Constant dizziness, disorientation after wearing contacts
Posted , 25 users are following.
Hi everyone,
I went to thailand two months ago, and on my connecting flight in South Korea, I decided to put in my contact lenses. After putting them in, I felt a sense of disorientation, dizziness, where I thought I was having heat exhaustion. It happened for an hour and I forgot about it. When I arrived in Thailand, it happened twice more, every other morning when I first put them in, a sense of wooziness and dizziness occured but would go away. My very last night in Thailand i put my contacts in and felt dizzy again for an hour, and was fine, later went out to dinner then all of a sudden I got so dizzy, I started having a panic attack. I didn't know what was going on and went to the ER. No one knew what was wrong with me...that night I took my contact lenses out and still felt horrible. Like I was disoriented, couldn't focus, like my vision was weird, I started having head pressure as well. This feeling never went away and I still have it two months later straight. I do notice the sensation is less prominent either at night or when I have my glasses off. I feel less of the sensation, but the mornings are the worst.
Any ideas? I've seen a neurologist, ENT, everything, was checked for ear problems Vestibular Neurtis. I'm so stuck here...however I never mentioned my eyes were involved because today it just clicked with the whole contact lense thing.
0 likes, 73 replies
just4747 stufon
Posted
Hi stufon. Any update on your issues?
stufon just4747
Posted
Hey there, I've been feeling a lot better. Been taking Amitrypline every night. Im not 100% but im about 90%...still sometimes feel off but I have my life back
margaret22116 stufon
Posted
So glad it worked for you. Didn't for me and made me feel worse š. However I am in remission now so do feel massively better. No headache no.migraine. But still very stuffy sore nose and sinus inflammation doesn't go.
fel06913 stufon
Posted
Hi stufon, just wondering what your current contact lenses prescription is? Did it change or stay the same for both eyes? And did the ophthalmologist and optometrist confirm that wearing the wrong contact lenses caused the dizziness? Or was it unrelated?
stufon fel06913
Posted
Mine is 3.50 in one eye and 3.00 in the other. I decided to wear the 3.50 in both one day and I screwed up and got symptoms..I wonder if it triggered it or something else...And I saw both physicians and they couldnt find the problem which lead me to believe it was migraine causing these issues. Once I took the medication, in 1-2 months, symptoms decreased dramatically
Ssthb stufon
Posted
hi stufon, not sure if you mentioned this or not but have you experienced vertigo during all of this? And i mean the type of vertigo where it feels like the room/your surrounding is spinning due to certain head movements?
carlos90111 stufon
Posted
stufon,
how long did you stop wearing your contacts for till you started feeling normal again?
the past month I've had constant dizziness only when i wear my contacts and it truly sucks. On the days i wear my glasses no issues at all, but when i put my contacts in and wait approx. 2-3 hours i start having awful dizziness & feel like passing out.
any advice helps š
DJpink stufon
Posted
I have had the exact same thing happen to me. I have worn glasses and contacts for 40 years. I went in for a routine eye exam and was placed in multifocal contacts and glasses. since then, I have been dizzy 24/7. It's like a floating, movement and woozy sensation. Looking at TVs, cell phones and computers makes it worse. It has. changed my life dramatically. I was going through a lot in the period before the eye exam and 4 days prior had my first panic attack ever. The theory is that the dizziness the new contacts caused triggered the event and my brain could not handle the drastic change in contact lens prescription. I then became obsessed and focused and terrified of the dizziness this creating the loop for the vicious cycle of fear and anxiety and dizziness. This is called PPPD. I would love to talk to you. Reach out anytime.
brian40174 DJpink
Posted
Hi DJpink, If you're needing to reach out to like minded PPPD sufferers, check out and join the Facebook page 'Chronic Subjective Dizziness (CSD)/Persistent Post/Percep Dizziness (PPPD)' Lots of people sharing their experiences and frustrations over PPPD. I've been diagnosed for over a year now and think my symptoms started because of my brain failing to adapt to varifocals after years of wearing single vision specs. Hope this helps.
DJpink brian40174
Posted
Hi Brian. I am in the group. so you also have had a similar experience with contacts? Strangest thing ever. How are you doing?
DJpink
Posted
Do you feel anxiety was a cause for your inability to compensate and adjust? I can't discount that i had a panic attack 3 days be getting new lenses but i dont know if my anxiety would have gotten to this level had I not gone in and had such a big prescription change. also i reacted to the dizziness by freaking out and became so scared so i know that didn't help and was probably my trigger.
brian40174 DJpink
Posted
My trigger appears to have been wearing varifocals for the first time after only ever using single vision glasses. I had to ditch the varifocals over a year ago and have gone back to single vision glasses, but because I'm very short sighted, anything closer than a metre away appears pretty blurred, and I can only think that my brain has never compensated for this, which is pretty reasonable to assume, as much of what I'm looking at on a day to day basis is pretty close to me, e.g PC screens, phones, tablets, TV, work surfaces etc. As for anxiety, I had my share of that in the beginning, always worried that something awful and life-threatening was wrong with me, which I'm sure contributed to the dizziness, but now I'm not anxious at all most of the time, but the dizziness I experience hasn't gone away, in fact if anything it's worse than ever.
jack18521 DJpink
Posted
itās so weird that you were all mentioning panic attacks. Because when The dizziness comes on I also start to get a little short of breath and my heart rate goes up. Iāve had two episodes where I couldnāt I couThe dizziness comes on I also start to get a little short of breath and my heart rate goes up. Iāve had two episodes where I could not calm not calm down. I feel like itās some sort of fight or flight reaction. If I lay down and just chill out, the panic attacks seems to go away. But it is very concerning. I have had all the same symptoms you all have had. I have not worn my contact lenses for four months. But that has not helped I still have the same symptoms when Iām wearing my glasses. I will say there seems to be a slight noticeable issue with my ears as well, and I feel like this contributes to the dizziness . But that has not helped I still have the same symptoms when Iām wearing my glasses. I will say there seems to be a slight noticeable issue with my ears as well, and I feel like this contributes to the dizziness. Thanks for sharing your info.
DJpink stufon
Posted
I've stayed in the multifocal contacts and glasses. I tried single vision with reader but was struggling so much, and it didn't help with the dizziness anyway. At the time this all started I was going through a lot of stress so the theory is the big prescription change was just too much to handle for the brain and like I said, I reacted to the dizziness with huge fear. I'm now working on the anxiety aspect because regardless of how all of this started I need to manage one to manage the other. It's been life changing and I'm so tired of it all. I'm ready to heal this so I can get on with life. Did any
one ever hear from the or poster?
DJpink stufon
Posted
Brian- what have you been told with regards to the glasses causing this problem and what they think is the issue? Have you gotten any helpful insight and how are they treating it?