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Recovering from Addiction to Prescription Medications

I never thought of myself as an addict, but I did end up addicted to anti-anxiety medication after developing Generalized Anxiety Disorder. At some point, the medicine stopped being a way to deal with the nervousness and panic attacks, and became something my body craved. I knew that I needed help fast. Fortunately, a local drug rehab program includes support for people like me. They helped me wean off the medication, use methods like massage therapy to help my nerves heal, and even provided ongoing counseling for our family. I don't know how I would have made it without their help. If you suspect that your medication has crossed the line from being helpful to hurtful, take heart. Let me tell you about my journey out of addiction and back to wholeness.

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Recovering from Addiction to Prescription Medications

Diabetes And Your Eyes

by Valerie Stevens

As you learn more about your newly-diagnosed diabetes, you'll discover that it can have an impact on your eyes. With symptoms ranging from out of focus vision to partial blindness, this is a disease that needs to be monitored closely with proper diabetic eye care. Here are some of the ways in which your diabetes may affect your vision and how to prevent it from keeping you from seeing clearly.

Cataracts

Diabetes accelerates the deposit of protein fibers in the lenses of your eyes. This is a normal process that your body uses to protect your eyes from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation from the sun. When the deposits become thick enough to limit the light entering your eye and cause blurry vision, the deposits are called cataracts. Diabetes causes cataracts to appear sooner than normal.

As the cataracts become more dense, your vision becomes blurry. You'll need more light to read and it will be hard to focus on individual objects. At night, you'll notice a ring of light, called a halo, around brightly lit objects.

Cataract surgery is available when the vision loss becomes severe. The lenses in your eyes are replaced with artificial lenses. These will restore your vision and they are not susceptible to future cataracts.

Glaucoma

The shape of your eye is maintained by a gel-like fluid within the eyeball. A constant flow of this gel occurs into and out of the eye. Diabetes prevents the normal flow of fluid out of the eye. This allows the pressure to build up in the eyeball. Glaucoma causes an abnormal amount of pressure on the retina, which can eventually damage it and cause partial blindness.

During a regular diabetic eye exam, an ophthalmologist will measure the pressure in your eyes. Before it gets severe, you can be treated with eye drops that help reduce the pressure below dangerous levels. If the pressure reaches levels that can damage the retina, surgery is available to open up new channels in the eye to allow some of the fluid to escape and the pressure in your eye to return to normal.

Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetes often impacts the blood vessels in your eyes. This is called diabetic retinopathy and presents itself in a couple of different ways:

  • Fluid can leak out of weakened blood vessels onto the surface of the retina. If enough fluid accumulates on the retina, light is blocked from hitting it. You'll have blurry vision and objects will appear increasingly dark.
  • Some of the weakened blood vessels create scar tissue. This pulls on the retina and, if the scars are successful at pulling the retina away from the back of the eye, blindness can result.

Early diagnosis of this condition is important, so treatment can be started to prevent vision loss. Diabetic retinopathy isn't curable, but your eye doctor can slow down the progression of it and any symptoms that affect your vision. Treatment is available to remove the weakened blood vessels, the leaked fluid and any scar tissue on the retina. For more information, contact a company like Tri State Ophthalmology.

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