Single Dilated Pupil. Major Spiral..First time Poster

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Hi all, My names Ashley and this is my first post on here. I have health anxiety as I work in medical (dental) and can safely say that my extreme awareness of the body has caused this as my attention to detail at work is always at play.

A week or so ago I got a strange tingly in my arm during surgery at work and for what ever reason thought I was having a stroke. I went into the bathroom to calm down afterwards and while looking in the mirror noticed one of my pupils was slightly larger than the other. I tried not to panic at first but instantly thought - eyes, brain, stroke. Cue meltdown mode. I went instantly after work to a nearby urgent care just in case, the Nurse practitioner saw me straight away and did some tests on my eyes to see if they were reactive. She said several times they were and that she didn't see a difference honestly. I felt relief for an instance but when I went home I made the dreaded mistake of google. I thought oh my god a brain tumor? Again, terror. I tried to fight the fear but unfortunately lost and went to the ER. The doctor was so nice and again did an eye exam. Told me he did not see much of a difference maybe slightly in one eye but both were reactive. He then did some neurology exams on me like squeezing his finger, pressing against my arms made me stand up and walk around and made me read an eye chart from far away.

I started therapy the other day and expressed how I just cant get over this fear that something is seriously wrong with my eye because of this pupil. I made an appointment with an eye doctor for tomorrow morning and am now anxious about that. I don't know if anyone else has ever experienced this issue with their eyes or not but it would be really helpful to talk. Thanks so much in advance guys

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2 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi. I'm so sorry you're going through this. I've had GAD, Health Anxiety, Panic Disorder, & OCD (diagnosed) for 15 years now. I haven't had this particular symptom before, but have had so many symptoms (from the usual ones to ones that are completely off-the-wall). I can honestly say that if you've been told that you check out ok by several medical practitioners, you're probably o.k. I understand you not trusting what they say... I've been there, but eventually, you need to let it sink in that you are alright & it is your anxiety. It's hard to do, I know. Anxiety isn't logical. You can know that something is o.k... but still there's that voice in the back of your head saying, "What if?" I can't fix your problem, but just wanted to let you know there is someone who understands. I hope my comment is able to help you in some way.

  • Posted

    I had the same thing, my left pupil. was seen by a neurologist for my anxiety making think I had ms. she is the one that noticed it, did some test in the office. she said I don't have ms, but wanted a brain mri to see if something was wrong up there because of the slight dilated pupil. mri came back clear. said nothing to worry about then.

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