u/National_Zombie1942

I apologize if this is not the right place for this question but I really could use some advice. I am 24F and have been working full time for 2 1/2 years (Marketing Manager). I graduated a year ago in June with my degree and was working full time also when I was in school. Unfortunately, I have a rare chronic brain condition that can effect my eyes. I have had this condition for 4 years and until about 3 months ago it did not cause me much issues as long as I took my medication. I have been to my specialist and she says everything structural looks fine but this condition is quite unpredictable despite things looking okay in testing. Anyways, that is not the point of this post. As of a month ago my eyes struggle to read on computers/ go blurry for any longer than 10 minutes making my job nearly impossible. I have taken a month sick leave from work (unpaid as my work health insurance refused to cover short term disability payments originally due to my condition) and I am due to talk to my boss soon about some sort of update and I don’t really have one as nothing has been resolved. I am scared for the future as I loved my job and made a decent amount of money that I was planning to be able to progress financially but I am not sure how that would play out if my vision does not get better. I have about 47k saved but I will likely have to spend a lot of money in expensive eye exams, prism glasses and thousands of dollars in vision therapy possibly and not to mention prescription and other health costs if I am let go from my job. I am wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and if there are any short term or long term financial supports for this situation. I am feeling quite sad and hopeless as I am still very young. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your time.

Edit: I am not sure if this is an important detail but I live in Ontario.

Has anyone ever had new symptoms from increasing/titrating diamox too quickly? For context I was diagnosed 3-4 years ago (my memory is bad) with IIH when I was 23 or 24. I was almost immediately given diamox and I know when I took it originally the dose was increased quite slowly. I actually found an old medication bottle in my room with the titration instructions and I believe the increase was by 250mg every week. Anyways I took 1000mg of acetazolamide for years with really no issues at all. In January of this year I started having some other health issues and was quite stressed/anxious and felt very hopeless for months. During that time a lot of things I do on a daily basis I would just forget or go to sleep earlier and miss. I think it was because I was so mentally overwhelmed and exhausted. One of those being my diamox medication. I don’t know for sure but I think I was insistent and also just not taking it at some points for a couple weeks to a month ish if I had to estimate. Obviously not something I was keeping track of because it was not something I was consciously trying to do. Anyways, at some point I kicked my ass in gear and realized the seriousness of that and started to take it again. I asked my pharmacist and she said I could increased my dose every 3-4 days or as tolerated, like I could out extra days in there if needed. I went from 0 to 1000mg of diamox in a week and a half increasing by 250mg about every 3 days. Which probably was way too fast. After that week and a half and getting up to the full 1000mg dose. About 3-4 days later I noticed my vision getting blurry and blurry over a 4 day period, and worse when using a computer or phone. For context I saw my neuro-ophthalmologist for testing a few days before the blurry vision started and she said my optic nerve was a bit puffy but nothing she was too concerned about given the medication thing I just outlined which I told her the truth about. After I started to have the blurry vision (she was on vacation so I had to wait a bit) 3 weeks later I went to see her again and she looked at my optic nerve and said it looked the same and she was not too concerned and like she has seen with me before it typically goes down. Now I am left wondering why my vision is so bad. I have been to the emergency room twice, seen my GP, a neuro-ophthalmologist, a neurologist, my optometrist and no one can see anything “structurally wrong” but still these symptoms persist. I have been off work now for 5 weeks because I can’t see well enough to do my work and it is really effecting me badly. If anyone has any ideas, advice or their own experiences I would greatly appreciate hearing them.

