AGORAPHOBIA AND HETEROPHORIA, IF YOU HAVE ONE YOU HAVE THE OTHER.

AGORAPHOBIA AND HETEROPHORIA, IF YOU HAVE ONE YOU HAVE THE OTHER.

Heterophoria is where the two eyes have difficulty looking directly at the image being viewed. The eye muscles take over and try to correct this condition. But over a long period of time the eye muscle becomes over worked and you end up with the symptoms of agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is not the result of panic, panic is the result of agoraphobia. Some symptoms are strained eye muscles which cause headaches, usually in the front of the face or in the temples. As the muscles strain they become fatigued and they quiver, causing the eyes to move rapidly but minutely, which creates the feeling of dizziness, lightheartedness  disorientation and a sense of imbalance. Other symptoms are face ache, eye pain or pain with eye movement. These symptoms are similar to sinus problems, migraines, TMJ problems, neck ache and upper back pain due to head tilt. Symptoms similar to spinal misalignment problems, motion sickness, nausea, poor depth perception, unsteadiness while walking or drifting to one side while walking, lack of coordination. There are also symptoms similar to those seen in patients with MS or Meniere’s disease. Difficulty with concentration similar to ADHD. Difficulty with reading comprehension, skipping lines, while reading, words running together while reading similar to those seen with learning disability. Also blurred vision, double or over lapping vision, shadowed vision, light sensitivity, difficulty with glare or reflection.

Feelings of being overwhelmed or anxious when in large contained spaces. Like malls or big box stores. Feeling overwhelmed or anxious in crowds seen in patients with agoraphobia and anxiety. This condition may be caused by head trauma, stroke, or neurological disorders. However, most often this is a condition you are born with. It may take years before symptoms occur, as the body will do its best to compensate for these problems. This condition runs in family’s

To correct this problem, the optometrist adds prism to your lenses. Prism is a way of making the lenses such that the image seen by the eye is moved up or down or to the side. Whatever is needed to allow the eye to point in the correct direction without straining the eye muscles. Proper prism correction leads to a reduction of symptoms of (on average) about 80%.

This information was taken from the book “If the Walls of my Exam Room Could Talk” by Debby Feinberg O.D.