Stress: Causes, effects, and how to deal with it...

So, here’s the thing... I’m trying to wrap my head around what stress actually *is*. How do you tell if your stress levels are spiking, and more importantly, if you’re actually handling it effectively?...

The reason I’m asking is that I keep seeing doctors chalk everything up to "stress." In way too many cases, they just stop there and don't bother with further testing...

Given that I've been hit with one thing after another over the last two years, I have no doubt I'm under massive amounts of pressure, but at the same time, I feel like I'm holding up pretty well...

How do you actually spot it? Does "poor coping" mean someone is slowly unraveling, or can you be under fire without showing any obvious signs of being on edge?...

Because my situation is a bit of a mess...

Last year was just a constant stream of inflammations, issues with blood in my urine (prostate inflammation), and having gum surgery performed across all four quadrants of my mouth... This year has been even worse. My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, and my wife had some gynecological "mysteries" that—thankfully—turned out to be nothing serious... On top of that, we've been dealing with a financial crisis and a string of other stupid setbacks that only made things harder... I haven't had a decent vacation in three years, and this year, I didn't get a single day off...

Yet, despite all that, I’m not falling apart. Most of the time, I’m calm, I handle problems well, and I don't panic...

Recently, I had some pretty serious health issues, and my doctor's first question was whether I was under stress... and if these symptoms could be caused by stress...

My response was simple: "nothing out of the ordinary"

Her comeback? "you are one of the rare ones"

So, now I'm wondering... how do you know if stress is actually messing with your daily life and your physical health?

Like I said, I think I'm doing fine (in my own opinion). I don't bottle things up; I talk about my problems immediately and deal with them right away instead of waiting for them to "cool off," and generally speaking, I feel mentally solid, despite all the nonsense and misfortune we've faced...

Is my good mental state a sign that I'm managing well, or are there non-psychological indicators that stress is present and slowly taking "control" of my body?

I hope I'm not overcomplicating this, but it really threw me when my doctor suggested she didn't believe I wasn't stressed. She told me that the signs of stress aren't just "shaky hands" or "wild eyes with a manic stare"—she meant you don't need visible symptoms for the stress to be actively impacting your overall physical condition...

Timothy Morgan38 said:So, here’s the thing... I’m trying to wrap my head around what stress actually *is*. How do you tell if your stress levels are spiking, and more importantly, if you’re actually handling it effectively?...

The reason I’m asking is that I keep seeing doctors chalk everything up to "stress." In way too many cases, they just stop there and don't bother with further testing...

Given that I've been hit with one thing after another over the last two years, I have no doubt I'm under massive amounts of pressure, but at the same time, I feel like I'm holding up pretty well...

How do you actually spot it? Does "poor coping" mean someone is slowly unraveling, or can you be under fire without showing any obvious signs of being on edge?...

Because my situation is a bit of a mess...

Last year was just a constant stream of inflammations, issues with blood in my urine (prostate inflammation), and having gum surgery performed across all four quadrants of my mouth... This year has been even worse. My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, and my wife had some gynecological "mysteries" that—thankfully—turned out to be nothing serious... On top of that, we've been dealing with a financial crisis and a string of other stupid setbacks that only made things harder... I haven't had a decent vacation in three years, and this year, I didn't get a single day off...

Yet, despite all that, I’m not falling apart. Most of the time, I’m calm, I handle problems well, and I don't panic...

Recently, I had some pretty serious health issues, and my doctor's first question was whether I was under stress... and if these symptoms could be caused by stress...

My response was simple: "nothing out of the ordinary"

Her comeback? "you are one of the rare ones"

So, now I'm wondering... how do you know if stress is actually messing with your daily life and your physical health?

Like I said, I think I'm doing fine (in my own opinion). I don't bottle things up; I talk about my problems immediately and deal with them right away instead of waiting for them to "cool off," and generally speaking, I feel mentally solid, despite all the nonsense and misfortune we've faced...

Is my good mental state a sign that I'm managing well, or are there non-psychological indicators that stress is present and slowly taking "control" of my body?

I hope I'm not overcomplicating this, but it really threw me when my doctor suggested she didn't believe I wasn't stressed. She told me that the signs of stress aren't just "shaky hands" or "wild eyes with a manic stare"—she meant you don't need visible symptoms for the stress to be actively impacting your overall physical condition...

