Right eye sees darker than left at night? Doctor wants an ERG?

Posted , 13 users are following.

I'm new to this forum and need advice as soon as possible. I have generalized anxiety disorder and I'm a hypochondriac. I'm loosing my mind over here

For a while now I've noticed that after I watch tv or look at my phone, my right eye begins to feel weird. I close my left eye and realize that my right eye sees a lot darker than my left, as if a curtain shade appeared in front of my eye. It goes away within 10-20 mins.

I went to te eye doctor and he did all these eye exams and was even confused about my symptoms. He even dilated my eyes to look at my Retina. He said everything looked completely normal and I left without a diagnosis. I do wear glasses and my right eye is a bit worse than my left. I also have astigmatism.

The doctor did say that this is either a symptom of my anxiety, or it could be retinitis pigmentosa. I didn't know what that was so I said oh okay. He referred me to an ophthalmologist who will perform an ERG.

Being the hypochondriac that I am, I looked up the disease and immediately freaked out!! It's a genetic disease that could lead to me going blind?! And my symptoms fit!

My anxiety has been crazy and I've had a panic attack ever since with the fear of me going possibly blind in a couple of years.

My ERG is scheduled in two weeks, and it will be the two worst weeks of my life.

Has anyone else had these symptoms? Does it have anything to do with seeing something bright like my tv or phone and then turning it off in complete darkness? It only happens with something that has a black light like those two. Other than that, if I walk in a dark room both of my eyes are fine.

Also how does an ERG feel like and what's the process? Id like to read people's experiences and what they've been diagnosed with

I hope I don't have that disease, no one in my family has that and I have a huge family. What are the chances I get the diseases out of everyone since its genetic

Thank you in advance for your replies

0 likes, 14 replies

14 Replies

  • Posted

    Hello,

    Im no perfessional at this, but i think i experiwnce the same problem. But i dont know if its the same thing. Mine i figured out and is simple, yours may be complex. It all depends on one thing. Do you have both eyes open?

    Nos what i mean is are both eyes open while you watch tv or use your phone or whatever?

    Now for me, i normally have my light off and lay down when using my phone (like im doing now). NORMALLY i am laying down to the side where either my leftvor right eye is basically condumed in my pillow. So i close that eye since its not needed and doesnr accidently touch the pillow or what not. After a while if i look at my room with one eye open and the other closed, and then switch. The eye thats closed sees my room better than the other. The one that was open sees darker.

    Now if this IS your case. Ill be happy to inform you that this is normal and its simply one eye is usrd to seeing darker than the other. In my case the eye i had closed will see my room better and lighter is because it wasnt looking at a bright screen for however long. So its used to darkness. Eventually they will both will see the same since the other eye is adjusted so the pupil will let in more light, allowing that eye to see in thr dark better.

    If this is NOT your case, than i apologize for wasting your time, and i really have no clue what to do if even your eye doctor doesnt know.

    Alsp if this is your case, unless it bothers you, i wouldnt worry too much. But if it does, then try having it do both eyes see the same ammount of light. Or try to dim the lights of whatever your looking at. And if it still happens and bothers you, the easiest fix is to just close your eyes for a bit so they both will see the same amount of light.

    Have a good life :D

    • Posted

      This is the way it happens!!!! I noticed that I do close one eye omg thank you so much! And it only happens when I look at something bright. So far I've been so terrified about it being a disease that at night I stopped watching tv or my phone and my vision is completely normal. Thank you so much you've relieved a lot of stress from me
    • Posted

      I after reading my comment explaining it. I apologize for how many misspellings i made. Thats just something that bothers me about typing on a phone
    • Posted

      I can't seem to thank you enough about this. i tested this out to see if this is what was causing me to see darker from my eye and it is. thank you times a million. 
  • Posted

    your doctor is a moron.RP can be detected through eye dilation, and if he said all looks normal then you dont have it.i am suffering from the exact problem/symtomps as you, but it only happned after i started obsessing about my eyes, and incredibly stressed about it. it happens when im looking at my phone for long periods of time in "turned on" light and if i suddenly switch the lights off my right eye sees much dimmer than the left.It adjusts itself in a few minutes. i do have myopia. i strongly think this is stressed related.would like an opinion too on this board from an MD.thanks

    • Posted

      you don't know how much this helped me, I also started obsessing about my eye and currently I'm panicking because when I close my right eye I can still see my eyelid through my left vision, does yours happen the same way too?

  • Posted

    I know this thread is old but hoping you're still on here. I also suffer from general anxiety disorder although I'm not a hypochondriac I woke up this morning and my vision in one eye was considerably darker than through my other eye. This was alarming to say the least. Wondering if you ever got your ERG or diagnosed? 

    • Posted

      hey I've had the exact same thing to happen how you gotten any test or answers since your last post?

  • Posted

    I go thru the same thing except i close my right eye, don’t freak out nothing to worry about. Its just light exposure when you close one eye at night when looking at your phone the bright light from your phone affects the eye making your pupil become smaller to adjust to the brightness but then when you go from light to dark quick it takes some time for your pupil to respond to the light exposure change but since there is no light it takes a while seeing that theres nothing for your brain to correlate to use to adjust focus  
  • Posted

    I've also noticed that no matter what I can see better in the dark with my left and better in the light with my right eye.

    I have an astigmatism in my left eye so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

    I used to wear glasses but a few years ago stopped since my eye doctor said it wasn't necessary anymore

  • Posted

    I have the same eye problem as you all. noticed the first time after using my phone in the dark. While I had one eye closed. Closing 1 eye is a bad habit developed over the past 3 years. I also developed blurry vision. I can read small text with readers but very hard now without. things far away can still see pretty good. it's just closer to mid distance they get blurry. Then 2 things that dont help with that... I have very long thick eyelashes. Yes I am a dude... also have dropping eye lids. So having both issues... make it even harder to read. But it's not what's messing up my vision making it blurry. I was suppose to finish testing at the eye doctor a few years back. started having some major health issues been dealing with that. I do need to go back they eye doc thought it was serious.... yes dealing with depression too... but my point. I am thinking its probably normal being dark after looking at a bright screen...I think were all fine in that aspect. God Bless!

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