New glasses prescription

So Wednesday morning I was driving on the freeway feeling alright, speeding along, able to look over my shoulder to change lanes without feeling too dizzy or out of it.  Many time I notice my DR the most when driving. Thought to myself "Wow, this is the clearest I've felt driving in a looooooong time. This is going to be a good day!". Came home, listened to some music, did some work. Anxiety and DR still present but much lower than normal.

 

Then I went to pick up my new eyeglasses.

 

The prescription lenses had changed a bit in the past 4 years or whatever, but not that much. Got a new style of glasses than my old ones, much bigger lenses. For the past 3 1/2 days I've felt terrible wearing them. Everything is nice and clear but a terrible boaty feeling and just cannot adjust to the depth perception. All kinds of other symptoms flared up for a terrible wave again. I don't know if it's from messing around trying to adjust to these glasses or if it was coming no matter what. So annoying, as always. Now not only do I have lots of tinnitus that goes back and forth from left ear to right, but sometimes no tinnitus and not really hearing out of one ear or the other. Is that benzo w/d, having your hearing nearly vanish on one side then the other? And the fatigue came back really badly the past couple days. My legs and body haven't felt so tired since acute w/d was ending. Damn fatigue! Oh yeah, that stupid shakiness is back as well.

 

Is it possible that my brain trying to adjust to these new glasses has screwed me up? Man, I feel ok sometimes if I sit still with nobody around, no noise or stress, etc.... Then the slightest thing like cold air or any type of excitement makes my symptoms spike up right away. I didn't know I could be so sensitive to almost everything? Feels like a whole different stage of withdrawal being super duper sensitive, but able to recover after a few hours somewhat. And now I don't know if the boaty feeling is from the damn glasses or if it's just a wave of DR. This sucks, but I'll get through it and feel even better when it ends.

Hi Inna-

 

When I saw the subject of your post I just had to weigh in. My eyesight has gotten so much worse in the last year -I have no idea if benzo w/d has anything to do with it but I just ordered new glasses last Tues. Jees, now I can't wait to get them and try them out .

I do think eyes and ears are tremendously affected by benzo w/d. I don't have tinnitus but I've had fluctuating vision changes and very unusual ear sensations that come and go. Mostly going now as I get further along.

Been to my doc and there's no physiological basis for this. The way I'm choosing to view these changing symptoms is that they are speeding up the healing process.

 

Rosa

I'm sure your new glasses transition will be much smoother than mine Rosa!

 

Early in w/d my vision was all messed up. Over the months it has gotten back close to what it was. I took my eye exam on a day that was fairly calm symptom-wise. Now with these new glasses I can read all the letter and see things much clearer, so it's great having the new ones for that. But man moving around and walking and looking up and down, etc... is really dicey right now. I searched google for how long it can take to adjust and sometimes it can be a week or even two. Keep that in mind if you are still not adjusted after a few days. Hope are doing well and having a great evening Rosa! 

That's so interesting. During my recovery I completely stopped wearing my glasses, which I am supposed to wear everyday, because I hated having something on my face and it made my dissociation feel worse somehow... I ket taking them off thinking it was the glasses and I gave up all together on them. I think our perceptions are so screwy already that adding a new perspective, so to speak, with the glasses is a big adjustment. I do think you will settle into them, but it may take longer than you'd like. Oy!

Probably not a bad idea to just forget the glasses while recovering. I'm sure you will be able to adjust easily later on. For me I had no choice. I fell for the fancy glasses that break easily when I purchased several years ago. The lenses have no frame on the bottom, only fishing line along the bottom edge of the lens to hold them in. The screws that hold the arms on held fine, but the metal part that attaches to the glasses broke off both arms. I've popped those lenses in and super-glued the arms on so many times the past 3 years! They looked horrid and were just trash.

 

This time I said the hell with it and chose a thick plastic frame. They look like safety glasses, but at least they wont fall apart 

I love the thick plastic frames I'm sure you look fantabulous.

Can you see me now? 

If looking like Mike Mothersbaugh from Devo is fantabulous, then yes I do!

 

And I have loved Devo since I was a child.

 

Let's all enjoy some Devo! 

Can you see me now? 

 

Indeed I can, but you just keep moving nearer and farther.

 

Of course my benzo brain read this and the first thing I thought of was that Verizon guy, but then that is "hear" and not "see"...... 

LOL - I was trying to BE the Verizon guy, only for glasses. Clever you!! 

