Eye rolling while reading

[AHB900]

###### everyone, I seem to be having a seriously hard time while read books or any thing actually. I am in college and I am studying to be a lawyer which requires me to do ALOT of reading. My problem is everytime i read i end up rolling my eyes after ever word. Due to this my eyes end up tearing up and i start yawning i dont even know why. This makes it really hard for me to read usually i cant even pick up what im reading. Any body have anything i can do to stop this? The weird thing is if i stop reading get up and walk around i dont roll my eyes, but once i come back sit down start reading again i start freaking out and rolling my eyes again.

 

Any ideas? this is reallly making it very hard for me to pass my classes etc.

 

Thank You

[ccc]

I don't know if this well help or not. But my son has had the eye tic for the past 2 weeks. His seem to be at anytime not just reading, but he has been reading more since school started. Anyway I will put eye drops in to help with the irritation that he has caused from rubbiing and rolling this eyes. Also he waers sunglasses alot because his eyes are very sensitive to light when he has eye tics. It might help since your eyes my feel my strain when reading. Sometimes the contrast of the black ink against white paper can cause a glare. Also with the sunglasses on it is harder for him to rub his eyes which I think makes it worse. I am so sorry you are going thru this.

[momof4boys]

My son's doctor has him do eye exercises which seem to help him. If you are ticcing/rolling UP, then you should try to strengthen the eyes by looking DOWN at a fixed target and try to hold them there for the count of 20. Go in the opposite way your are ticcing. For example, if you are sitting in a chair, place something on the floor by your feet and sit with your head straight and then *without* moving your head, force your eyes to look DOWN at the target. Repeat the exercise throughout the day but if you are getting fatigued, don't push it. Only do what you can without putting strain on your eyes.

 

Another exercise we use at home is to write the alphabet on a white board with different colored markers and then he has to go thru the letters and say the corresponding color. Make sure to keep your head still so only your eyes are moving/tracking. Since you are in law school maybe you can figure out something more exciting to write on the white board other than the alphabet. My son is much younger so we use the alphabet.

 

You can also do the spinning execises if you have a swivel chair. Spin yourself (not too fast, not too slow... just sort of a regular spin) for about 5 times with your eyes CLOSED. Open your eyes and look DOWN at a fixed target on the floor and count to 20. Since you are ticcing up you want to make the eyes go down so it will start to balance your eyes out again.

 

If you have a friend who can help you they can hold a pencil (the eraser would be your target) about 2 or 3 feet in front of your face and have them move the eraser slowly in all sorts of directions, up, down, left, right, etc. At the end have them move the eraser close towards your nose so your eyes will follow it in until they are almost crossed. See if you are able to follow/track with this exercise and if your eyes move, put them right back on the target.

 

This doctor also feels that putting different colored films on top of paper can help with reading. So if you can find something transparent (yellow, blue, green, red, etc) you could experiment to see if a particular shade helps with your eye tic. Maybe you could experiment with different highlighters if you are able to make marks in your law books. I do think eye drops could also help you (you could even do the plain saline "tears" if you don't think you're having allergies)

 

Good luck and I hope you're able to have great success with your studies!!

[momof4boys]

Oops I just reread your original post and I assumed you were rolling UP but now I'm not sure. Try to determine which direction your are ticcing and then do the OPPOSITE for the exercises if you choose try that route. So if you are ticcing to the left, do everything to the RIGHT or vise versa. Good luck!

[Chemar]

eye rolling was one of my son's earliest tics...long before we even knew he had TS

 

He was prescribed glasses which really helped a lot! His eye rolling was later determined to be a tic which was aggravated by him also having astigmatism and myopia. He found the most help from glasses that are slightly tinted which relieves that black print on white page problem too

[laurena82]

Hi AHB,

 

(hugs) to you!...what a frustrating thing to have to live with!

 

I had two thoughts in reading your post:

 

1. My son had TS tics all while growing up...as you know, they kind of wax and wane...one "type" of tic disappears, as another one starts to take it's place.

 

Regarding EYE ROLLING, etc...there was only ONCE that I recall he had eye rolling tics:

 

And it occured the end of June one year when pollens were REALLY bad that year.....he did have allergies, and he was wheezing etc with the high pollen count, and THAT year, it was so bad that his EYES were red/itchy....the whites of his eyes looked like road maps with so many red lines on them, etc.......