Stress isn't really a specific event itself—it's more about how you perceive that event. It doesn't matter so much what’s happening in your life, but rather how you interpret it. Psychologically speaking, stress kicks in when someone feels like they won't be able to meet certain demands, whether those are coming from the outside world or from within, simply because those requirements exceed their current capacity.

The reason is that I'm seeing doctors attribute all sorts of different issues to stress more and more often, and in many cases, they don't even bother running further tests...

Because that's honestly the reality of it.

Since I've had so many bad and stressful things happen over the last two years, I have no doubt I'm under a lot of stress, but at the same time, I feel like I'm coping pretty well with it...

Our brains use unconscious ways to distort reality to protect us from anxiety—basically defense mechanisms. It might be denial in your case... or maybe not.

How do you recognize stress? Does "not coping" mean a person is slowly falling apart, or can they go through it without showing any obvious signs of being on edge...

Stress can't exist without some level of agitation. If there's no agitation, there's no stress, even if potential stressors are present. What I mean is that something might be a massive stressor for one person but nothing at all to someone else. You can't judge if you're stressed just by looking at the events themselves.
You recognize stress through psychological and physiological reactions.
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
- intense emotions that interfere with cognitive processes
- difficulty concentrating or thinking logically
- feelings of anger, depression, aggression, or anxiety accompanied by fear, tension, and worry
- frequent panic attacks
PHYSIOLOGICAL:various psychosomatic reactions
- we can "measure" physiological stress via glucocorticoid levels (adrenal cortex hormones) and adrenaline and noradrenaline levels (from the adrenal medulla); high levels of these hormones are linked to numerous physical ailments
Adrenaline speeds up your heart rate and raises blood pressure, which can lead to hardening of the arteries, strokes, heart attacks, angina pectoris, and so on.
Stress is also linked to diabetes, asthma, allergies, certain skin conditions, various types of cancer, stomach ulcers... and more and more diseases as time goes on.
Stress weakens the immune system's response through T-cells and B-cells, which in turn makes you more susceptible to infectious diseases.

Is feeling mentally okay a sign that I'm actually handling stress well, or could there be physical symptoms creeping in that show stress is starting to take over without me realizing it?

Take a look above. You might be experiencing some somatic symptoms from stress. I went through a phase where I felt perfectly fine mentally—or at least, that's what I told myself—but my body was absolutely falling apart. I honestly didn't believe my doctors when they said it was all stress. It just goes to show that you can be under massive pressure without being consciously aware of it; maybe you are, you just haven't admitted it to yourself yet.
If you’re feeling off, whether physically or mentally, and you suspect stress is the culprit, you’re probably right.
Sorry for the long post.🙂

Timothy Morgan38 said:So, here’s the thing... I’m trying to wrap my head around what stress actually *is*. How do you tell if your stress levels are spiking, and more importantly, if you’re actually handling it effectively?...

The reason I’m asking is that I keep seeing doctors chalk everything up to "stress." In way too many cases, they just stop there and don't bother with further testing...

Given that I've been hit with one thing after another over the last two years, I have no doubt I'm under massive amounts of pressure, but at the same time, I feel like I'm holding up pretty well...

How do you actually spot it? Does "poor coping" mean someone is slowly unraveling, or can you be under fire without showing any obvious signs of being on edge?...

Because my situation is a bit of a mess...

Last year was just a constant stream of inflammations, issues with blood in my urine (prostate inflammation), and having gum surgery performed across all four quadrants of my mouth... This year has been even worse. My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, and my wife had some gynecological "mysteries" that—thankfully—turned out to be nothing serious... On top of that, we've been dealing with a financial crisis and a string of other stupid setbacks that only made things harder... I haven't had a decent vacation in three years, and this year, I didn't get a single day off...

Yet, despite all that, I’m not falling apart. Most of the time, I’m calm, I handle problems well, and I don't panic...

Recently, I had some pretty serious health issues, and my doctor's first question was whether I was under stress... and if these symptoms could be caused by stress...

My response was simple: "nothing out of the ordinary"

Her comeback? "you are one of the rare ones"

So, now I'm wondering... how do you know if stress is actually messing with your daily life and your physical health?

