# Myopia and other eyesight problems



## ApprovalAddict (Jul 1, 2010)

I am wondering how many people on this forum has any eyesight problems especially myopia. I have. Actually I used to have because now I am relearning to see , aka restoring my eyesight through the Bates Method. I 
I am asking this because I suspect that Social Anxiety always involves chronic tension, namely mental tension and the latter, according to Bates and from my experience is the main cause of myopia and other vision problems. 
Of course not everyone that is nearsighted suffers from chronic social anxiety, because the nature and origins of mental tension are different,but I am very inclined to suspect that the vice versa might be true - namely that most of the people that are inflicted with chronic social anxiety do have some form of myopia in a lesser or stronger degree, or astigmatism, or or other eye problem. 
Your thoughts, observations?

p.s. There is also a poll thread where you can vote. It is here : http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/forum/f36/do-you-have-myopia-or-other-vision-problmes-93789/


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

I'm myopic due to an astigmatism. I believe mine is due to genetics, seeing as my mother and siblings have it too. Also, my mother has SA, but my siblings don't.


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## ApprovalAddict (Jul 1, 2010)

This "genetics" which you mention as the cause, might very well be you imitating your mom's mental atitude of chronic tension.

Plus 2

Anyone else?


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## ApprovalAddict (Jul 1, 2010)

LaRibbon said:


> I have myopia and astigmatism and first had glasses at 5 years old. You may be right that stress can somehow contribute to vision impairment, but many people are stressed and don't get vision probs. In my case the genetic component is strong because many of my family members on my mum's side are short sighted to. Hate to burst your bubble, but there is no conclusive evidence that eye training techniques like the Bates method works at all. You need glasses, or contacts or lasik surgery.


I didn't say everybody who has stress will have vision problems, it was not my point. What I meant is that people that suffer from acute chronic social anxieties like most from this forum are much more likely to be develop myopia or other eye problems. The best conclusive evidence that you need is your own after you would have demonstrated it to yourself and of others' testimonies.

Anyhow, plus 3!


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## ApprovalAddict (Jul 1, 2010)

I understand your point but how can I do a poll on this site?

I don't think genetic has much to with myopia, at most it can be said that it somehow makes people liable to it, but certainly doesn't cause it. In relation to myopia, "Genetics" with which myopia is explained by mainstream ophtalmologists is just children "inheriting" their parents' bad mental habits, that is mental strain but it is not necessarily so all the time - people can develop myopia without their parents being myopic. 

Anyway, I'm not here to prove it to you. Moreover, I am still not completely cured of myopia and that is because I haven't overcome my social anxiety problems yet.


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

ApprovalAddict said:


> This "genetics" which you mention as the cause, might very well be you imitating your mom's mental atitude of chronic tension.
> 
> Plus 2
> 
> Anyone else?


I totally disagree. As I said, my siblings are myopic with astigmatism and don't have SA. And why not hyperopia too?


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## steelmyhead (May 31, 2009)

I have severe myopia and a mild astigmatism. Developed from an early age. I don't think it's directly related to social anxiety. My personal hypothesis is that it's a matter of poor, or erratic muscle control, which may in turn lead to the development of a personality defect given the proper environment.


How to make a poll

Post the poll in here so more people will see it.


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## ApprovalAddict (Jul 1, 2010)

Neptunus said:


> I totally disagree. As I said, my siblings are myopic with astigmatism and don't have SA. And why not hyperopia too?


I'm myopic due to an astigmatism. I believe mine is due to genetics, seeing as my mother and siblings have it too. Also, my mother has SA, but my siblings don't. 
__________________

Neptunus, first of all I didn't linked SA with myopia or other eye problems as an absolute rule. I just said that in SA , due to the chronic mental tension associated with it, might cause myopia much more frequently than people without SA. Secondly, myopia and other eye problems can develop from other types of mental tension other that which is very often present in SA.

So, as a conclusion:
Myopia is not necessarily caused by SA only (but could very be caused by other types of mental tension) and also SA doesn't necessarily cause myopia or other eye problems (because I don't have any statistics to say conclusively that it does, but I tend to suspect that it is true in many cases)

I hope I made my point clear.


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## ApprovalAddict (Jul 1, 2010)

steelmyhead, thank you for your help.


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## BuzzAldrin (Jun 20, 2010)

I have Myopia. :|


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## sparky10 (Dec 30, 2008)

I have had social anxiety ever since i can remember and my
myopia has gradually got worse over the years.
This was until i has my eyes lasered nearly two years ago which
made my eyes better than 20/20 vision.
The big problem is this has directly caused my social anxiety to become
severe and affected my life considerably. 
This is another point of view on how your eyes can affect you as a person
and how you perceive the world.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Have worn contacts since age 11.

