How Anxiety May Interfere with Your Eyes

Eye symptoms with anxiety are often very hard to handle. When something is wrong with your eyes you may feel dizzy or worry that there is a problem with your brain. Yet your eyes are often affected by anxiety symptoms, in ways that aren't always easy to understand.

This article will explore some of the eye symptoms of anxiety, discuss why they occur and what you can do to help with your anxiety.

The Symptoms of Anxiety Affected Eyes

Eye problems are not necessarily a common symptom of anxiety, but they're not rare either. Most eye symptoms are temporary – lasting no more than an hour, and usually much less. Any long term eye problems should be checked out by an eye doctor.

There are many different ways that anxiety can affect your eyes. The most common ways are:

• Eye pain and discomfort.
• Mildly blurred vision.
• Watery eyes.
• Light sensitivity.
• Eye floaters (spots that float across your eye).

These are all most common during periods of intense anxiety, and the most common time to experience intense anxiety is during a panic attack.

How Anxiety Affects the Eyes

When you suffer from intense anxiety, two things happen to your eyes. First, your pupils dilate. When your fight or flight system is activated, your pupils dilate to make it easier to see and make quick decisions (in a fight, you need to be able to see a threat coming). This is what causes issues like light sensitivity and eye aches.

You also experience a tightening of the muscles in your face. This may constrict the blood vessels to the eyes and cause further eye pain, aches, or even some blurred vision.