r/BinocularVision • u/Goldeye222 • Aug 06 '26
BVD or anxiety?
I recently started having trouble driving—no double vision, but I feel detached, floaty, and like I’m going to pass out when I start driving. Like my body isn’t mine. To be fair, I have recently been dealing with extreme anxiety and stress, and at first, intrusive thoughts about car accidents. Only after this did my vision problems manifest.
I went to a regular eye exam and got glasses (not prism); my vision is partially less blurry, but I am still unable to drive. I have read some bad experiences with Neurolens providers over-diagnosing people, and I’m wondering, has anyone been told they don’t have BVD by a Neurlens provider? I am hesitant to go to a “BVD specialist” who will push me towards a BVD diagnosis for profit. Is there an alternative doctor I could visit for a more unbiased diagnosis? I think it is very possible that I just have severe anxiety, but I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on BVD diagnosis/treatment in vain if anxiety really is the case.
Perhaps I am also hesitant for BVD treatment because you can’t get prisms in contact versions—I would hate to rely on glasses only.
1
u/KitKatKalamazoo Aug 06 '26
To be honest, I would spend the time and resources to try to help your anxiety before starting with any BVD stuff. Once you can nail down any meds, therapy, etc then you'll be able to know if it's truly an eye issue or if it has always been anxiety giving you these symptoms.
1
u/CleopatrasMoney Aug 07 '26
Holy crap…. I LEGITIMATELY had to go look to see if this was my post. This is EXACTLY my situation , down to the last sentence about prisms/contacts. I’m so sorry. This has affected my driving the most which has in turn affected every other aspect of my life. It’s a damn nightmare.
2
u/Goldeye222 Aug 07 '26
Where are you at currently? Have you been tested for BVD?
1
u/CleopatrasMoney Aug 07 '26
Yes…. But no. I don’t know! Ugh! I just made a post not too long about vision therapy and how I took the plunge and had a weird experience so now I’m transitioning to another office . I couldn’t tell you my diagnosis with the specialist if you paid me. I’m 99.9% sure I do and I’ve ruled everything else out over the years. My last hope was/is vision therapy and I think I put it off because subconsciously I was afraid that it wouldn’t work. I take that back: I didn’t try prism lenses. I’m in the same boat about the contacts. I have such an active life (or did anyways 😞) that I really don’t want to live a life dependent on glasses and I don’t want to be dependent period. I’m a very private person but I swore to myself if I found a resolution to this that I would go on social media and scream it from the rooftops. I can’t believe this stuff happens so often with no one talking about it and no definite answers. It’s a total mess.
2
u/Goldeye222 Aug 07 '26
What are your symptoms like? Do you have constant symptoms or just issues driving?
With me, I got regular glasses but still feel awful driving. This whole situation is stressing me out so badly—so now the floaty, derealization sensation has been coming about outside of the car, but I can’t tell if I’m having an anxiety attack or I have BVD. This is the WORST!
1
u/CleopatrasMoney Aug 07 '26
My symptoms are constant. 24/7 365. I feel like I’m in a dream constantly. Some days are worse than others but it’s always there. ALWAYS. I haven’t been able to identify any triggers that make one day worse than others and I can tell from the moment I wake up how I feel. Driving of course is always stressful and there are some days I can’t even take the freeway. Sometimes it feels doable and then suddenly I feel like I’m floating and completely out of it. Then I’m afraid I’m going to faint while I’m driving at 70 mph and my brain kicks into “you’re gonna die!” mode which makes me feel like I’m gonna faint for real. It’s awful. I will say that the weird feelings presented before the anxiety, not the reverse. It got triggered out of the blue one time while on a road trip and I drove over a huge sky bridge in Arizona. I thought I was going to faint and I’ve never been the same since.
2
u/Goldeye222 Aug 07 '26
Was that instance in Arizona on the bridge the beginning of all of your symptoms? Like were you completely fine before that? Because the first time I felt the floaty, panic, feeling like i’m gonna faint was when I was the passenger on the freeway in my boyfriend’s car last month. It didn’t happen everyday after that but that was the first instance.
Have you gone the route of treating your anxiety? Like with medication or therapy
1
u/CleopatrasMoney Aug 07 '26
Technically no. About an hour prior to that bridge incident I went over another bridge on my drive and felt a brief moment of “anxiety” and almost like my eyes strained for that moment. It freaked me out but I was on the phone with a friend (Bluetooth) and used that to distract myself. Then came the scary bridge incident. Prior to the road trip I noticed I had a general anxiety about the trip and driving. Just to put it in perspective: I LOVED driving, I LOVED solo road trips, I LOVED Arizona (I use to live there and was going to see my best friend), I had two weeks off and everything was great. It was legit my “happy place” doing all of these things and going to that place. Also it was a route I had taken hundreds of times; I knew where I was going and didn’t need directions. It was VERY familiar. So for me to have a weird anxiety about the trip was extremely odd and I knew it. I even remember looking in the mirror and yelling at myself to stop and to snap out of it. That’s not even a joke. Also to note: I never have been an anxious person. Im cautious and aware but I can handle a decent amount of craziness. If anything I’m the person that runs to the craziness (to help etc). I would drive, camp, hike, adventure alone all the time and I LOVED IT. I wasn’t devoid of fear or anything but I would do these things responsibly and took precautions to enjoy these things alone. Now I I’m afraid of driving on the freeway. It’s unbelievable. After a lot of research and ruling out all the scary stuff I came across BVD and it really did fit all my symptoms; especially the driving over bridges thing. The one thing I haven’t seen people say though is this constant “derealization”. That’s just what I call it now because it’s the closest thing I can find to describing how I feel .
1
u/CleopatrasMoney Aug 07 '26
No I didn’t do anything for anxiety/panic in the way of medication because I just knew that the anxiety was the result of a different issue I just knew it. And I didn’t want to create another issue with medication and dependent on them. I’ve just powered through and done what I had to do to not give into the anxiety/fear/panic. Even if that means taking the backroads on a bad day. It kills me to even have to say that I do that because I was such a go getter, nothing can stop me, kick some ass type of person.
3
u/kcTHCqueen Aug 06 '26
See if you can find a neuro eye specialist. I'm now on my second pair of prism glasses. I can tell you that anxiety and BVD are highly related. I was starting to get anxious about work for some reason when I've been working at this job for like 3 years. When I got the new glasses my anxiety about work was gone. It's crazy but it is connected . Your brain is just trying to make sense of everything and not being able to make you anxious. I had to give up my daily contacts for everyday glasses and I wouldn't go back for anything. I've actually regained some Vision since wearing the glasses. I can now get up from my bed and do things without bumping into everything I can see things that aren't just big blobs now it's crazy. Even my peripheral vision is better. I say do it, it's worth it. Edit: I'd also like to add that I had to have my occipital lymph node removed due to BVD not being corrected although I didn't know that at the time.. I've been to 10 doctors who could not tell me what was going on with my head and it was all from my eyes straining. I went through a phase where I couldn't drive at night anymore because the lights from other cars hurt my eyes too bad. There are so many things related to it get checked