How Chronic Stress Can Affect Your Sight. (approx. 2-3 min. read)

In between writing my blogs about traveling with cannabis, I had my first appointment with the eye surgeon and thought I’d write this week’s blog about CSR - Central Serous Retinopathy and what was going on with my sight.

The first blog I wrote about CSR was back in June of this year; when I was first diagnosed but I had no idea the diagnosis was going to obsess almost every thought of every day in the months following.

CSR is a recurring condition in which fluid accumulates in the central region of the macula and if recovery is prolonged, damage to the retina can occur. They aren’t sure what causes it, but one of the known triggers for this disease is an elevated stress level, and it may result in mild to moderate vision loss.

Knowing this only makes the disease harder to deal with because the more you stress, the more damage can occur and knowing that only made me stress more.

And I’m sure you’re wondering why I don’t just stop thinking about it, but it’s extremely difficult. Every time I look at anything; whether it’s the letters of a word in a book, a computer or television screen or when I’m out on a nature walk - I’m reminded of just how much my eye sight has deteriorated because of this disease.

At the worst part of my disease my eye-sight deteriorated to 20/60, so everything I looked at was blurry; whether it was up close or far away. And it was easy to fix the far-sightedness by just upping my readers from 125’s to 300’s, but there was no way to fix the near-sightedness because it was and still is changing so much.

The good news ...my retina is starting to repair itself and my eye-sight is in between 20/60 and 20/40! The surgeon said it can take up to 14 weeks to close (on average) and we’re past that by almost a month, but it is closing and that is fantastic news!

I’ve been crying happy tears on and off since my appointment and now when I look through these blurry eyes, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. The light is faint but it’s getting stronger with each day.

And I have to say I’m incredibly proud of myself because not only was I able to get through the stress of eliminating the nay-sayers, I really believe I'm coming out the other side stronger than ever!

Sure my condition is chronic, and the surgeon has told me she will be ‘following’ me for the rest of my life, but with her help and the elimination of the toxicity that used to be a part of my life - I will be able to keep this condition under control and keep my eye-sight.

Stay safe and stay strong. Thanks for following.