PLEASE HELP! I am absolutely despondent and desperate with floaters.

[seattlepoet]

Dear Friends,
I found this site and thought it was a great website. I need URGENT HELP with floaters... I am really bad off right now...I am despondent...I am here in Seattle and there is not one doctor here who has understood how bothersome this is for me and how deeply distressing this is for me in every way.
I am a 39 year old woman who has suffered and struggled through a lot and this is VERY hard to have. This is VERY difficult. I had been through infections for two years with over 20 infections and this was in my bladder and I never though anything could be worse, but these are.

I have been to one opthamologist and one Retinal Specialist who both tell me that I have to live with them and that I do have a vitreous gel wearing down but not a separation yet and that there is nothing they can do. What do I do with that information? I feel so despondent. The Retinal Specialist called me yesterday and says I need a therapist. Well of course I do! Wouldn't he? But he does not know how it feels to have floaters as bad as me, and be a writer and reader and a passionate woman and have to deal with these.

I have no job and less than four weeks left on unemployment and I am VERY, VERY scared b/c I have no job prospects and now this serious issue with the floaters.
I see a constant floater that looks like often a long hair and then it morphs into a squirmy snakey squiggly and they I have a gnat that appears and it is a dot that moves across my eye like a blob, and then I have several of these that dance in front of my left eye especially.
I have tried everything to distract myself, but to be honest, it is affecting my daily mental health, emotional health and everything else in my life and my outlook. I need help.
I need suggestions. I need coping tools. I need people who have been through this. Please help by responding back.

Sincerely,

Rebekah

Hi Rebekah

Sorry you are so worried. Unfortunately I don't think there is anything that can be done about floaters (I have them too, as well as a partial retinal detachment) but you shouldn't be noticing them as much as you do. I have noticed myself that the times I have been bothered by floaters is when my anxiety levels have been too high and I think that's probably at the root of your problem too. It sounds like you're in a very stressful situation right now. I suggest your first port of call should be to seek some help with the anxiety issue. Best of luck.

Hello Rebekah, I would agree with Quodlibet. I too have floaters in my vision due to an ageing vitreous gel. They were a terrible nuisance when they first appeared (about 15 years ago) but I have got used to them and either they have faded or moved further from the retina (so are less visible) so have become less troublesome in time. The brain when happy and relaxed is able to filter out the annoyance to some extent, so we adapt. They are very common especially for the short sighted. As far as I know there is no treatment for floaters. It is possible to remove the vitreous gel and replace it with artificial gel but the surgery is risky and only done if the retina is severely threatened. Very large dense floaters obscuring central vision can I think be broken up into smaller ones by laser but again this is risky and as floaters tend to become less visible with time is rarely done.
It is good that you have been thoroughly examined and your retinas are healthy and in place. Floaters in themselves are not harmful (although if you get a lot more then go back to the retinal specialist to double check). Knowing what they are helped me to become friends with mine and now I hardly notice them.
There may not be anything you can do to get rid of the floaters but there are things you can do to cope with them and learn to ignore them.