In the top picture the eye is looking down it is not in alignment with the star.
In the second picture the eye muscles strain to correct the misalignment, after much struggle it now aligns with the star. Most people can depend on their eye muscles to correct this problem to a certain extant but eventually the muscles get tired and start to give out. It usually take a traumatic event to totally give out. As we get older and stress starts to take over we start to have symptoms. Some babies have symptoms out of the womb. They are unhappy and no one knows why. Some have it happen in early child hood. I was 28 years old with two children when mine hit. I have other symptoms that but didn't pay much attention to them. Then sometimes it comes and goes. You seem to be doing fine may be for a year or so and then when some problem hits you start to feel dizzy, or anxious, or afraid and don't know why. This the eye muscle trying to regain alignment. It quivers and with that comes dizzyness. Eyes that are misaligned cause blurred or double vision. The brain does not tolerate blurred or double vision, so it forces the eyes to look at the exact same spot, so that only one image is seen. This is accomplished by straining the eye muscles to make one eye look up a little more, and the other eye to look down a little more. As the muscles strain, they become fatigued and jittery, and can no longer keep the eyes in the correct alignment. This "bouncing" in and out of alignment creates the feeling of dizziness, lightheadedness, vertigo and a sense of imbalance.
What happenes to you when all of this starts happening? You retreat when the fight or flight response takes over. YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK! The threat to your survival is real. Can you understand now why you can't come out of the bedroom? It's like the soldier in the trenches, he is not leaving the trench until the all clear is called. The problem is this, there is never an all clear for the agoraphobic their always under attack. Sometimes all symptoms go away for a while only to come back with a vengence when a stressful time in your life happens. The older you get the harder it is for the muscles to keep the eyes aligned.
By now I'm sure you have a few questions like, what, how did this happen to me? Does this happen to everyone? The medical community has adopted an "all in the family" attitude towards many disability's and diseases and this is one of them. Some have diabetes, cancer, autism, deformities the list goes on. So you might have had an Aunt Genevieve or an Uncle Joe that had something strange with them. Some cases of this condition may be caused by head trauma, stroke, or neurological disorders. Maybe some who have had some symptoms of agoraphobia have had a car accident or fell and this put them in full force agoraphobia. The eye muscles get jarred and become misaligned. In my family we have Diabetes and Heterophoria. More women than men have this condition, I am not sure why.
Are you starting to understand now why you get overwhelmed or anxious in crowds or with driving? Some people have face pain, eye pain, TMJ problems, neck ache and upper back pain due to a head tilt. The head tilt is the body's way of trying to align the eyes. Look at pictures of yourself and see if your head is tilted to the side. I realize that a lot of us tilt our head in a picture but not in every one and not to the severe angle you will see. My head was so tilted it was almost flat. You might get motion sickness, nausea, poor depth perception, unsteadiness while walking or drifting to one side while walking. Lack of coordination similar to those seen in patients with MS, or stroke, and inner ear disorder or Meniere's Disease. Maybe you have reading symptoms such as difficulty with reading and comprehension, skipping lines while reading, losing one's place while reading, words running together while reading, similar to those seen with a learning disbility.You might have blurred vision, double or overlapping vision, shadowed vision, light sensitivity, difficulty with glare or reflection. Psychological symptoms such as feeling overwhelmed or anxious when in large contained spaces like malls or big box stores like WalMart. Feeling overwhelmed or anxious in crowds or with driving. Who knew! Thanks to the internet this information is available to everyone. The internet is God's gift to mankind. That is where I went when all else failed.
In the second picture the eye muscles strain to correct the misalignment, after much struggle it now aligns with the star. Most people can depend on their eye muscles to correct this problem to a certain extant but eventually the muscles get tired and start to give out. It usually take a traumatic event to totally give out. As we get older and stress starts to take over we start to have symptoms. Some babies have symptoms out of the womb. They are unhappy and no one knows why. Some have it happen in early child hood. I was 28 years old with two children when mine hit. I have other symptoms that but didn't pay much attention to them. Then sometimes it comes and goes. You seem to be doing fine may be for a year or so and then when some problem hits you start to feel dizzy, or anxious, or afraid and don't know why. This the eye muscle trying to regain alignment. It quivers and with that comes dizzyness. Eyes that are misaligned cause blurred or double vision. The brain does not tolerate blurred or double vision, so it forces the eyes to look at the exact same spot, so that only one image is seen. This is accomplished by straining the eye muscles to make one eye look up a little more, and the other eye to look down a little more. As the muscles strain, they become fatigued and jittery, and can no longer keep the eyes in the correct alignment. This "bouncing" in and out of alignment creates the feeling of dizziness, lightheadedness, vertigo and a sense of imbalance.
What happenes to you when all of this starts happening? You retreat when the fight or flight response takes over. YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK! The threat to your survival is real. Can you understand now why you can't come out of the bedroom? It's like the soldier in the trenches, he is not leaving the trench until the all clear is called. The problem is this, there is never an all clear for the agoraphobic their always under attack. Sometimes all symptoms go away for a while only to come back with a vengence when a stressful time in your life happens. The older you get the harder it is for the muscles to keep the eyes aligned.
By now I'm sure you have a few questions like, what, how did this happen to me? Does this happen to everyone? The medical community has adopted an "all in the family" attitude towards many disability's and diseases and this is one of them. Some have diabetes, cancer, autism, deformities the list goes on. So you might have had an Aunt Genevieve or an Uncle Joe that had something strange with them. Some cases of this condition may be caused by head trauma, stroke, or neurological disorders. Maybe some who have had some symptoms of agoraphobia have had a car accident or fell and this put them in full force agoraphobia. The eye muscles get jarred and become misaligned. In my family we have Diabetes and Heterophoria. More women than men have this condition, I am not sure why.
Are you starting to understand now why you get overwhelmed or anxious in crowds or with driving? Some people have face pain, eye pain, TMJ problems, neck ache and upper back pain due to a head tilt. The head tilt is the body's way of trying to align the eyes. Look at pictures of yourself and see if your head is tilted to the side. I realize that a lot of us tilt our head in a picture but not in every one and not to the severe angle you will see. My head was so tilted it was almost flat. You might get motion sickness, nausea, poor depth perception, unsteadiness while walking or drifting to one side while walking. Lack of coordination similar to those seen in patients with MS, or stroke, and inner ear disorder or Meniere's Disease. Maybe you have reading symptoms such as difficulty with reading and comprehension, skipping lines while reading, losing one's place while reading, words running together while reading, similar to those seen with a learning disbility.You might have blurred vision, double or overlapping vision, shadowed vision, light sensitivity, difficulty with glare or reflection. Psychological symptoms such as feeling overwhelmed or anxious when in large contained spaces like malls or big box stores like WalMart. Feeling overwhelmed or anxious in crowds or with driving. Who knew! Thanks to the internet this information is available to everyone. The internet is God's gift to mankind. That is where I went when all else failed.