Right eye: -4.25 (no astigmatism), corrected to 20/15

Left eye: -3.75 (-0.75 astigmatism not corrected as toric lens cost twice as much and are less comfortable), correct to 20/25

20/20 with both eyes, though right eye is dominant and one will never notice the difference without covering one eye then the other to find the R is definitely a bit clearing with tiny print at a distance.


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## ApprovalAddict (Jul 1, 2010)

sparky10 said:


> The big problem is this has directly caused my social anxiety to become
> severe and affected my life considerably.
> This is another point of view on how your eyes can affect you as a person
> and how you perceive the world.


You mean that you anxiety got worse after you did the lasik surgery?
Interesting.


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## sparky10 (Dec 30, 2008)

Yeah now that my eyes are better than 20\20 it has really
made my social anxiety so much worse.
I have ideas why this might be the case. unfortunately in the time since i
had it done nothing has improved the anxiety and
i have tried everything!


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## thewall (Feb 1, 2009)

I have strabismus and amblyopia, AKA lazy eye. I had surgery to correct in when I was 10 months old, but my eyes still wander off to the side a bit and I've had some people insensitive pricks make comments about it. It makes it difficult for me to make eye contact with people because I don't want them to notice it.


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## defoe (Jan 31, 2010)

I have Myopia
I can only see about 20%, and yet i never wear my glasses


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## GoldenGray (Mar 22, 2009)

I have a theory that my bad eyesight is due to my social anxiety, because I spend so many hours staring at the computer screen and scrolling through online forums.


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## timmytim7 (Feb 15, 2009)

hi all,

i have keratoconus (a degenerative corneal disease). i think maybe eye sight problems has contributed to low self esteem and depression. it has affected me at work and studying. i can't really say that it has caused sa or depression though, but it certainly hasn't helped me in life. people have to cope with much worse though.

i can't see people's face from distance, so i seem to gaze through or beyond them. maybe they think i'm rude or something???!!!! i can often miss identify people or just not see them at all.

anyway.... plenty of people with terrible visual impairment have active social lives, so it's not like anyone can use it as an 'excuse' or whatever...


tim


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## blissful (Jul 23, 2010)

I am myopic. My eyes are quite well into the negatives. It's bad. I don't think the stress of social anxiety made me myopic. I have bad eyesight because I used sit right in front of the TV and watch it often. Now it's internet. I don't glue my eyes to the screen anymore. I just use it too much. If I didn't have social anxiety, I would be more outgoing and hang out with friends. Then, I wouldn't be sitting at home like this. So yes, in a way, my myopia is caused by social anxiety.


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## mkp1974 (Jul 18, 2009)

I have 20/70 myopia with astigmatism. I wear glasses and I hate them. Can't afford contacts being all broke and jobless. I have the book "relearning to see" about the Bates method too. Something tells me that myopia and other eyesight problems are reversible. Our vision is the most important sense to us humans and it doesn't make sense that so many of us get vision problems that are not correctable so early in life. I have tried to go without glasses though and have attempted to use the Bates method and haven't had any improvement in my sight.


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## rjgracie (Jan 20, 2011)

Hey I started noticing social anxiety when I was 13, and that same year I also got my first pair of glasses. Im 20 now, took me 7yrs to get the courage to go to a doctor, but I went because it started getting drastically worse within the last year in a half, and I've also noticed my eyesight chaging again, so I kind of think they could be linked too. 

I think back, and remember that growing up that I always had my head down, and my vision focused on close objects because I didn't want anyone to notice me. Within this last year I got a new job at a bank, and I need to be social, but its just too hard, I've noticed that im starting to focus on close objects again and I can tell my visions getting worse.

I don't know if my case is similar to yours, but I believe nearsightedness is linked to anxiety. I don't think I would have ever needed glasses if I never developed the disorder.


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## Diacetylmorphine (Mar 9, 2011)

I have Myopia and I hate it. I've had glasses since 20, that I wear during lectures/class.

I used to have 20/20 Vision less than 4 years ago, I suspect sitting around after high school doing nothing on the computer contributed to it developing.


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

My myopia is on the borderline between moderate and severe. Contact lens prescription is -5.75/-6.5. I've been wearing glasses since I was 10 and contact lenses since I was 18. I still use glasses much of the time when I'm at home. I never, EVER go without glasses or contacts. Most of the time even when I go to take a leak in the middle of the night, I put on my glasses. I've had social anxiety since I was at least 5 years old. 

My hunch is that in order to become myopic, first you have to have a genetic predisposition to it and as a child you had to have done lots of close-up work or reading. I read a lot as a kid and my mom wore thick glasses, as well as my paternal aunt.


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## GenoWhirl (Apr 16, 2011)

I probably have slight myopia in both my eyes since well they both have astigmatism, although the condition is worse in my left eye. Since the main symptom is blurred vision and many with astigmatism suffer from such, I assume I suffer from it as well. I really should wear my glasses more than I do.


