Why Is My Eye "Twitching"?

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It feels as if there's a vein behind my left eye experiencing a bit of a backup around the highway onramp, because every so often, it pulses quickly for a few seconds, and it feels like someone's hidden behind my eye, banging on the back of it, wanting out of his or her solitary confinement cell.

Is this stress-related? Could this be the telltale sign of the aneurysm I always hoped / feared I had? Is my body finally giving up the ghost? Is my body trying to tell me something? Do my new glasses make me look funny? Does this happen to you?

David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

For what it's worth, I'm putting 6-to-1 odds on this being stress-related. (2-to-3 odds this stress is related to my spiffy new glasses.)

David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

It's probably stress-related. Either that or your eye is preparing to launch itself across the room.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Have a video camera running, just in case!

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 20:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I get this sometimes. It goes away after a while. I haven't died yet.

N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 21:13 (twenty-two years ago)

that happens in random parts of my body all the time. either it's harmless or the blood clot will reach my heart and kill me soon. so don't worry about it.

Maria (Maria), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah I get this sometimes, It's not stress related for me, but maybe its from swimming. (chlorine)
Also I was working With some toxic chemicals in a lab, and it turns out the fume hood had a leak. My eye was twitching at that time too.

A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 21:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I got this once, and my doctor attributed it to stress... that and spending hours in front of a monitor getting a UV tan.
The worst part was that it kept doing that sporadically for 4 months.

cprek, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

cut down on the caffeine/chemical intake.

do you grind your teeth, have tense upper body as well?

this happened to me in 1994, it was caffeine related.

gygax!, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Are you winking at me?

C J (C J), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

It could be stress related. I knew a waitress who developed a serious eye twitch in the week or so prior to her husband murdering her.

Have you recently stopped using any drugs that you had been using regularly? (No need to incriminate yourself here, if so, but I think that could cause something like this.)

Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 23:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Is caffeine the culprit for my uncontrollable jaw-clenching and tooth-grinding?

webcrack (music=crack), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 23:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to get this quite often, but i haven't experienced it for quite a while. Seeing as the last 8 years have been a more or less constant fukcing ordeal ov stress, bad enough to land me w/rheumatoid arthritis, I'd say yer twitchy eyelid probably isn't stress related.

N0RM4N PH4Y, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

i get this quite often too, I'm pretty sure its unrelated to stress, and my eye hasn't 'launched' itself across any room.

Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

This happens to me. I thought it was my genius asserting itself ;)

J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Thursday, 5 December 2002 00:10 (twenty-two years ago)

all the damn time. I hates it!

Kim (Kim), Thursday, 5 December 2002 00:28 (twenty-two years ago)

it could be stress-related, new-glasses-related, or a sign that there is 'something' in your life you are avoiding looking at!
try some hypericum ( st johns wort ) which you can obtain at any health store, it is a great nervous system tonic and can help put a stop to those annoying tic-type thingies.

donna (donna), Thursday, 5 December 2002 00:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, maybe it's my BIG BRANE (copyright Starry Sarah) pushing against the cramped confines of my skull! Wooooosh!

See, it's not my eyeLID, per se - it feels more like my eye is bubbling, or percolating. I definitely think it's stress-related - I might be grinding my teeth a wee bit, and I was tighter than James Brown's backing band yesterday. I think it's also PC-related, too - spend most of my day in front of one, so maybe my eye's melting. Come to think of it, the optometrist (sic) said that I AM more nearsighted...

Could also be caffeine-related, given that I used to be a huuuuuuge Coke junkie (as in soda!) to the tune of a 6-pack / 2-liter bottle a day. I "quit" some time back, but whenever I'd push it with the soda pop or coffee, I'd get a wicked headache, and my mouth would get all cottony.

Where's Calgon when you need it?

David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 5 December 2002 01:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Just stop rubbing it so much.

A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 5 December 2002 04:59 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe you're not getting enough sleep, dave

Josh (Josh), Thursday, 5 December 2002 04:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't remind me re: sleep, Josh.

FYI - if you're exposed to computer monitors, eye twitching can occur IF the refresh rate of your monitor is too low. (This, according to my roommate, who should know, given that he lives, eats, breathes, sleeps, drinks, and god-knows-whats computers.) The higher the refresh rate is, the better it is for your eye - too low a rate causes eye strain, due to the relatively slow rate at which the impercetible lines that comprise the image on your monitor are being redrawn. I imagine one's eye can sorta "see" these lines, and gets stressed out trying to watch, or something like that. My damn monitor was @ 60 hZ, which is baaaaaaaaaaaad. I changed the setting to 100 hZ, and the difference is VERY apparent. On a Windows machine, if you right-click on your desktop, and go to Properties --> Settings --> Advanced (button), you should be able to find something re: Refresh Rate / Frequency if you snoop around.

