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Anyone has vision just like when you're drunk?

Messages
25
One of my worst symptoms is a vision like you have when you're drunk It's kind of like I'm looking through a glass or a veil put in front of my eyes. I see things but don't comprehend what is seen. If I try to read something I can stare at sentence and don't comprehend meaning. It's especially very bad when I'm driving when there's
alot of information that brain has to process, or going to a store with lots of items on shelves. It also gets alot worse when lights are turned on all objects look kind of "different".
 

1gooddog

Senior Member
Messages
201
Location
Olympic Peninsula, WA
This has been a serious problem for me since 2012. One morning I got out of bed and staggered. I was so dizzy I could barely walk. I became nauseous and was bed ridden for two days. I couldn't focus at all. I was hospitalized and while there I realized I had extreme double vision, as in seeing two distinct objects with one positioned horizontally over the other. I won't go into detail concerning all the ensuing years of doctors visits.

I didn't drive for 6 months. It subsided, then a few years later while driving 65+ on a two lane highway I was suddenly struck with the same thing, only this time it felt like a severe twitch in my eye. Got myself to ER. For weeks I had what felt like a twitch, but the docs couldn't see anything. I also had a loud thumping in my ear. Then I realized one day my left eyelid was actually rippling.

Two different drugs used as muscle relaxers seemed to help. Docs now think I had a stroke, however this occasionally visits the other eye. A neuro ophthalmologist diagnosed damage to a major muscle in left eye, which is the worst. I was unable to drive in early 2017. I am now having severe episodes of CFS and have been bedridden for most of 2018. Some mornings when I put on my glasses (with prisms), my left eye does not want to join the party for several hours.

I take Lorazepam when I know I will have to drive. Or when I need to focus. At times I feel like I am not wearing my own glasses. I have severe balance issues anyway, then add the eye issues to that and everything else that is going on. Just one of many, many issues to deal with.
 
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Messages
30
Yes I have this symptom and it stinks . It's one of the many symptoms I have. Also my eyes lose focus easily I have to keep trying to readjust them. Vision is limited and feels like everything is a dream. I think that's what happens when the eyes are severely fatigued. Function gets reduced and produces these symptoms . Cognitition is Also reduced as a result of this.
 

1gooddog

Senior Member
Messages
201
Location
Olympic Peninsula, WA
Anything that has been listed as a "symptom", I have. It sucks. I believe it is not symptomatic, but a very real result from CFS. I have had to abandon driving for months at a time. I have rarely been out of the house. I turn my head and black out for split seconds coming round after catching myself as I start to go down.. I feel like my head is disconnected from my body, feeling like my head is floating. I am all but blind most evenings with the fatigue in my eyes. Then I have partial remission allowing for a somewhat "normal" lifestyle. The remissions are not short, and very incomplete.
 

1gooddog

Senior Member
Messages
201
Location
Olympic Peninsula, WA
I have all but given up reading books. I knit but that is a lot of strain and I can't remember what I just did, constantly referring back to instructions. This is a problem when I attempt to cook. Trouble reading recipies and even recalling how to make something I have made all my life.
 

Diwi9

Administrator
Messages
1,780
Location
USA
My visual problems are intermittent, but as follows:

- Cannot focus, especially when I first wake up
- Spacial problems when driving
- Stationary objects in my peripheral vision look like they are moving
 
Messages
25
I don't have problems with vision focus or having double vision. It's just like I'm looking through a glass or veil. Or when you're only slightly drunk or high, everything kind of gets slow motion. It especially gets worse when lights are turned on especially fluorescent lights everything gets even more off.

I don't know if this is only brain fog or something else? Would you describe your brain fog as if you're looking through a thick glass? I have been googling this symptoms but cannot find anything.

People are only talking about brain fog and being spaced out in regards to CFS.
 

1gooddog

Senior Member
Messages
201
Location
Olympic Peninsula, WA
My visual problems are intermittent, but as follows:

- Cannot focus, especially when I first wake up
- Spacial problems when driving
- Stationary objects in my peripheral vision look like they are moving

I believe the eye contains many muscles. They play into the fatigue. There are tiny muscles operating the pupil of the eye. By evening I can barely find the bathroom. That is my signal to give up and go to bed. Even though I have been lying and sitting in bed all day.

I have a tablet which I use for everything; computer too bulky to haul around and nowhere to put it. When I am in bed. I am a knitter and all my patterns are on the tablet. I recently started watching some Amazon programs and movies while I knit with tablet in lap. Currently addicted to Downton Abbey as I never saw it the first time around.

I can do a few chores in the morn - when I wake up on my own schedule. My husband "gets it", friends and relztives not only don't get it but have never heard of "it" which is so frustrating.
 

Diwi9

Administrator
Messages
1,780
Location
USA
I can do a few chores in the morn - when I wake up on my own schedule. My husband "gets it", friends and relztives not only don't get it but have never heard of "it" which is so frustrating.
This disease is frustrating, and the lack of understanding runs a close second. I used to run in a big circle of friends/acquaintances. Now I'm down to a few. It has taken a long time for these friends and my family to "get it." It is a moment of pure bliss when someone echoes true understanding.