Like I said, I think I'm doing fine (in my own opinion). I don't bottle things up; I talk about my problems immediately and deal with them right away instead of waiting for them to "cool off," and generally speaking, I feel mentally solid, despite all the nonsense and misfortune we've faced...

Is my good mental state a sign that I'm managing well, or are there non-psychological indicators that stress is present and slowly taking "control" of my body?

I hope I'm not overcomplicating this, but it really threw me when my doctor suggested she didn't believe I wasn't stressed. She told me that the signs of stress aren't just "shaky hands" or "wild eyes with a manic stare"—she meant you don't need visible symptoms for the stress to be actively impacting your overall physical condition...

The doctor is likely right. If I had to explain stress, I’d use the analogy of a single hair causing a camel's back to snap. People use camels to haul heavy loads, and those animals have a specific carrying capacity. You wouldn't pile the maximum weight on a young camel immediately; you increase the load gradually. Regardless, if you push too hard, the camel's back breaks.

Humans have a built-in tolerance for stress. Back in the day, that usually meant worrying about finding a decent spot to sleep in a cave, looking out for the tribe, or tracking down enough food.
Nowadays, we’ve basically piled everything onto our own necks—our housing, our commutes, our careers, plus increasingly distant and complicated social webs, along with all the ambitions and anxieties that come with them.

Stress is just a part of life, and most people manage it reasonably well. Like the doctor said, shaky hands or, say, aggressive outbursts aren't the only indicators. A weakened immune system is often the most common fallout. Think about it: maybe you've caught more minor bugs over the last three years, or maybe you find yourself feeling a bit more drained at the end of the day than you did three years ago. That’s stress. Shaking hands, irritability, or panic attacks generally happen to those who have a harder time processing it.

I think I lost my original train of thought in this long-winded rant, but the bottom line is this: go take a vacation. 🙂

Thanks for the input... exactly what I was looking for...

Quote:

The reason is simple: I’m seeing it more and more often lately. Doctors just write everything off as "stress"... and in way too many cases, they don't even bother ordering follow-up tests... Because that’s just the way it is...

I’m not questioning a doctor’s expertise or their years of experience... I’m asking because I’m seeing more and more people walk into those clinics already carrying a diagnosis in their hands... Stress... what a joke.... so I find myself wondering if stress really can have such a massive spectrum of effects...

There are these subconscious ways our minds warp reality just to shield us from anxiety... defense mechanisms, if you want to get technical. Maybe what you're dealing with is pure denial... or maybe it isn't...

I highly doubt we're looking at denial here. I’m more than aware of the reality of the situation... fully cognizant of the setbacks that have hit us... With some problems, you can actually roll up your sleeves and fight back, but with others... well, you're just stuck waiting and hoping for the best...

But then again... I’m still stuck dealing with all these everyday headaches on my own... Right away...I don't let things just sit there and fester... I refuse to let them cool off only to have them gnaw at me from the inside out. No, I deal with everything as fast as humanly possible...

Some people tell me to stop forcing things, to just slow down and let life happen, claiming everything will eventually fall into place. But that’s not how I operate. I don't want to wait around for things to settle themselves; I want to be the one who puts them exactly where they belong... maybe there are certain things I choose to let slide, but that's a conscious decision. A refusal to engage. Usually, it involves interpersonal drama or situations that, two years ago, would have driven me absolutely insane. Nowadays? I just see the futility in losing my mind over it all. You can't achieve anything when you're spiraling... maybe I'm just getting more experienced with age...😂

In this house, we talk about everything. No matter how heavy the subject or how messy the situation gets, we just lay it all out on the table... nothing is off-limits.

Maybe that’s why I handle stress so well... I just tend to knock out the small stuff immediately. It keeps my head clear... leaves me with enough actual energy and patience left over when the big issues finally hit...

Thanks again for all the input... you guys really helped me out more than I expected...

I mean, I know you’d probably have to take some vacation time for this...

A friend of mine is dealing with some pretty heavy stuff. I’m honestly surprised by how well he’s handling it.
One day everything just fell apart—emergency services were called. He’s been stuck in a hospital in Los Angeles for a week now, being put on sedatives. Apparently, it’s all due to stress.