David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 5 December 2002 05:18 (twenty-two years ago)

It means that you're about to be murdered by a waitress' husband.

Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 5 December 2002 09:36 (twenty-two years ago)

In the past week or so I've been getting a weird peripheral swimmy heat-haze-type thingy to the extreme right of my vision when looking at the monitor. Also off to the right is a very large office window, so it's just some kind of optical light-related quirk (probably from low refresh rate on poxy tube, which I can't change due to corporate IT fascism), but it's v odd.

Twitchy eyeballs - I get this both when stressed and not, but mostly when having to work after a sneaky midweek night out. Only happens in one at a time, which makes it feel even more Quasimodo-esque (this word may mean 'almost fashionable' in an alternate universe). But anyway.

Liz :x (Liz :x), Thursday, 5 December 2002 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)

mine is doing this RIGHT NOW! will i go blind??

michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 5 December 2002 11:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Has anyone seen Dennis Quaid lately?

Graham (graham), Thursday, 5 December 2002 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't it great that we all just discuss this and speculate wildly from positions of complete ignorance, and nobody even hints at visiting a doctor? No, don't bother with those medical experts, ask some random interweb mentalists!

Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 5 December 2002 13:45 (twenty-two years ago)

dave has some tools I'm sure he can clear this up in the privacy of his home without troubling any degreed professionals

Josh (Josh), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

mine is doing this RIGHT NOW! will i go blind??

Only if you continue masturbating.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

why you little...

michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Look Martin, it's Dennis Quaid. Don't give me no hoity toity doctor-nonsense.

Graham (graham), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Stopping to look out the window every fifteen minutes or so is best way to combat monitor related ailments. Of course, a window nearby is helpful. It's also handy if there's something to look at outside (I have a nice lake). The main thing is to focus on something in the distance for a bit.

robster (robster), Thursday, 5 December 2002 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

old wives tale - someone is talking about you at that moment

H (Heruy), Thursday, 5 December 2002 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I had this all the time last spring, and It really concerned me -- mostly because when I mentioned it to family members or friends, they were really freaked out by it. I feel better knowing I wasn't a FREAK, n stuff. It was really a creepy feeling. I am glad it's gone away.

Mandee, Thursday, 5 December 2002 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

my ear does this most often - i'm pretty sure there's nothing in there, as verified by the doc. i suspect some flaw manifesting with a eustacian (sp?) tube or some such. whatever it is, it is like a subtle fluttering in my right ear and can be annoying, especially when trying to sleep. it comes and goes, and i am learning to tune it out.

ron (ron), Thursday, 5 December 2002 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

mandee, why would you think that just because lots of interweb mentalists also share your ailment that you are not a freak n stuff?

Josh (Josh), Friday, 6 December 2002 05:48 (twenty-two years ago)

ron that is a cockroach in your ear,they like to go in there when you sleep and they get stuck. last year 60 people in sydney had to get cockroaches surgically removed from their ears. nice ! have i made your day?
:-)

donna (donna), Friday, 6 December 2002 06:05 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...
A couple weeks ago, muscles around my left eye were twitching on and off for about six or seven days. It's thankfully gone away, but since then I've been getting periodic spasms elsewhere on my body -- arms and legs, mostly. Most persistent for the last three days is right about my left knee. I woke up this morning and it was cheerily twitching away, without any let-up. I'm convincing myself it's because I'm not getting much sleep. I mean, I haven't. Plausible?

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

My eye has been twitching for THREE WHOLE DAYS!!!!

kelsey (kelstarry), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

My goddamned eye

(Check out the video posted September 2004)

dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

I thought of you, kelsey, when I revived this.

jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...
my right eye is going nuts here!

ai lien (kold_krush), Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

freaky

rrrobyn, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:17 (seventeen years ago)

i think it means i need to sleep in and then watch downloaded tv shows all morning tomorrow

rrrobyn, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:18 (seventeen years ago)

and do a liver cleanse

rrrobyn, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:19 (seventeen years ago)

Last year my eyelid twitched constantly for 4 straight months. Then it just stopped.

libcrypt, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:19 (seventeen years ago)

you are having a stroke

AJ Styles, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:19 (seventeen years ago)

mine was doing this last week!!!

deej, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:19 (seventeen years ago)

I don't think there's any way to stop it, other than reducing stress. At least any reasonable way. I went to the doc for some kinda meds and she wouldn't give me anything.