LOL - I was raying to BE the Verizon guy, only for glasses. Clever you!! 

 

Ugh. I'm not so quick on the uptake these days NewMoon   But I got it in a roundabout way!

 

 

this is so interesting indeed.

i think its the gabaas in the iris and our eyes are all messed up. during my tolerance

years my vision got so bad that i needed glases. its the age i was told.

now i know it wasn't the damn age , it was the benzo crap binding  on the gabaas in the iris.

now at over 12 months off, its really annoying.

i put the glases on and i can see ok, after 20 minutes i have to take them off again and

now my vision is back to normal without the glases.

1/2 later , boom, i have to put them back on again and so it continues all day,

like a stupid game.

 

you know Innadaze , once i am healed , i have got the feeling i won't need

any glases at all and i think your vision will change again as well. 

Sorry to hear you're having a tough time Daze. I too went through this early in withdrawal, as I had my prescription change. I short, it's another stress or uncertainty. I told my optometrist about benzo withdrawal, and also went in to see an opthomologist. Everything checked out.

 

In short, it passed. I practised my vestibular exercises daily and things got better.  Here is a link to the exercises that worked for me.

 

http://www.umc.edu/uploadedFiles/UMCedu/Content/Education/Schools/Medicine/Clinical_Science/Otolaryngology__Communicative_Sciences/Handouts/VestibularExercise.pdf

 

Give it a week or two and things will pass. Our systems are so fragile while in withdrawal it doesn't take much to screw things up.

 

Similarly I had the ear issues too. Went to see an audiologist. Guess what?  Everything checked out fine. I told the audiologist that I was in benzo withdrawal and she felt that was the causes of my issues. For me this was at the end of September and early October, so at about six months into withdrawal.

 

It sounds like you're in another wave of withdrawal that may have been revved up by the change of ur specs.

 

I hope you're feeling better soon!

Hello Morreweg! How have you been doing lately? Hope you have had some nice windows and good healing. That would be something if in the end you don't need glasses at all. I've had them my whole life but never took so long to adjust to a new pair.

 

Svenhoak - Has your wave from the last week or so passed? How is the hunting going?

 

Thank you for the link to the exercises, will have to try them out. Good to hear that this should pass and I'll adjust and get back on with feeling a little better and healing. The ear stuff is so odd, it changes each day from ear to ear be it ringing or just muted or feeling plugged, etc.....

 

The withdrawal continues to drag on and on and on and on.  Good thing is I was able to function at my son's birthday party for 6 or 7 hours yesterday even being my worst day for symptoms in a month or more.  I sure hope that wave passed for you and I'll be right behind at that higher baseline 

This wave comes and goes with intensity Daze. I must be feeling a bit better if I'm going hunting in this weather though. Thanks for asking. Today is the final day of the season, and it looks like I will be eating deer tag soup this winter. We got two of our three tags filled. It would have been nice if we got one more.

 

I find the DR to be really severe with this wave. My head pressure went away yesterday, so that was a first!  Actually broke through the cog fog too.

 

As with most of our withdrawal symptoms, the more we are afraid of them, the worse they get. This is where the vestibular exercises come in. They work as an anxiety exposure in that when you generate the symptoms of dizziness and ear discomfort your fear of them goes away. Once you are no longer afraid, the symptom loses it's power over you and goes away.

 

We must be close to the end of this long tunnel already!

 

Take care my friend.

OK Svenhoak, 2 is better than nothing I guess 

 

It must be a great relief to get a break from head pressure and cog fog, maybe those will be gone for good this time! I try to keep my fear and worry about symptoms low, and just let them wash over me and do what they will. But for the first few hours when you can feel them building back up by the minute (like right now) I forget every single time to relax. Instead my mind starts thinking "oh, here it comes again. it will never go away. i'm never going to get better". So I have to shut those bad thoughts down again and remind myself that it has eased up every single time, even though we don't know when the wave will go away. It would be so much easier to ride it out if we could know how long a wave will last 

 

Hope you keep feeling better and better 

I have been going through the same thing.my new glasses caused my head pressure to get  worse. I went to a different eye doctor and he is slowly putting back into contacts. So far so good no headaches

Thank you Angel. Good to have this info. I will keep trying for a couple weeks and maybe if the wave goes down see how everything is. I don't like having more than one factor at a time to figure out what is going on. Hope the contacts work out great for you!