Sandra Williams70 said:A friend of mine is dealing with some pretty heavy stuff. I’m honestly surprised by how well he’s handling it.
One day everything just fell apart—emergency services were called. He’s been stuck in a hospital in Los Angeles for a week now, being put on sedatives. Apparently, it’s all due to stress.

I really hope I don't end up in a Los Angeles hospital myself

Timothy Morgan38 said:So, here’s the thing... I’m trying to wrap my head around what stress actually *is*. How do you tell if your stress levels are spiking, and more importantly, if you’re actually handling it effectively?...

The reason I’m asking is that I keep seeing doctors chalk everything up to "stress." In way too many cases, they just stop there and don't bother with further testing...

Given that I've been hit with one thing after another over the last two years, I have no doubt I'm under massive amounts of pressure, but at the same time, I feel like I'm holding up pretty well...

How do you actually spot it? Does "poor coping" mean someone is slowly unraveling, or can you be under fire without showing any obvious signs of being on edge?...

Because my situation is a bit of a mess...

Last year was just a constant stream of inflammations, issues with blood in my urine (prostate inflammation), and having gum surgery performed across all four quadrants of my mouth... This year has been even worse. My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, and my wife had some gynecological "mysteries" that—thankfully—turned out to be nothing serious... On top of that, we've been dealing with a financial crisis and a string of other stupid setbacks that only made things harder... I haven't had a decent vacation in three years, and this year, I didn't get a single day off...

Yet, despite all that, I’m not falling apart. Most of the time, I’m calm, I handle problems well, and I don't panic...

Recently, I had some pretty serious health issues, and my doctor's first question was whether I was under stress... and if these symptoms could be caused by stress...

My response was simple: "nothing out of the ordinary"

Her comeback? "you are one of the rare ones"

So, now I'm wondering... how do you know if stress is actually messing with your daily life and your physical health?

Like I said, I think I'm doing fine (in my own opinion). I don't bottle things up; I talk about my problems immediately and deal with them right away instead of waiting for them to "cool off," and generally speaking, I feel mentally solid, despite all the nonsense and misfortune we've faced...

Is my good mental state a sign that I'm managing well, or are there non-psychological indicators that stress is present and slowly taking "control" of my body?

I hope I'm not overcomplicating this, but it really threw me when my doctor suggested she didn't believe I wasn't stressed. She told me that the signs of stress aren't just "shaky hands" or "wild eyes with a manic stare"—she meant you don't need visible symptoms for the stress to be actively impacting your overall physical condition...

What kind of "scary" problems? I'm genuinely curious.
For me, it started with heart palpitations (sometimes hitting over 180 bpm) and PVCs, along with this heavy pressure in my chest—I honestly thought I was having a heart attack😲. My hands were tingling, my back was aching, and then they found a cyst on my thyroid😲. On top of that, my cholesterol was high (which was weird because I'm not overweight and I eat pretty healthy with very little meat), plus I had GERD😲 and my esophagus was in really bad shape. I also had a slight fever that lingered for months without any clear cause, and my white blood cell count was elevated for no apparent reason... and the thing is, I felt mostly fine, or at least that's how it seemed to me🤣... nothing quite as extreme as what you went through🤷... and all of this happened within just a few months. Eventually, I just gave up on running from clinic to clinic and wasting money (partly because seeing so many bad test results was starting to freak me out a bit)🤣. Now, I'll probably only see a doctor when I'm on my deathbed😁, even if I do need to go in for regular checkups once in a while.

Douglas Ramos2 said:What kind of "scary" problems? I'm genuinely curious.
For me, it started with heart palpitations (sometimes hitting over 180 bpm) and PVCs, along with this heavy pressure in my chest—I honestly thought I was having a heart attack😲. My hands were tingling, my back was aching, and then they found a cyst on my thyroid😲. On top of that, my cholesterol was high (which was weird because I'm not overweight and I eat pretty healthy with very little meat), plus I had GERD😲 and my esophagus was in really bad shape. I also had a slight fever that lingered for months without any clear cause, and my white blood cell count was elevated for no apparent reason... and the thing is, I felt mostly fine, or at least that's how it seemed to me🤣... nothing quite as extreme as what you went through🤷... and all of this happened within just a few months. Eventually, I just gave up on running from clinic to clinic and wasting money (partly because seeing so many bad test results was starting to freak me out a bit)🤣. Now, I'll probably only see a doctor when I'm on my deathbed😁, even if I do need to go in for regular checkups once in a while.

