Anyone have problems with dizziness caused by your eyes?

[Nin]

I have terrible trouble with my eyes, especially when I need to focus them. As soon as I focus my eyes e.g talking to someone, looking on my phone, reading, my eyes feel googly and I get real dizzy and stay that way. I had a vestibular function test today and she said it's not my inner ear. She tested my eyes and only said my right eye was flickering at the end but that's it. I felt disappointed coming out with no answer again to another disabling problem I have. Did I even go to the right person if I'm having dizziness caused from my eyes? Is this a common problem with dysautonomia? 

[Guest KiminOrlando]

Something like this happens to me. My optometrist wants me to see a neuro-opthamologist, but I haven't gone yet. Mine seems to be set off the more stuff around me moves. It is like there is too much for my brain to process and I can't find my place in the scene. It is very disorienting. 

[toomanyproblems]

Vision is one of three ways we maintain balance. Dysautonomia greatly stresses balance so it can "use up" all of your natural processes. I commonly have trouble with more dizziness after reading or studying something intently using my vision. Dysautonima is one of the rare causes of tunnel vision. Vision takes up a large part of the brain's function. When circulation to the brain is compromised like being upright when you have POTS and are about to pass out, the brain tries to maintain vision as long as it can by decreasing the focal range to only the center of the field, thus tunnel vision. I have had this before when I'm about to pass out. This is all to say your vision can be compromised by POTS. I imagine it's quite common. And KiminOrlando is correct. Compromised balance is even more compromised when your surroundings are moving, like driving or riding in a car when there is a lot of new information to process from your eyes to your brain. The system can become overloaded. 

[leminisor]

On 7/17/2020 at 6:10 PM, KiminOrlando said:

Something like this happens to me. My optometrist wants me to see a neuro-opthamologist, but I haven't gone yet. Mine seems to be set off the more stuff around me moves. It is like there is too much for my brain to process and I can't find my place in the scene. It is very disorienting. 

Very interesting you say that this seems to happen a lot when things move around you! I have the same issue whether or not something is moving, but I will say that I feel very easily overwhelmed visually speaking when things are moving especially in a pattern, such as cars coming the opposite way. I don’t know what to do about it but it’s very uncomfortable, almost as if my nervous system is completely overwhelmed simply by sensory processing via vision. 

[Pistol]

My sisters - who have HPOTS - have severe vision problems related to the dysautonomia. They were diagnosed with a condition that causes one eye to be directed to the side rather than focusing in the middle ( sorry, I forgot the name of this condition ). It causes symptoms as you describe, mainly difficulty focusing - trying to focus on a computer for example causes an adrenaline spike for them. They tire out easily and get overwhelmed easily by fast movement around them, too. 

[Nin]

9 hours ago, Pistol said:

My sisters - who have HPOTS - have severe vision problems related to the dysautonomia. They were diagnosed with a condition that causes one eye to be directed to the side rather than focusing in the middle ( sorry, I forgot the name of this condition ). It causes symptoms as you describe, mainly difficulty focusing - trying to focus on a computer for example causes an adrenaline spike for them. They tire out easily and get overwhelmed easily by fast movement around them, too. 

When you do speak to your sisters would you be able to ask the name of the condition? I did have a vestibular function test the other day but not sure if I was in the right place for what is happening. Nothing showed up with that. Nothing worse when something affects you so much and they say no couldn't find anything!

[Chiara]

I think it was a kind of heterophobia?

[Chocolate]

I get very dizzy when riding as a passenger in a car on the highway, especially if I look at cars moving the other direction and even cars on my side. It’s worst if I haven’t been on the highway, driving fast for weeks. At first, I took a non drowsy Dramamine and that mostly solved the problem. I also asked the driver not to keep speeding up and slowing down...that made me feel about to faint!

 I found out I was having proprioceptive problems - where your eyes and ears are giving different info to your brain about where you are. The exercises I do to combat this problem include 1) Looking to a spot about 3 feet in front of me. Then move my eyes (keep head still) to a specific spot on the left, and then to a specific dot on the right. Work up to 20 times. 2) Now, moving your head, look to the left dot and then move your head to the right dot. Work up to a fast pace and 20 times. I do #1 and #2 sitting down. 3) I walk in a straight line forward through the house. I repeat until I’m either dizzy or getting good. 4) I do the same, but walking backward. 5) I stand on my left foot for 30 seconds. 6) Then I do it with my right foot. 
 

I hope this helps someone! This is my first post. 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Chocolate
Wrong word.