 

....and THAT was the year he was doing all of the eye rolling tics....

 

 

no other time, ever.

 

 

 

SOOOOOO...that makes me think that it was the IRRITATION to his eyes that triggered "that" to be his tic that time.....

 

hence, IMO, ANYTHING you can do to DECREASE strain on your eyes would (hopefully!) be a benefit for at least NEXT time your body NOT chosing "eye rolling" to be the "tic du jour" ...KWIM?

 

 

If I were you, I'd go out and buy light bulbs that are mean to reduce glare, go to eye dr and be sure wearing the best eye glasses for reading you can (if you need them), try to break periods of reading up, etc....whatever you can do to reduce eye strain/stress. (like other posters have discussed)

 

 

2. ...and this sounds kinda sad/depressing......but, IMO,....the most important thing for you right now is being able to keep up with your classes, etc....

 

With ADA (american with disabilities act), etc...generally schools have to allow provisions for folks with physical disabilities........

 

honestly, if you're having to do the eye rolling thing everytime you read.....that is a serious disablity right now.....simply because it's going to take you more time to get through the reading than if you didnt have to deal with that.....and, clearly, you are doing all you can to NOT have to deal with this...you dont have any control over it happening!

 

I think you should be able to get a note from your MD/neurologist and qualify for some sort of modificaton in classes to help you deal with the situation.

 

STRESS is a huge exacerbator of tics as well....so, feeling the STRESS of needing to get all of this reading done is , most likely, making the tics worse as well....!

 

Try asking at the school what is necessary for provisons for physical disablitites........

 

 

I'm guessing someone else here has had some experience with disruption from tics while at colleges? Maybe post a new thread with that in the title?

 

 

BEST WISHES!!

[dee45]

hi,

what can of allergy med can be given?? I know my son has seasonal allergies but so afraid the med may make the tics worse

 

Deanna

[patty]

try dye-free benedrayl.

 

Pat

[laurena82]

hi,

what can of allergy med can be given?? I know my son has seasonal allergies but so afraid the med may make the tics worse

 

Deanna

 

 

I guess it depends on what additives/etc you are trying to avoid in the med?

 

My youngest son(no TS involved) (at age 18 last year) had huge problems with hives, and was on massive amounts of antihistimines until we figured it out (e.g. allegra in am, zyrtec in pm, ...and benedryl as "extra" on bad days! geesh! and, he still had some hives on him....)

 

Anyhow , in his case , it was corn...and MOST tablets use a corn product to make those pressed tablets (zyrtec and allegra did as I recall). He could take CHILDRENS LIQUID zyrtec that didnt have any corn in it.....

 

(but all of this info isnt pertainent if your son doesnt have a problem with corn ... )

 

 

Biggest downside of benedryl is sleepiness (that's the ingredient they put in "tylenol PM" to make you sleepy!...honest!), plus it only works 6 hours. But, it does work, and is inexpensive. Yes, liquid dye free benedryl should be pretty free of additives, I'd think. I want to say the zyrtec had a dye free version of kids liquid also....but I might be wrong. Zyrtec he would only need to take once a day, and can be given at bedtime so most of the "sleepy" side effect (less sleepy than benedryl) is negated.

 

Dee...I'm sorry I"m not familiar with any of your story....have you done some allergy testing with your son?

 

In general, "traditional" allergy testing/desensitization shots IS effective for seasonal allergies. I know I drug my feet for a long time on that when my kids were young....but eventually did it,...and...in retrospect, if I had it to do over,...that's one thing I probably WOULD do, and do sooner.....because it WAS helpful with the allergies that it treated (doesnt work on food allergies, though).

 

FWIW, my son with the TS did take benedryl at times over the years sometimes, and I never noticed any increased tics from it. (but, again, that was him...who' to say how someone else reacts? .....sigh....ah yes......the frustration of it all.... )

[dee45]

Hi,

we did allergy testing with our son. both the skin test and the IgE blood testing and some delayed sensitive testing through ALCAT labs. He does have alot of seasonal allergies don't know if this is contributing tohis increase in tics. We try to keep a pretty healthy diet so I am at a loss just frustrated.

 

Deanna