At first I protected people from knowing all that was going on, because I was in very bad shape and could not handle the rejection. I'm in a better place and find that I just speak very matter-of-fact about my needs, this seems to be accepted and better understood...of course over time I have culled the herd down to people who actually like me for me and not what I can do for them.

I hope the people in your life come to the same revelation and understanding your husband has.
 

1gooddog

Senior Member
Messages
201
Location
Olympic Peninsula, WA
I don't have problems with vision focus or having double vision. It's just like I'm looking through a glass or veil. Or when you're only slightly drunk or high, everything kind of gets slow motion. It especially gets worse when lights are turned on especially fluorescent lights everything gets even more off.

I don't know if this is only brain fog or something else? Would you describe your brain fog as if you're looking through a thick glass? I have been googling this symptoms but cannot find anything.

People are only talking about brain fog and being spaced out in regards to CFS.
 

1gooddog

Senior Member
Messages
201
Location
Olympic Peninsula, WA
Eyes function with muscles. The heart is a muscle. I do not believe anyone can rule out these muscles. When I have PEM it also affects my heart. And I have had every heart exam available in the past 6 months including wearing a monitor. For 10 years they have examined my heart and found nothing. Yet I can feel it struggling to beat, I can feel my heart beat following exertion - and it is eventually fatigue also.
 
Messages
8
Thank you bostjan01 for starting this thread. I’ve had multiple, horrible symptoms and being virtually blind is one of them. I also have a genetic vision condition but believe the ME is more to blame. I couldn’t help but to wonder if others had the same issue. I guess I feel better knowing I’m not alone.
 

1gooddog

Senior Member
Messages
201
Location
Olympic Peninsula, WA
This disease is frustrating, and the lack of understanding runs a close second. I used to run in a big circle of friends/acquaintances. Now I'm down to a few. It has taken a long time for these friends and my family to "get it." It is a moment of pure bliss when someone echoes true understanding.

At first I protected people from knowing all that was going on, because I was in very bad shape and could not handle the rejection. I'm in a better place and find that I just speak very matter-of-fact about my needs, this seems to be accepted and better understood...of course over time I have culled the herd down to people who actually like me for me and not what I can do for them.

I hope the people in your life come to the same revelation and understanding your husband has.
 

1gooddog

Senior Member
Messages
201
Location
Olympic Peninsula, WA
I find it amazing at how much people don't know. They think occasional dizzy spells compare to severity I face. They get "tired" and talk about naps or sleeping in. My feeling is you don't GET it until you have HAD it! Even with some issue I have dealt with most of my life, they are seeking info, don't want to listen and actually think they know better. Anymore I just let it go. I no longer even try. It just makes me frustrated and angry. They make me feel like a hypochondriac.
 

Diwi9

Administrator
Messages
1,780
Location
USA
I find it amazing at how much people don't know. They think occasional dizzy spells compare to severity I face. They get "tired" and talk about naps or sleeping in. My feeling is you don't GET it until you have HAD it! Even with some issue I have dealt with most of my life, they are seeking info, don't want to listen and actually think they know better. Anymore I just let it go. I no longer even try. It just makes me frustrated and angry. They make me feel like a hypochondriac.
Yes, I'm lucky to have some compassionate friends...also, found some new ones with chronic illness (i.e. Lupus, MS). It took family longer than I'd expect, and peppering them with lots of videos about ME and papers. Whenever anyone gets sick and complains...I'm like, "Wow, welcome to my everyday life."
 

percyval577

nucleus caudatus et al
Messages
1,302
Location
Ik waak up
In my opinion it stems a) from changeable dopamine, which is re-uptake-inhibited
(you will not get better from lowering it by antipsychotics).
In my further opninion, this sticks to other serious effects, especially to b) to high acetylcholine.
In my one more further opinion, that would disconnect areals of the brain:
front, the slight middle, even the back (to look).

Only at some stage of being quit fine
(if such improvement took place, which I had experienced once),
it should be possible to act for an improvement, doing this or that.
 
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percyval577

nucleus caudatus et al
Messages
1,302
Location
Ik waak up
I find it amazing at how much people don't know. They think occasional dizzy spells compare to severity I face. They get "tired" and talk about naps or sleeping in. My feeling is you don't GET it until you have HAD it! Even with some issue I have dealt with most of my life, they are seeking info, don't want to listen and actually think they know better. Anymore I just let it go. I no longer even try. It just makes me frustrated and angry. They make me feel like a hypochondriac.

That´s the truth what you´re telling, our societies are not able to think in possilbilities.
 
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MEPatient345

Guest
Messages
479
Would anyone describe your brain fog as if you're looking out of a fish bowl, through a glass or a veil?
Yes, I have this. Although I consider it separate to my brain fog, but makes my brain fog seem much worse. My vision symptoms, feeling like being in a dream, drunk or stoned, are worse when outside in bright light. Or in a moving car. They are constant and unrelenting.

There are some studies. This is one, but this team has done more:
http://www.meresearch.org.uk/our-research/completed-studies/visual-stress/