Temporary blindness in my right eye lasting about five minutes... no symptoms, no pain, nothing...

It just suddenly started descending like some kind of curtain over my field of vision, and within 20 seconds, I couldn't see anything with that eye... though it wasn't pitch black, more like grayness

Then after maybe five minutes, the vision from the bottom started slowly creeping back up, returning to about 75%, except I couldn't see the upper inner quadrant... there was this little cloudiness there...

By the time I woke up in the morning, everything was fine; my entire field of vision seemed normal.

As soon as it happened, I rushed to the ER... the doctor was very kind and immediately wrote me a referral for neurology...

I went to neurology, the specialist examined me and said this was actually an ophthalmology case...

And naturally, my mind went straight to the worst-case scenario... a brain tumor... because I had no idea vision could just vanish like that without any warning signs... and the only thing I'd read online was that vision loss happens when a tumor presses against the optic nerve...

So I asked her, and she politely replied that she "didn't think so" since all my other functions were fine... balance, no headaches, coordination, reflexes—I haven't really dealt with headaches much anyway, just occasionally—so she told me she didn't think it was that...

I went straight to the eye specialist, who checked me out and scheduled me for the next day...

Woke up the next morning, vision was 100% back to normal (no more clouds)...

I went in for an additional exam where they found a tiny retinal detachment... so they went ahead and treated it with a laser immediately (said it was preventative)... the doctor wasn't even sure if such a minor detachment could have caused the vision loss, since it was barely visible; they had to look at it from every possible angle for a long time just to decide it was a detachment and not just "normal" anatomy...

He gave me a few possible causes for the vision loss:
1. That detachment they lasered
2. Poor circulation in the eye
3. High blood sugar
4. And he repeated that it wasn't a tumor, because the optic nerve would show signs of something that dangerous

Other than that, the eye looks perfectly healthy—no damage, no burst vessels, everything is a 5 out of 5...

It is true that my vision in that eye has been slightly weaker for a while now (the image is just a bit blurrier than the left) and my eye wanders a little due to the muscle...

But I’ve never had vision issues on this scale before...

And besides all that, the doctor asked me during the exam if I was under a lot of stress

She mentioned that, along with what we already discussed, stress can cause vision loss... whether it's by weakening circulation so the eye momentarily lacks blood flow or some other way, I couldn't quite get the specifics...

So now I'm stuck in this loop, wondering if it was stress, circulation, or the detachment...

Honestly, I was scared shitless (mostly just from the uncertainty)... and I'm still feeling pretty unsettled...

Because the doctor tells me there aren't any supplements that can actually improve ocular circulation (meaning they exist on the market, but they do more harm than good) and he can't say with 100% certainty if this will happen again... it might never happen again, or it could happen multiple times...

I’m actually quite curious about the answers to those questions
Timothy Morgan38 raised.
To be honest, I have this growing suspicion that our overly passionate doctors tend to blame everything on STRESS whenever they run into a medical mystery they can't immediately solve.
Take my own experience this past spring—one night, right as I was heading to bed, I felt this intense tightening in my throat, like I was being suffocated. I couldn't catch my breath. And, well, who can sleep through something like that? The next day, I went to the doctor, and of course, they just bounced me from one specialist to another. Eventually, they sent me for allergy testing. During the shots, I actually had a reaction to certain substances—nothing major, but enough to notice. They ran blood work and all that typical testing, only for other doctors to tell me, "Okay, we found high levels of histamine in your blood, but you aren't actually allergic to anything." Their grand conclusion? It's all just STRESS. They wouldn't believe me when I insisted it wasn't—I really wasn't stressed at all during that time; everything in my life was actually wonderful. Now, for instance, I *am* under a lot of stress... yet that choking sensation hasn't returned once.

