Around July of last year, I started having sleep problems. I would jerk awake with my heart pounding, out of breath, every time I was drifting off to sleep. This resulted in me going several nights in a row without sleeping at all pretty regularly. During the day, I would feel sleepy, but also had excruciating eye pain. I finally started sleeping better more regularly with the help of sleeping medication, although I would still frequently wake up in the night. Some nights, I would sleep the entire night. If I got at least some sleep during the night, I wouldn’t feel sleepy during the day, but I would still have excruciating eye pain even if I slept a full 8 hours! It’s non-stop, and feels like my eyes are being drilled into. It’s the worst pain I’ve ever had. My eyes are also itchy and dry, but that I can handle. I’ve tried everything for the pain. Eye drops don’t work, pain medication doesn’t work, a good sleep doesn’t work. Heat compresses worked for a few months while they were on my eyes, but eventually they stopped working as well! The pain would still be there no matter how much heat was on my eyes. It’s like my eyes got desensitized to the heat or something. My vision is perfectly fine. After doing a lot of research, I suspect that my eyes originally ached from lack of sleep, but because that went on for so long, when I eventually started sleeping well again, I developed permanent central pain where my brain alarms my eyes that they are sleep deprived even when they aren’t. The pain is the same whether my eyes are closed, open, looking at a screen, staring into space, facing bright lights, or in the dark! This is the worst pain that I’ve ever experienced, I’ve been miserable 24/7 for the past 6 months, I’m irritable around my friends and family because I’m constantly in pain, and I feel the most depressed and hopeless that I’ve ever felt. I don’t know whether to go to an opthamologist or a pain clinic or what at this point! I’m so lost and I feel like doctors will just dismiss me because it’s “invisible pain”!

23F 5 ‘2” 110lbs non smoker, olanzapine as needed for sleep.

I really appreciate anyone who got through that long post.