This is honestly a cry for help because idk what do anymore. The biggest issue is I feel like I will lose my job eventually. In January 2026 I started getting really bad light sensitivity and blurry vision/ trouble reading blocks of text on my computer. I took 4 weeks off work and things slowly started to get better except the light sensitivity. I begged for a neurologist referral and after being declined 3 times I got one. I went to see her and was diagnosed with migraines (even though I don’t get classic migraines ever). My light sensitivity was so bad when I would work on my computer I would ball my eyes out all day because the pain was unbearable. I had panic attacks everyday, woke up and immediately went to throw up because I was so anxious, etc. I was prescribed medication and the pain/ sensitivity eventually started to go down. Just when I thought things were getting better about 4 weeks ago one day my vision started to go really blurry on the computer again but also when reading anything off the computer, menus, grocery store items, etc. I went to every doctor/ specialist possible and no one can see anything wrong. I have been off work again for 4 weeks and this time my vision has not gotten better and feels like it is getting worse. I work an all day computer job and just being on my phone for 10 minutes is near impossible. I have run out of people to see/ talk to and am feeling really hopeless. If anyone has any experience or ideas please let me know.

Hi everyone, looking for some advice here. I start having debilitating migraine symptoms at the start of this year. The worse were extreme pain with light and blurry vision. I was diagnosed months ago with chronic migraine but I don’t actually get migraines (def not with aura), I get brutal light sensitivity and vision issues that last weeks on end. I am not sure if I have the right diagnosis tbh. After 4 months I was finally able to get a new family doctor who took my issues seriously and start medication which was propanolol. Before starting medication I was absolutely miserable, the light sensitivity was so bad I could go outside or have lights on inside would literally go to the washrooom and shower in the pitch black to avoid head pain. After a few weeks of taking medication I started to feel better and have hope. My medication was increased and all my light sensitivity pain and headaches seemingly went away. I went to see my neurologist because I was having vision trouble again (focusing issues and blurriness) and went to see her whether it was related or not to cover all my bases. I was pretty down/ low mood at that appointment cause I have been very stressed about my vision and not being able to work. She decided at the end of my appointment that the propanolol is causing me to be depressed (which it is not, confirmed by my psychiatrist) and told me she was not comfortable pressuring me that medication anymore. For context I don’t feel depressed, the anxiety I have felt is based on my vision problems and stopping my migraine medications makes that 1000% worse. Anyways, she told me to taper off for a few weeks and then go medication free for two weeks, then start my new meds which is candesartan (sorry if I misspelled that). A few questions: do I have to wait a full two weeks to start a new med? My migraine symptoms and light issues are coming back and am now feeling worse than when I went to see her. And has anyone had vision issues caused by candesartan? Or any other information/ experiences on that medication would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. About 4 weeks ago my vision went blurry progressively over a 4 day period. Most noticeable in my computer for work (I work a desk job and always on the computer so the progression was quite noticeable). Prior to this I had started Wellbutrin XL 150mg 3 months prior (as of now it would be 4 months). I have had to take a sick leave from work because I cannot even read my computer let alone do anything productive work wise. I went to see so many doctors ie emergency room, optometrist, neurologist, neuro-opthamologist, GP and no one case see or find anything wrong. I decided about 4 days ago to stop the Wellbutrin in case this was causing my problems and also because my physiatrist said she thinks it isn’t helping me and making me quite panicked when I am anxious. I stopped taking it cold turkey and haven’t felt much different other than I feel calmer when I am anxious and less like I need to have a huge panic. However today on the 4th day I feel like my vision is MORE blurry than before. I am wondering if anyone has had the same experience and hoping this is a gets worse before it gets better scenario but I am not sure. Would love to know people’s honest experiences and thoughts. Thank you in advance.

I am 26F. I still live with my parents (I have been going through some physical health challenges since January but am hoping to have those under control soon). I graduated with my bachelors degree last year around this time but was working full time as well in my last year in the field of study in which I graduated. I have been thinking about moving out for a while but that has been put on pause because of my health. When things go back to relatively normal I am wondering what a good financial position is to move out and particularly how much one should have saved? I have no student debt or any debt and I currently have about 50k saved but am hoping for that to accumulate to more. I now live well below my means. Obviously moving out comes with bills that I don’t have now but I guess my point is I am not spending on useless things or have a very expensive lifestyle currently. The average one bedroom rent where I live is about $1600-$1700 a month. I make a little under 4k monthly currently. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated :)