[Pistol]

 

@Chocolate - welcome to this forum, and thank you for your informative response.  How did they diagnose your condition - what tests did they do? Was it a routine eye exam???

[Nin]

1 hour ago, Chocolate said:

I get very dizzy when riding as a passenger in a car on the highway, especially if I look at cars moving the other direction and even cars on my side. It’s worst if I haven’t been on the highway, driving fast for weeks. At first, I took a non drowsy Dramamine and that mostly solved the problem. I also asked the driver not to keep speeding up and slowing down...that made me feel about to faint!

 I found out I was having proprioceptive problems - where your eyes and ears are giving different info to your brain about where you are. The exercises I do to combat this problem include 1) Looking to a spot about 3 feet in front of me. Then move my eyes (keep head still) to a specific spot on the left, and then to a specific dot on the right. Work up to 20 times. 2) Now, moving your head, look to the left dot and then move your head to the right dot. Work up to a fast pace and 20 times. I do #1 and #2 sitting down. 3) I walk in a straight line forward through the house. I repeat until I’m either dizzy or getting good. 4) I do the same, but walking backward. 5) I stand on my left foot for 30 seconds. 6) Then I do it with my right foot. 
 

I hope this helps someone! This is my first post. 

Thanks for that! Everything you just said is my homework they gave me after I went for a vestibular function test. Even thou she said it doesn't seem to be coming from my ears (surprising enough both been operated on) she told me to still do the exercises. I hope they don't make me worse

[Nin]

This eye problem seems to be a common thing with pots I guess. 

[cmep37]

I have alternating exotropia caused by either POTS or hEDS (the optometrist wasn't sure but I've definitely developed it as an adult rather than never growing out of it as a child).  It's basically when one of your eyes wanders outwards rather than looking at the object you're focusing on and in my case it alternates between eyes - the eye that wandered changed several times during my eye exam.   It means my vision blurs or I get double vision, I have problems with perception of depth and distance and it is much worse in the evenings or when I'm tired.  I'm not sure if this is the same thing as heterophobia or not!   The optometrist mentioned it could be caused by 

I also really struggle with dizziness in a car on a motorway - I can only cope by closing my eyes, so needless to say driving is out for me. 

[yogini]

Have you looked into nystagmus?  Dizziness is often connected to the eyes.  I'm surprised an inner ear specialist wouldn't know about this.  I was sent to vestibular therapy which was to work on correcting nystagmus.  Typically the cause of nystagmus is not related to POTS

Edited July 26, 2020 by yogini

[Nin]

3 minutes ago, yogini said:

Have you looked into nystagmus?  Dizziness is often connected to the eyes.  I'm surprised an inner ear specialist wouldn't know about this.  I was sent to vestibular therapy which was to work on correcting nystagmus.  Typically the cause of nystagmus is not related to POTS

I did ask her about nystagmus but she said no it doesn't look like nystagmus

[Pistol]

Nystagmus is different from exotropia. 

exotropia

strabismus in which there is permanent deviation of the visual axis of one eye away from that of the other, resulting in diplopia; called also walleye and divergent strabismus. adj., adj exotro´pic.

 

Nystagmus

 

Definition

Rhythmic, oscillating motions of the eyes are called nystagmus. The to-and-fro motion is generally involuntary. Vertical nystagmus occurs much less frequently than horizontal nystagmus and is often, but not necessarily, a sign of serious brain damage. Nystagmus can be a normal physiological response or a result of a pathologic problem.

[cmep37]

18 hours ago, cmep37 said:

The optometrist mentioned it could be caused by 

Sorry forgot to finish this sentence!  Anyway the optometrist suggested it could be caused by compression of one of the cranial nerves.  I know there is a theory that some cases of POTS are linked to high intracranial pressure which could compress cranial nerves.  Or my very lax neck due to hEDS could also be compressing a nerve.  

Does your focus on an object improve after blinking?  For me blinking seems to very temporarily reset the wandering eye and allow me to focus although it's only a few seconds until it takes off again!

[Nin]

10 hours ago, cmep37 said:

Sorry forgot to finish this sentence!  Anyway the optometrist suggested it could be caused by compression of one of the cranial nerves.  I know there is a theory that some cases of POTS are linked to high intracranial pressure which could compress cranial nerves.  Or my very lax neck due to hEDS could also be compressing a nerve.  

Does your focus on an object improve after blinking?  For me blinking seems to very temporarily reset the wandering eye and allow me to focus although it's only a few seconds until it takes off again!

I'm not sure if blinking helps. I tend to close my eyes and look back at whatever I was focusing on just to rest them and that seems to help.