Why Is My Eye "Twitching"?

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

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

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.)

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?

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.

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.

Only if you continue masturbating.

(Check out the video posted September 2004)

freaky

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

and do a liver cleanse

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

you are having a stroke

mine was doing this last week!!!

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.

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

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.

I WILL FIND YOU

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

caffeine

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

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

maybe valium will help

are you overtired?

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.

fucking cut it out, eye

i think it is getting ready to explode

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

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

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.

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

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

it wont stop

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

i have at least the first two of those things

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

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

I think I have the whole snoball trifecta

change focal depyth

maybe i need glasses?

you're tired, it'll pass.

a new prescription worked for me

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)

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

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.

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.

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

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

^this

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?

i am reminded of "the jeweller" by john cale

i feel like that eyeblinking palin gif

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

do you drink a lot of coffee?

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.)

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.