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## Relz (Oct 31, 2011)

Myopia and astigmatism. (am I the only one who doesn't know her actual prescription by heart? )
I remember I started squinting a lot in 4th grade or so, but I hid it as long as I could. Finally got glasses at 12, didn't wear them until I was at least 16 (which was extremely dumb of me, it affected my academic performance very negatively).

I'm quite sure it's unrelated to my other problems, though, including SA.


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## offbyone (May 5, 2010)

Relz said:


> Myopia and astigmatism. (am I the only one who doesn't know her actual prescription by heart? )
> I remember I started squinting a lot in 4th grade or so, but I hid it as long as I could. Finally got glasses at 12, didn't wear them until I was at least 16 (which was extremely dumb of me, it affected my academic performance very negatively).
> 
> I'm quite sure it's unrelated to my other problems, though, including SA.


Haha, I don't know mine either and I've had them since I was 15 or 16. It did change recently but I still don't know it. 

Forgot to say I have an astigmatism too.


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## Lmatic3030 (Nov 3, 2011)

Relz said:


> Myopia and astigmatism. (am I the only one who doesn't know her actual prescription by heart? )
> I remember I started squinting a lot in 4th grade or so, but I hid it as long as I could. Finally got glasses at 12, didn't wear them until I was at least 16 (which was extremely dumb of me, it affected my academic performance very negatively).
> 
> I'm quite sure it's unrelated to my other problems, though, including SA.


I don't know mine either lol. The only time I look at it is when I buy new glasses

I didn't get glasses until I was 14 but I started having problems with my vision around 4th or 5th grade. I would guess it has mostly to do with genetics but I guess other environmental factors could have played a part idk.


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## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

Yes. I've been wearing glasses since I was 14.


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## skyreader (Jun 11, 2013)

I'm 23 years old male and i developed myopia when i was 15 years old . I have paruresis ( type of social phobia when the person have problems urinating when he doesn;t feel enought privacy) and at the time my paruresis became a big problem for me, and caused anxiety and stress - then i developed myopia for short period of time. Mental and emotional tension cause chronic muscle tensions in the body. When the person store mental tension in the extra-ocular muscles then vision problems appear. In the case of myopia tension is stored in the oblique extra-ocular muscles witch circle the eyeball like a belt and when they are too tense they squeeze the eyeball so it becomes elongated an the light rays fall before the retina. Also when the posture is not good, this is another reason for tension in the extra-ocular muscles and also for lousy states of mind witch create pshyhological tension. But it all startes with anxiety at the base. the posture is usually not good because of tension in the mind and negative emotional states. Improving vision can be fast , if sources of anxiety are elimated. Also this means much different and definitely more positive emotinal patterns.


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## maggiesmith (Nov 25, 2014)

I have Myopia.


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## Blue Sponge (Sep 22, 2014)

This is interesting. I have astigmatism and myopia. I started wearing glasses when I was three, because I was probably born with astigmatism. Then when I was twelve or so I developed myopia along with it. Would be interesting to see if there's any statistical correlation. Found this article here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0091651X.1967.10120413#preview


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## Canadian Brotha (Jan 23, 2009)

I'm myopic but I've never really felt there's a link between that & social anxiety. I've been fine with glasses from the get go & have never worn contacts or considered them


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## SRAustin (Nov 28, 2014)

This thread is interesting. My symptoms for social anxiety started when I was around four years old, but my vision was great back then. It was around the 7th grade when I started to notice my vision suddenly decreasing. I would always sit in the back of the classroom and when the teacher put something on the board, it would be blurry. Everyone else copied it down with ease, but I could hardly see it. So, I ended up sitting in my seat not doing my work because I couldn't see. This continued on for several years. I told my mom that I was having difficulty seeing but she didn't believe me. Both of my parents and all of my older siblings have vision problems. They considered me as the one with perfect vision, because I could see well close-up but they couldn't. Last year, I was sixteen and I went to the DMV to get my permit. I freaked out when I had to get the vision test, because I knew I would fail. They gave me a letter and told me to go to the eye doctor. I cried in the DMV because I felt like everyone was looking at me and my failed attempt to see. I went to the optometrist last December, which I had not visited since I was at least eight. They were surprised by how terribly near-sighted I am. I could barely see the big E at twenty feet away. I obviously had to get glasses. I have 20/200 vision uncorrected and 20/20 with glasses. Needless to say, I am very self-conscious now that I wear glasses. When I first went to school with glasses on, no one seemed to noticed. Most people assumed that I always wore glasses and just decided to start wearing them. When I am not wearing my glasses, everyone thinks that I'm wearing contacts. It just pisses me off. -.- 

To sum it up, I always assumed my myopia is because of my genetics. Yet, most of my family has an astigmatism. When I was little the optometrist said my vision was decent but whatever I had was what the opposite of what my siblings had. (This makes no sense because I have a brother who is just TERRIBLY nearsighted and nothing else.) I would really like to look further into this to see if there is any correlation. >.>


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