Carol Wright said:I’m actually quite curious about the answers to those questions
Timothy Morgan38 raised.
To be honest, I have this growing suspicion that our overly passionate doctors tend to blame everything on STRESS whenever they run into a medical mystery they can't immediately solve.
Take my own experience this past spring—one night, right as I was heading to bed, I felt this intense tightening in my throat, like I was being suffocated. I couldn't catch my breath. And, well, who can sleep through something like that? The next day, I went to the doctor, and of course, they just bounced me from one specialist to another. Eventually, they sent me for allergy testing. During the shots, I actually had a reaction to certain substances—nothing major, but enough to notice. They ran blood work and all that typical testing, only for other doctors to tell me, "Okay, we found high levels of histamine in your blood, but you aren't actually allergic to anything." Their grand conclusion? It's all just STRESS. They wouldn't believe me when I insisted it wasn't—I really wasn't stressed at all during that time; everything in my life was actually wonderful. Now, for instance, I *am* under a lot of stress... yet that choking sensation hasn't returned once.

That choking sensation is such a classic stress symptom... though allergies can feel similar too.
...I actually spiraled thinking I was suffocating... even after they found a tiny cyst on my thyroid that was way too small to be causing any actual pressure. But if you haven't felt it, you really don't know how scary it is. 😲..
It’s one thing for doctors to chalk everything up to stress—which I get—but it’s another thing entirely to just send someone home without any kind of relief or "medicine," regardless of how much it's affecting their life. 😠

Timothy Morgan38 said:Temporary blindness in my right eye lasting about five minutes... no symptoms, no pain, nothing...

It just suddenly started descending like some kind of curtain over my field of vision, and within 20 seconds, I couldn't see anything with that eye... though it wasn't pitch black, more like grayness

Then after maybe five minutes, the vision from the bottom started slowly creeping back up, returning to about 75%, except I couldn't see the upper inner quadrant... there was this little cloudiness there...

By the time I woke up in the morning, everything was fine; my entire field of vision seemed normal.

As soon as it happened, I rushed to the ER... the doctor was very kind and immediately wrote me a referral for neurology...

I went to neurology, the specialist examined me and said this was actually an ophthalmology case...

And naturally, my mind went straight to the worst-case scenario... a brain tumor... because I had no idea vision could just vanish like that without any warning signs... and the only thing I'd read online was that vision loss happens when a tumor presses against the optic nerve...

So I asked her, and she politely replied that she "didn't think so" since all my other functions were fine... balance, no headaches, coordination, reflexes—I haven't really dealt with headaches much anyway, just occasionally—so she told me she didn't think it was that...

I went straight to the eye specialist, who checked me out and scheduled me for the next day...

Woke up the next morning, vision was 100% back to normal (no more clouds)...

I went in for an additional exam where they found a tiny retinal detachment... so they went ahead and treated it with a laser immediately (said it was preventative)... the doctor wasn't even sure if such a minor detachment could have caused the vision loss, since it was barely visible; they had to look at it from every possible angle for a long time just to decide it was a detachment and not just "normal" anatomy...

He gave me a few possible causes for the vision loss:
1. That detachment they lasered
2. Poor circulation in the eye
3. High blood sugar
4. And he repeated that it wasn't a tumor, because the optic nerve would show signs of something that dangerous

Other than that, the eye looks perfectly healthy—no damage, no burst vessels, everything is a 5 out of 5...

It is true that my vision in that eye has been slightly weaker for a while now (the image is just a bit blurrier than the left) and my eye wanders a little due to the muscle...

But I’ve never had vision issues on this scale before...

And besides all that, the doctor asked me during the exam if I was under a lot of stress

She mentioned that, along with what we already discussed, stress can cause vision loss... whether it's by weakening circulation so the eye momentarily lacks blood flow or some other way, I couldn't quite get the specifics...

So now I'm stuck in this loop, wondering if it was stress, circulation, or the detachment...

Honestly, I was scared shitless (mostly just from the uncertainty)... and I'm still feeling pretty unsettled...

Because the doctor tells me there aren't any supplements that can actually improve ocular circulation (meaning they exist on the market, but they do more harm than good) and he can't say with 100% certainty if this will happen again... it might never happen again, or it could happen multiple times...

😲 ...that's just terrifying...
I know someone who woke up completely paralyzed and ended up in a wheelchair, even though there wasn't any nerve damage or anything physical wrong... they just woke up that way. As far as I know, they were participating in some medical studies over in the States, and I honestly can't make sense of it... the brain is just such a mystery.🙄

Double post.