libcrypt, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:21 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.7fr.net/img/trombine/aroa00000049.jpg

AJ Styles, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:22 (seventeen years ago)

neither of my eyes has twitched for several years for any amt of time.
i have been drinking stupid drip coffee tho b/c the work espresso machine is still broken. so i'm just going to blame that. not really. well actually sort of yeah. but i shld sleep more/better. and lay on a beach more/better.

rrrobyn, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:23 (seventeen years ago)

I WILL FIND YOU

rrrobyn, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:41 (seventeen years ago)

From eye twitching I found out about blue-field entoptic phenomenon.

jel --, Friday, 25 April 2008 19:43 (seventeen years ago)

i think it went away
clearly then my eye has a problem with work/workplace

rrrobyn, Saturday, 26 April 2008 21:06 (seventeen years ago)

AND PEOPLE RAGGING ON ME
YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW MAN YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW THE PRESSURE

rrrobyn, Saturday, 26 April 2008 21:07 (seventeen years ago)

every time i've had this it's been directly attributable to stress and/or lack of sleep (usually both), and has gone away when those underlying causes were ameliorated. now i recognize it as a sort of internal alarm system.

tipsy mothra, Saturday, 26 April 2008 21:47 (seventeen years ago)

one month passes...

ach this is so annoying. it's been doing it since yesterday.

bell_labs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 16:47 (seventeen years ago)

my right eye does this for weeks at a time. it's very annoying.

jeff, Thursday, 12 June 2008 16:54 (seventeen years ago)

it's also watering profusely. i wonder if it's allergy related.

bell_labs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 16:55 (seventeen years ago)

caffeine

remy bean, Thursday, 12 June 2008 16:57 (seventeen years ago)

****SPOILER ALERT****
[hitchcock_young_and_innocent.jpg]

James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 16:59 (seventeen years ago)

nope
i briefly started drinking coffee again last week but i stopped because it was upsetting my stomach. no caffeine since saturday.

bell_labs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 16:59 (seventeen years ago)

maybe valium will help

bell_labs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 17:01 (seventeen years ago)

are you overtired?

remy bean, Thursday, 12 June 2008 17:02 (seventeen years ago)

not really! which is unusual for me, but i have been sleeping really well this week.

also yesterday was not stressful at all because my boss was out of the office.

bell_labs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 17:03 (seventeen years ago)

fucking cut it out, eye

bell_labs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 20:16 (seventeen years ago)

i think it is getting ready to explode

bell_labs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 20:17 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Twitchers002.jpg

Just got offed, Thursday, 12 June 2008 20:19 (seventeen years ago)

tick tick tick tick ...
xpost
tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick ...

rrrobyn, Thursday, 12 June 2008 20:22 (seventeen years ago)

hey my eye has not twitched for a week or something!
i think it is b/c i have exercising a lot and practicing non-attachment esp wrt anger/frustration. oh man, and yknow what, no booze for a while. sigh. truths.

rrrobyn, Thursday, 12 June 2008 20:26 (seventeen years ago)

i think this has to be allergy related because my eyes are both watering and burning now.

or like someone has started pumping nerve gas into my office

bell_labs, Thursday, 12 June 2008 20:30 (seventeen years ago)

allergies are crazy for people right now

but not for me because i had to endure them nonstop every summer for 10+ years so now i am immune :)

suckaz

deeznuts, Thursday, 12 June 2008 20:34 (seventeen years ago)

three months pass...

it wont stop

bell_labs, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:18 (sixteen years ago)

I used to get this, it was down to a combination of stress, bad posture at the computer, and needing new glasses.

snoball, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:20 (sixteen years ago)

i have at least the first two of those things

bell_labs, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:22 (sixteen years ago)

I'm a twitchy mess all the time, thanks to MS.

Trip Maker, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:24 (sixteen years ago)

my left eye has been twitching for the last couple weeks :/

dmr, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:25 (sixteen years ago)

I think I have the whole snoball trifecta

dmr, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:26 (sixteen years ago)

change focal depyth

html tsar (Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃), Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:27 (sixteen years ago)

maybe i need glasses?

bell_labs, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:27 (sixteen years ago)

you're tired, it'll pass.

not_goodwin, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:28 (sixteen years ago)

a new prescription worked for me

&whatnot (jeff), Tuesday, 16 September 2008 20:34 (sixteen years ago)

eeh, here’s a possible cure, seems to work for me:

When one eye twitches, try shutting off visual input to it by covering it with your hand, without physically closing the eyelids or touching the area that’s doing the movement. Try to mentally focus on things in the opposite half of the visual field.

