughout the day. TheraLife® Eye Enhanced works without washing away the valuable mucin, lipids, and protein components that lubricate the eye unlike eye drops applied to the eyes surface, which can actually strip the eyes of its healthy, natural substances.

2. TheraLife Omega 3 Fish Oil contains strong anti-oxidants to combat inflammation and thicken tears. 100% Pure, Save and Effective.

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Two Studies Link Psychology With Physiology

Stress can put a whammy on your health, including manifesting into physical conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity and cardiovascular issues, to name a few. But two new studies have found that stress can also exacerbate dry eye.1,2

A recent study in Cornea foundsleep quality may play an important role in the development of dry eye by influencing tear secretion and tear film stability and by also indirectly aggravating anxiety and depression.1

In this Chinese-based study, investigators performed tear film break-up time , corneal fluorescein staining and Schirmer I tests to evaluate dry eye in 106 patients. Subjects also completed a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, a patient health questionnaire and a general anxiety disorder scale survey.1

The study found patients with dry eye had higher depression and anxiety scores compared with the control group. In the dry eye group, patients with poor sleep quality had more severe symptoms indicated by shorter TBUT and lower Schirmer I findings. Investigators found a significant correlation between sleep quality and mood status in patients with dry eye. Additionally, investigators reported severe symptoms of dry eye were significantly associated with a higher level of anxiety in patients with dry eye.1

A second study, in Eye & Contact Lens, that evaluated the prevalence and risk factors of dry eye among medical students in Korea found a correlation between increased psychological stress and dry eye symptoms.2

Painful Eyes Stress And Anxiety Producing Eye Pain

Often this can be part of an overall sense of tension. If your eyes are painful and you are stressed, accept that is just what you are experiencing for the moment.

You may also need to think about hydration especially if your eyes are dry and burn. Think about what you have had to drink for the last 24 hours. Alcohol and caffeine can further dehydrate you resulting in your experiencing dry eyes.

You may have a headache, however, if you have painful eyes, a headache, demonstrate slurred speech or are moving slower than normal, you may want to get checked for a TBI like a concussion.

Typically, you will know if you have hit your head, but when my husband was a kid, he used to fall out of his bunk bed and wake up on the floor, so you will want to make sure you havent inadvertently done something, of which you are unaware.

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