Here's more on the subject if you are interested.
S.C.
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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 an anxiety attack.
How Anxiety Affects the Eyes
When you suffer from intense anxiety, two things happen to your eyes. First, your pupils dilate. When you fight or flight system is activated, your pupils dilate to make it easier to make quick decisions (in a fight, you need to be able to see a punch 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.
Hyperventilation and Eye Problems
Hyperventilation is also a common problem for those living with anxiety, and hyperventilation may affect the eyes as well. Hyperventilation can also cause the blood vessels to constrict, and may lead to a feeling of lightheadedness and dizziness that make it seem as though your eyes are having problems, although technically it is a different symptom.
Overcoming Anxiety Affected Eyes
There are a lot of anxiety symptoms that you can learn to connect with and control. But your eye symptoms aren't usually one of them. All of the ways that anxiety affects the eyes are the direct result of adrenaline pumping through your body, and until that adrenaline goes away, it's nearly impossible to stop your eyes from reacting the way they do.
So you'll need to learn to control your anxiety in the moment and ultimately control your anxiety forever. While you're dealing with anxiety:
Make sure you're breathing slowly. Over-breathing can cause you to hyperventilate, which may lead to further anxiety and further eye symptoms.
Find a distraction. Distractions take you out of your mind and away from the thoughts that are causing you stress. They can even decrease the severity of your anxiety attacks.
Exercise if you can. Some people's anxiety attacks are so severe that it's very hard to move. But those that can find the strength to go walking or running should do so, since that can burn away some of the adrenaline.