Timothy Morgan38 said:Temporary blindness in my right eye lasting about five minutes... no symptoms, no pain, nothing...

It just suddenly started descending like some kind of curtain over my field of vision, and within 20 seconds, I couldn't see anything with that eye... though it wasn't pitch black, more like grayness

Then after maybe five minutes, the vision from the bottom started slowly creeping back up, returning to about 75%, except I couldn't see the upper inner quadrant... there was this little cloudiness there...

By the time I woke up in the morning, everything was fine; my entire field of vision seemed normal.

As soon as it happened, I rushed to the ER... the doctor was very kind and immediately wrote me a referral for neurology...

I went to neurology, the specialist examined me and said this was actually an ophthalmology case...

And naturally, my mind went straight to the worst-case scenario... a brain tumor... because I had no idea vision could just vanish like that without any warning signs... and the only thing I'd read online was that vision loss happens when a tumor presses against the optic nerve...

So I asked her, and she politely replied that she "didn't think so" since all my other functions were fine... balance, no headaches, coordination, reflexes—I haven't really dealt with headaches much anyway, just occasionally—so she told me she didn't think it was that...

I went straight to the eye specialist, who checked me out and scheduled me for the next day...

Woke up the next morning, vision was 100% back to normal (no more clouds)...

I went in for an additional exam where they found a tiny retinal detachment... so they went ahead and treated it with a laser immediately (said it was preventative)... the doctor wasn't even sure if such a minor detachment could have caused the vision loss, since it was barely visible; they had to look at it from every possible angle for a long time just to decide it was a detachment and not just "normal" anatomy...

He gave me a few possible causes for the vision loss:
1. That detachment they lasered
2. Poor circulation in the eye
3. High blood sugar
4. And he repeated that it wasn't a tumor, because the optic nerve would show signs of something that dangerous

Other than that, the eye looks perfectly healthy—no damage, no burst vessels, everything is a 5 out of 5...

It is true that my vision in that eye has been slightly weaker for a while now (the image is just a bit blurrier than the left) and my eye wanders a little due to the muscle...

But I’ve never had vision issues on this scale before...

And besides all that, the doctor asked me during the exam if I was under a lot of stress

She mentioned that, along with what we already discussed, stress can cause vision loss... whether it's by weakening circulation so the eye momentarily lacks blood flow or some other way, I couldn't quite get the specifics...

So now I'm stuck in this loop, wondering if it was stress, circulation, or the detachment...

Honestly, I was scared shitless (mostly just from the uncertainty)... and I'm still feeling pretty unsettled...

Because the doctor tells me there aren't any supplements that can actually improve ocular circulation (meaning they exist on the market, but they do more harm than good) and he can't say with 100% certainty if this will happen again... it might never happen again, or it could happen multiple times...

Does anyone in your family have a history of thrombosis, high blood pressure, or strokes?

It’s entirely possible you dealt with a clot in one of those *what do you call them, there must be dozens of them* vessels in the eye.

That could easily explain the poor circulation in the eye your doctor mentioned.

Douglas Ramos2 said:That choking sensation is such a classic stress symptom... though allergies can feel similar too.
...I actually spiraled thinking I was suffocating... even after they found a tiny cyst on my thyroid that was way too small to be causing any actual pressure. But if you haven't felt it, you really don't know how scary it is. 😲..
It’s one thing for doctors to chalk everything up to stress—which I get—but it’s another thing entirely to just send someone home without any kind of relief or "medicine," regardless of how much it's affecting their life. 😠

Yeah... whether it's typical or not... I mean, where would the stress even come from if everything is going perfectly? Back then, I didn't even know what stress felt like—none of that nervousness or fear of things going wrong... it was probably the most ideal period of my life. 😉 hehehhe
But you're right about one thing, and that's the worst part... being sent home like that without any real help.

Carol Wright said:Yeah... whether it's typical or not... I mean, where would the stress even come from if everything is going perfectly? Back then, I didn't even know what stress felt like—none of that nervousness or fear of things going wrong... it was probably the most ideal period of my life. 😉 hehehhe
But you're right about one thing, and that's the worst part... being sent home like that without any real help.