I am wondering if anyone has had vision problems taking Wellbutrin? I took Wellbutrin XL 150mg for about 4 months and in my 3rd month began getting blurry vision specifically using screens and then even without screens anything up close (say putting your finger in front of your face or trying to identify a small bug with your eyes up close would be extremely blurry and will never go into focus for me) is also blurry and has been for weeks now. It is constant/ never goes away but does get worse after being on my a screen for a while. It is so bad I have had to take a leave from work because I can’t use my computer at all right now and haven’t for weeks. Also interestingly enough about a month after I started taking it I got extreme light sensitivity to the point where just the light from my computer was causing my immense pain, had to go to the washroom with the lights off, etc. has anyone ever had anything similar to this? I am wondering about anyone else’s experience specifically about the vision issue but also interested In the light sensitivity of others as well. Any and all information/ experiences are appreciated.

a bit of an odd post maybe for this group but I am desperate. About 4 weeks ago I was working on my computer (I have a desk/computer job.. on my computer 8 hours a day) and throughout a 4 day period my vision started to go really blurry and got worse each day while using my computer until finally I had to stop working and have had to take a leave because I can barely read a computer screen and it is extremely uncomfortable. Also when I am off the computer and I try to focus on anything in front of my face like my finger or if you were trying to take a close look at say a bug to identify it, I also cannot do that and everything up close is blurry and has been for weeks. For reference I have intercranial hypertension and chronic migraines but both my specialists say these are not the cause of anything like this. I have a neurologist, a neuro-ophthalmologist, emergency room physicians, my family doctor, my optometrist all of whom I have talked to and done testing and no one knows the cause or can see anything structurally wrong with my eyes. I don’t have any new eye conditions/ diseases, don’t need a new prescription, etc. I have been extremely sad and stressed as I am scared I will eventually lose my job because it is not getting better and there is no even clear path forward. I am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and/ or any other ideas of things they have tried or known someone with a similar issue that has done testing or tried something or spoken to someone I have not outlined above. I feel like I am running out of options and there is zero solution to this problem at this point. Any information, experiences, etc are greatly appreciated.

a bit of an odd post maybe for this group but I am desperate. About 4 weeks ago I was working on my computer (I have a desk/computer job.. on my computer 8 hours a day) and throughout a 4 day period my vision started to go really blurry and got worse each day while using my computer until finally I had to stop working and have had to take a leave because I can barely read a computer screen and it is extremely uncomfortable. Also when I am off the computer and I try to focus on anything in front of my face like my finger or if you were trying to take a close look at say a bug to identify it, I also cannot do that and everything up close is blurry and has been for weeks. For reference I have intercranial hypertension and chronic migraines but both my specialists say these are not the cause of anything like this. I have a neurologist, a neuro-ophthalmologist, emergency room physicians, my family doctor, my optometrist all of whom I have talked to and done testing and no one knows the cause or can see anything structurally wrong with my eyes. I don’t have any new eye conditions/ diseases, don’t need a new prescription, etc. I have been extremely sad and stressed as I am scared I will eventually lose my job because it is not getting better and there is no even clear path forward. I am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and/ or any other ideas of things they have tried or known someone with a similar issue that has done testing or tried something or spoken to someone I have not outlined above. I feel like I am running out of options and there is zero solution to this problem at this point. Any information, experiences, etc are greatly appreciated.

Edit: for context I am 26 years old.

I am wondering if I should get a second opinion on how to stop this medication. I started taking Wellbutrin XL 150mg about 4 months ago and my physiatrist and I decided it wasn’t working well for me and that I should stop. She told me I could just stop taking it whenever I would like and I don’t need to taper off. I am concerned because she said the same about another medication I took months ago and I ended up getting about a month of withdrawal symptoms. Should I get a second opinion on this? I am very sensitive to medication changes and think I should maybe speak to my pharmacist. If anyone has any advice or would like to share their experience I would appreciate it.

