Eye Floaters - feeling desperate - positive stories only please

[echops]

I'm not sure if anyone can help me but I'm feeling terribly frightened and desperate. My darling daughter is 3 months old and absolutely gorgeous. However, during the last few months of pregnancy I seemed to develope a few stringy eye floaters that I ocassionally saw on white walls etc.

However, during the last 6 weeks these have become far far worse - I have dots / cobwebs in both eyes. They are totally distracting when I move my eyes as they swirl about. I've seen a consultant who didn't seem at all bothered by them and said I'd just have to get used to them. This seems impossible as they are so incredibly intrusive (I have about 9 in each eye). Has anyone a positive story about eye floaters and how they no longer see them despite feeling as desperate as me? I realise they never go away but I can't believe my brain will eventually stop seeing them. They really are terrible and I'm getting to the point where I don't think I can cope with them anymore - they are totally exhausting me.

Hi echops - I have floaters - like yourself much more noticable when you look at a pale coloured wall!

I have had surgery for torn retina (in both eyes) and unfortunately this was a a side effect of my surgery. The hospital told me to get my eyes checked if I noticed an increase in floaters - so for the first few months after the ops I was running to get my eyes checked if ever I saw a new floater appear. A very kindly doctor then said only if I start to get 'hundreds' or my vision is so badly obscured by floaters do I need to worry!

To be honest I do have a lot, but you just get used to them and I don't really notice them unless I look for them IYKWIM?

Hi Ladies - just one last question - does your brain even ignore the black dot type floaters(mine are just so noticeable).

echops, yes, you either learn to ignore them or they gradually move away the central vision anyway.

its probably a combination of them moving and your brain learning to ignore

Yup, brain ignores all of them - the longer, squiggly, clear ones and the darker, rounder type. The darker ones tend to be the more annoying ones on a very bright day when you've got sore eyes and are feeling stressed, as they are more easy for your eyes to track once you've noticed them, but it's no different from suddenly noticing a mark on the car windscreen or a smear on your sunglasses that you've quite happily been looking through for hours without noticing - the minute you notice it, your eyes keep going back to it and it becomes an unbearably irritating distraction.

Funny enough, last night I thought I had got a bunch of new ones when we were out for a walk but it turned out to be midges!

Hi ladies - I've had a few ok days trying to ignore them but today I'm having a terrible time. I'm having a room painted. I went to speak to the decorator and all I ciould see was this soup of floaters (lines, dots, some big, some small). Is it REALLY possible to one day just ignore these? I see them all the time and it's just wearing me out trying to ignore them. . . I feel so upset by them. When I look down then up they zoom back into vision. . . were your's really this bad and did they upset you terrible too? Sorry to sound so pathetic but I just can't believe they'll ever 'disappear'.

They will disappear. Honestly. But every time you think about them your brain will make you see them. The more you worry about them, the more you will see them.

Hi echops, I have floaters too, and to start with I was very concerned about them and found myself feeling worried every time I noticed them, mine are particularly bad when looking at white background or bright sky, or a white page. I have a history of partially detached retina too so I wound myself up thinking my sight was going to go! I remember feeling quite depressed about it.

I'd honestly say though for me, that there's a definite correlation between feeling anxious about them and noticing them all the time. When I saw a specialist and got reassurance, and then got busy with work, I totally forgot about them and hadn't thought about them until I saw your post. I think sometimes it's easy to let one worry take up far more brain-space than it deserves, especially when it's something 'right in front of your eyes.' So the problem for me really is the worrying, not the floaters, iyswim. Once I'd worked that out and could tell myself to stop worrying, it helps stop me obsessing about them.

Not to want to minimise your problem but I've heard it said that after having a baby it's quite common to get disproportionately anxious over odd things, could this be a factor for you too?

Hi Quodlibet - I agree completely that I've become completely obsessed with them which is making me feel more anxious as I think I've now hardwired my brain to NEVER ignore them (if you see what I mean!). My husband has booked me to see a Cognative Behaviour Therapist who will hopefully give me coping mechanisms so that everytime I see them I don't think "Oh this is awful, they'll never go". How bad are your floaters (more than a few in each eye? I seem to have loads). See there I go again, obsessing! It's such a vicious circle.

Naaa, you won't have hardwired your brain, your brain's just doing that at the moment. CBT sounds like a good idea. How nice that he's so supportive. Recognising it's a vicious circle is the first step to breaking it I reckon!
I have constellations of black dots, black squiggles and of course the top outer 1/3 field of vision of one eye completely gone due to detachment. And I can honestly say I never think about any of it any more. Anything new is alarming but then you really can and do get used to it once your brain finds something else to do with itself.

ROFL FlightButPolite, I believed exactly the same thing!!

Sometimes I can see millions of tiny dots all moving around, I used to think I had special eyes that could actually see the Brownian motion of the particles in the air

I get stringy ones, black ones, odd-shaped ones. Loads of them.

I've had floaters since I was tiny. I used to look at lights in order to watch the 'spaceships'.

I went through a phase where I was worried about them and could see them all the time, but now I never do - except now because you've reminded me! It really is a mind thing. It is also to do with eye focus I think - make sure your prescription is up to date if you wear glasses, or if you don't wear them make sure you don't need them. If you are a bit shortsighted it is easier to accidentally focus on them (scientifically tested just now by me removing my glasses)

aren't eye floaters the start of cataracts? Everyone has them and if/ when they get too big and annoying, they get removed in minor op. that's what i heard..

does anyone else get black ones?

I get the clear stringy ones too

echops - my mum had the same thing when she was pregnant with me and it developed the same time you had yours.

Like you, she saw an unsympathetic consultant who said she would just have to get used to it. She said she went home and cried because she couldn't imagine having this for the rest of her life. She said it was like seeing fine rain all the time.

Anyway, you'll be glad to know that it did go away and she no longer sees them. I will ask her how long after I was born it stopped.

I never knew they were so common either echops. I got mine at the same time I started to suffer from migranes. I don't get a headache, but my vision is like looking through broken glass.

I have been known to 'swat' my floater too! I am mostly used to it now, took ages though.

I've had them since childhood. there are more every few years. some are black.

cryingfoul, I think you might be wrong about the cataract thing. Cataracts are a clouding of the lens where as floaters are in the vitreous humour.

recent article

Great article, jazznh, must ask our local retinal clinic whether they are going to do this.

No, floaters and cataracts are completely unrelated.

floaters

cataracts

I've had them since childhood and rarely notice them now, just if very tired really.

chipmonkey, I wouldn't hold your breath, there are very few doctors in the country (and the world for that matter) who are qualified to perform a laser vitreolysis. Its going to be a long time before the general optical attitude changes from 'ignore them and they'll go away' to 'how can we fix this' and I don't think we'll all be able to be treated for our floaters until it does.