Most people open their eyes and see well, even if they have to wear glasses or contacts and think nothing of it.
And then one day they wake up and realize that their eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be.
They are seeing things double instead of single, and they wonder what is going on.
When you have Diplopia, which is the scientific name for double vision, life isn’t very easy.
You are uncomfortable, you have trouble doing everyday things that people take for granted, and you feel miserable.
Some of the symptoms that Diplopia can cause are:
- Crossed eyes
- Pain when you move your eyes
- Pain in the area of your eyes, like in your eyebrows or your temples
- Headaches
- Eye weakness
- Eyelids that droop
- Nausea
But what exactly cause someone to have double vision? If you wake up one day and your eyesight is doubled, should you panic? There can be several reasons why you are seeing double.
Eye Problems
Sometimes the problem can be with your eye itself, usually in the cornea or in the lens of the eye.
If the problem is with the cornea of the eye, it’s often due to an infection or from having LASIK surgery. A lot of times, a corneal problem can be fixed by covering the eye that is affected, which help the diplopia will fix itself.
If the problem is with the lens of the eye, it is very often caused by a cataract in the eye or both eyes. This is a very common problem that can be corrected through a minor surgical procedure.
Sometimes Diplopia has nothing to do with your eyes. Sometimes it’s caused by an underlying medical problem that can be serious if it isn’t taken care of.
Medical problems associated with diplopia
Muscle
- Myasthenia gravis, which is a disease of the immune system and which stops muscular stimulation by the nerves inside your head[Signs of Myasthenia gravis]. One of the earliest symptoms is diplopia.
- Graves’ disease, which is a condition of the thyroid that will weaken your eye muscles. This disease causes the vertical version of diplopia and makes you see images stacked on top of one another.
Nerve
- Multiple sclerosis is an illness which can affect nerves anywhere in the spinal cord or in the brain. If the disease damages the nerves that control the eyes, it can cause diplopia.
- Guillain-Barre syndrome is a condition of the nerves that can cause weakness which progresses as time goes by. A lot of times diplopia is one of the first symptoms if it affects the eyes.
- Unchecked diabetes is another thing that can affect your eyes. It can cause nerve damage and that often makes your eyes weak and results in diplopia.
Brain
Some of the problems associated with the brain that are known to cause diplopia are:
- Pressure in your brain from an injury, infection, or bleeding
- brain Aneurysm
- Stroke
- A tumor in the brain[Brain tumor treatment]
- Migraine headaches or migraine pain
If you have double vision, don’t panic. Go to the doctor and get it checked out.