Wondering if anyone else has had fluoxetine withdrawal symptoms on a low dose. I was taking 5mg of fluoxetine for about a month and then went up to 10 for about 5 days and then went back down to 5mg and a couple days later stopped taking it completely (supervised by my doctor) but I have been having weird spurts of nausea, dizziness, light sensitivity (it seems my migraine symptoms are coming back out of nowhere), intense aching pain in my legs that will not go away and I also feel very tired and “out of it”. Has anyone else experienced something similar coming off such a low dose?

Recently increased my Prozac from 5mg to 10mg. 2 days later my eyes started having trouble focusing on anything at a short distance. It has now been over a week and a half and has not improved. Anyone else?

Hi Everyone, I wanted to write here because I am pretty stressed out about whats been happening with what I think are fluoxetine (or Wellbutrin) side effects. For background info, I took fluoxetine from 14yrs old to 26yrs old and then my doctor advised me to stop taking it (60mg) cold turkey to where I got horrible withdrawl symptoms afterwords. (This was 7 months ago). Two months after this I started getting horrible neuorological symptoms like light sensititivity, pain in my forhead, dizziness, etc. and a few months later my biggest issue is the light sensitivty which has since been resolved with medication (I was diagnosed with chronic migraine). During the time my health and prognosis were up in the air and doctors and specialists were not taking me serious I developed some depression and my anxiety came back pretty bad. My doctor originally started me on wellbutrin XL (150mg) which it has been 2 months and I seemed to have tolerated it okay. It was not doing anything for my anxiety so she also prescribed me starting at 5mg of fluoxetine to which I also seemed to tolerate okay for about a month. About 9 days ago I titrated up to 10mg (under supervision of my doctor) and 2 days later started to get blurry vision/ my eyes will not focus - the best way I can describe it is when you are trying to get the camera on your phone to focus on something up close and it won't and just stays blurry - thats how my eyes are all the time now. This blurriness is consistent up close and distance as well. The same day the blurry vision started I also started getting scary panic attacks in the mornings and just an overall low mood/ feelings of hopelessness - this was even before I started to become really concerned with the blurriness. The blurry vision started very subtle just using my computer when working and over 2-3 days started to progess very badly. So bad I decided to go to the emergency room. They could not find any abnormalities with testing so they just sent me home. I mentioned the fluoxetine to the emerg doctor, even though my physchiatrist says this symptom has nothing to do with the fluoxetine and the emerge doc said it very much is a possibility and I could try decreasing the dose back down to 5mg. After doing some more reasearch I realize it could very much be the increase in fluoxetine and I am a bit concerned now. It has been 5 days since I lowered the dose back down to 5mg and I am still struggling with my vision. So much so I have had to take what will hopefully be a short leave from work as my job is entirely computer based and I can barely read a sentence on or off a computer. If anyone has had this experience or similar please let me know what has helped your vision, if this symptom has gone away and how long it took to go away. Also any steps you took to troubleshoot such as eye exams, blood tests, etc. I am quite scared at the moment and no doctor is taking my concerns seriously. Any information is greatly appreciated - Thank you so much in advance!