Neurologists have actually found that about 95% to 99% of everything we do is handled by our subconscious. That’s why we rarely even notice how we're behaving half the time.
☕

lonebear3 said:Does anyone in your family have a history of thrombosis, high blood pressure, or strokes?

It’s entirely possible you dealt with a clot in one of those *what do you call them, there must be dozens of them* vessels in the eye.

That could easily explain the poor circulation in the eye your doctor mentioned.

As far as I know, nobody in my family has dealt with thrombosis...

My dad has some issues with blood pressure (it's slightly elevated) and general circulation...

When I checked my own pressure at Amanda Long30's place right after it happened, it was 125/85.

By the time I got to the hospital about an hour later, it was down to 120/80.

As for the whole blood clot thing... maybe... who knows...

Since I barely move from my chair, my circulation probably isn't exactly stellar...

The bottom line is that I need a total lifestyle overhaul, which is always the hardest part... primarily, I need to actually start moving more and quit smoking...

Timothy Morgan38 said:As far as I know, nobody in my family has dealt with thrombosis...

My dad has some issues with blood pressure (it's slightly elevated) and general circulation...

When I checked my own pressure at Amanda Long30's place right after it happened, it was 125/85.

By the time I got to the hospital about an hour later, it was down to 120/80.

As for the whole blood clot thing... maybe... who knows...

Since I barely move from my chair, my circulation probably isn't exactly stellar...

The bottom line is that I need a total lifestyle overhaul, which is always the hardest part... primarily, I need to actually start moving more and quit smoking...

If it helps at all, I dealt with so much stress when I was trying to quit smoking... I'm being totally serious... I eventually realized that the little bit of damage from smoking wasn't actually worse than the massive stress of dealing with withdrawal.😁 ..

Douglas Ramos2 said:If it helps at all, I dealt with so much stress when I was trying to quit smoking... I'm being totally serious... I eventually realized that the little bit of damage from smoking wasn't actually worse than the massive stress of dealing with withdrawal.😁 ..

I get it... I really do...

It’s just that everything is hitting me at once, a total perfect storm, so I definitely need to take action... let's break it down:

1. I’m carrying about 65 pounds of extra weight
2. I don't move at all
3. I smoke
4. My job is strictly sedentary
5. I barely eat any fruits or vegetables

Since I can't exactly swap careers (well, I could, but why bother?), I have to try to tackle the other items on this list...

Ideally, I’d just kick the habit, start working out, and watch the weight melt away...

But knowing human nature—how willpower evaporates the second you hit a single roadblock—I should probably just aim for small lifestyle shifts...

Maybe toss some "healthy" stuff into my diet and start walking more... and then just take the rest one step at a time...

1. I’m carrying about 65 pounds of extra weight...not
2. I don't get any exercise at all....me neither
3. I smoke...same here
4. My job is totally sedentary...so is mine
5. I don't eat nearly enough fruits and veggies...I eat way too much of those

It would be perfect if I could just quit smoking and start a sport to drop the weight...

But trying to do both at once is basically an impossible mission... you'll go crazy without the cigarettes and end up eating like you've never eaten before. Trust me, especially if you already have a bit of a sweet tooth or a habit of overeating. I ended up gaining about 13 pounds in just a few months... first it was the smoking, then the weight followed right after.

Douglas Ramos2 said:1. I’m carrying about 65 pounds of extra weight...not
2. I don't get any exercise at all....me neither
3. I smoke...same here
4. My job is totally sedentary...so is mine
5. I don't eat nearly enough fruits and veggies...I eat way too much of those

It would be perfect if I could just quit smoking and start a sport to drop the weight...

But trying to do both at once is basically an impossible mission... you'll go crazy without the cigarettes and end up eating like you've never eaten before. Trust me, especially if you already have a bit of a sweet tooth or a habit of overeating. I ended up gaining about 13 pounds in just a few months... first it was the smoking, then the weight followed right after.

Look, I definitely have a tendency to overeat, but I can hold myself back... most of my extra weight comes down to being stationary... I barely manage to walk even 200 feet in a single day...

I eat pretty normally—basically the same portions as my wife—but she’s only 130 pounds and stays lean because she’s constantly moving around the house, cleaning, tidying up, blah blah blah...