The thinking behind this is that some twitches are caused by a primitive movement part of the brain trying to get the conscious brain to increase sensory stimulation to the part of the body that’s twitching. So, it might help to remove any association between the twitch and increased sensory input, or even to create an association between the twitch and a reduction in stimulation.

(the downside to doing this is that you will look like you’re doing an impression of a pirate. You should only have to do it for a few days though)

Garnt, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 21:11 (sixteen years ago)

If anyone tries that, do please say what the results are btw. It's a bit of an experimental treatment at the moment.

Garnt, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 21:13 (sixteen years ago)

I used to do that. I don't know anything about that theory of associating the twitch with stimulation. I was doing it because I figured that the twitching eye was trying to focus on something, and if I gave it nothing to focus on (darkness) then it would stop trying to focus and therefore stop twitching.

snoball, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 21:21 (sixteen years ago)

That’s another possibility, there could be different things being reported here. My twitch was definitely movement of the muscles around the eye rather than the eye itself.

It’s kind of surprising how little modern medicine has to say about this kind of thing. Other than “reduce stress”, the only real cure suggested for facial tics is to zap the area with botox.

Garnt, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 17:40 (sixteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

my left eye has been twitching for the last couple weeks :/

― dmr, Tuesday, September 16, 2008 4:25 PM

^this

eman, Friday, 10 October 2008 19:58 (sixteen years ago)

A friend just told me she gets bad eye twitches if she doesn't eat bananas all the time because it's related to potassium deficiency. Try that?

Maria, Friday, 10 October 2008 20:32 (sixteen years ago)

i am reminded of "the jeweller" by john cale

velko, Friday, 10 October 2008 20:49 (sixteen years ago)

i feel like that eyeblinking palin gif

eman, Friday, 10 October 2008 22:38 (sixteen years ago)

five months pass...

Right eye on the twitch again. Not as bad as last time, tho.

I seldom pass on tea now. (libcrypt), Monday, 30 March 2009 22:50 (sixteen years ago)

do you drink a lot of coffee?

unexpected item in bagging area (sarahel), Monday, 30 March 2009 22:51 (sixteen years ago)

I had one iced coffee this morning and one cup of tea after lunch.

This isn't coffee, though. This is job stress.

I seldom pass on tea now. (libcrypt), Monday, 30 March 2009 22:59 (sixteen years ago)

both me and my b.f. have had eye twitches and they were pretty much due to stress/overwork which led to drinking a lot of coffee and not getting enough sleep.

unexpected item in bagging area (sarahel), Monday, 30 March 2009 23:04 (sixteen years ago)

This is reaaaaaally weird coz it was sort of happening to my right eye all day, and it was the first time I ever noticed it. Behold, a thread.

(The) (Fabulous) (Stevie D), Monday, 30 March 2009 23:05 (sixteen years ago)

Working @ 9PM because of stupid work "emergency" caused by incompetent engineers = bad for eye twitch.

I seldom pass on tea now. (libcrypt), Tuesday, 31 March 2009 04:17 (sixteen years ago)

My left eye has been twitching on and off for about 5 days. I made the mistake of googling treatments and discovered the options are 1) ignore it and hope it goes away, 2) botox injections or 3) surgery. Never look up minor ailments on the Internet.

the innermost wee guy (onimo), Tuesday, 31 March 2009 06:38 (sixteen years ago)

Maria is right - this is related to a mineral deficiency/imbalance - probably either magnesium (controls your muscles) or potassium (controls your nerves). Bananas are indeed rich in potassium, and most nuts and seeds are a good source of all necessary minerals.

As for surgery or botox, those are mad suggestions!

stroker ace, Tuesday, 31 March 2009 08:58 (sixteen years ago)

When I get an eye twitch, I can usually correlate it to being very, very tired, probs also stressed. I'm going to try and eat a banana next time, though. Or surgery, whichever is more convenient at the time.

Dan Seals Memorial Nickname (Jenny), Tuesday, 31 March 2009 12:31 (sixteen years ago)

yeah it's almost always sleep/stress. mine have always gone away, although it can take a while. i had it on and off for several months before my wedding. (my first wedding. i took it as a good sign that there was no recurrence before my 2nd wedding.)

paper plans (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 31 March 2009 13:30 (sixteen years ago)

I've had this the last few days. And on Monday I was thinking I would quite like a banana. Hmmmmmmm there may be something to this, especially since I hardly ever eat any fruit, which is bad.

I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 31 March 2009 13:53 (sixteen years ago)


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