Hi Everyone, I wanted to write here because I am pretty stressed out about whats been happening with what I think are fluoxetine (or Wellbutrin) side effects. For background info, I took fluoxetine from 14yrs old to 26yrs old and then my doctor advised me to stop taking it (60mg) cold turkey to where I got horrible withdrawl symptoms afterwords. (This was 7 months ago). Two months after this I started getting horrible neuorological symptoms like light sensititivity, pain in my forhead, dizziness, etc. and a few months later my biggest issue is the light sensitivty which has since been resolved with medication (I was diagnosed with chronic migraine). During the time my health and prognosis were up in the air and doctors and specialists were not taking me serious I developed some depression and my anxiety came back pretty bad. My doctor originally started me on wellbutrin XL (150mg) which it has been 2 months and I seemed to have tolerated it okay. It was not doing anything for my anxiety so she also prescribed me starting at 5mg of fluoxetine to which I also seemed to tolerate okay for about a month. About 9 days ago I titrated up to 10mg (under supervision of my doctor) and 2 days later started to get blurry vision/ my eyes will not focus - the best way I can describe it is when you are trying to get the camera on your phone to focus on something up close and it won't and just stays blurry - thats how my eyes are all the time now. This blurriness is consistent up close and distance as well. The same day the blurry vision started I also started getting scary panic attacks in the mornings and just an overall low mood/ feelings of hopelessness - this was even before I started to become really concerned with the blurriness. The blurry vision started very subtle just using my computer when working and over 2-3 days started to progess very badly. So bad I decided to go to the emergency room. They could not find any abnormalities with testing so they just sent me home. I mentioned the fluoxetine to the emerg doctor, even though my physchiatrist says this symptom has nothing to do with the fluoxetine and the emerge doc said it very much is a possibility and I could try decreasing the dose back down to 5mg. After doing some more reasearch I realize it could very much be the increase in fluoxetine and I am a bit concerned now. It has been 5 days since I lowered the dose back down to 5mg and I am still struggling with my vision. So much so I have had to take what will hopefully be a short leave from work as my job is entirely computer based and I can barely read a sentence on or off a computer. If anyone has had this experience or similar please let me know what has helped your vision, if this symptom has gone away and how long it took to go away. Also any steps you took to troubleshoot such as eye exams, blood tests, etc. I am quite scared at the moment and no doctor is taking my concerns seriously. Any information is greatly appreciated - Thank you so much in advance!

Hi Everyone, I wanted to write here because I am pretty stressed out about whats been happening with what I think are fluoxetine (or Wellbutrin) side effects. For background info, I took fluoxetine from 14yrs old to 26yrs old and then my doctor advised me to stop taking it (60mg) cold turkey to where I got horrible withdrawl symptoms afterwords. (This was 7 months ago). Two months after this I started getting horrible neuorological symptoms like light sensititivity, pain in my forhead, dizziness, etc. and a few months later my biggest issue is the light sensitivty which has since been resolved with medication (I was diagnosed with chronic migraine). During the time my health and prognosis were up in the air and doctors and specialists were not taking me serious I developed some depression and my anxiety came back pretty bad. My doctor originally started me on wellbutrin XL (150mg) which it has been 2 months and I seemed to have tolerated it okay. It was not doing anything for my anxiety so she also prescribed me starting at 5mg of fluoxetine to which I also seemed to tolerate okay for about a month. About 9 days ago I titrated up to 10mg (under supervision of my doctor) and 2 days later started to get blurry vision/ my eyes will not focus - the best way I can describe it is when you are trying to get the camera on your phone to focus on something up close and it won't and just stays blurry - thats how my eyes are all the time now. This blurriness is consistent up close and distance as well. The same day the blurry vision started I also started getting scary panic attacks in the mornings and just an overall low mood/ feelings of hopelessness - this was even before I started to become really concerned with the blurriness. The blurry vision started very subtle just using my computer when working and over 2-3 days started to progess very badly. So bad I decided to go to the emergency room. They could not find any abnormalities with testing so they just sent me home. I mentioned the fluoxetine to the emerg doctor, even though my physchiatrist says this symptom has nothing to do with the fluoxetine and the emerge doc said it very much is a possibility and I could try decreasing the dose back down to 5mg. After doing some more reasearch I realize it could very much be the increase in fluoxetine and I am a bit concerned now. It has been 5 days since I lowered the dose back down to 5mg and I am still struggling with my vision. So much so I have had to take what will hopefully be a short leave from work as my job is entirely computer based and I can barely read a sentence on or off a computer. If anyone has had this experience or similar please let me know what has helped your vision, if this symptom has gone away and how long it took to go away. Also any steps you took to troubleshoot such as eye exams, blood tests, etc. I am quite scared at the moment and no doctor is taking my concerns seriously. Any information is greatly appreciated - Thank you so much in advance!