Normal person becoming squint-eyed...

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m asking this about a coworker I’ve known casually over the years mainly from watercooler conversations. His eyes were normal about a month ago, when I saw him before going on my vacation.

Last week, I’m back and I notice that he has gone totally (and I mean both pupils on the inside) squint. Anyway I didn’t want to bring up the topic and we just chatted casually for a couple of minutes and went our ways.

Now, what could cause somebody who has normal eyes a couple weeks ago to go fully squint like that?

2

What do you mean when you say his “pupils” are squinting. Squinting refers a way of holding your eye muscles and eyelids, in a tense, squeezed together posture, and doesn’t refer to anything about the eyeball itself.

3

He may have become light-sensitive for any number of reasons. Or you may have become hard to look at.

4

I know a guy with keratoconjunctivitis sicca(dry eye). When he runs out of medication he squints, until he refills his prescription, then he is fine.

5

nm.

6

My guess is blepharospasm. It can be treated with Botox.

7

He’s turning Japanese, I think he’s turning Japanese, I really think so.

8

Welcome to the SDMB, kalemikk. Questions about medical conditions go in IMHO, so I’ll move this thither for you.

twickster, MPSIMS moderator

9

A “squint” can colloquially mean having crossed eyes.

10

twickster, Thank you.

EmilyG, Only you seem to have got my question, I should have used ‘cross-eyed’ instead of ‘squint’.

Cyros, racist much?

11

Not racist 1980s music.

12

Heh. Never heard “squint” used to mean cross eyed.

13

I’m still not sure if the poster means that this person is cross-eyed, or if the pupils are constricted (very small).

14

Here’s the original poster’s answer:

15

Thank you, although now I feel old.

16

I see, that does make a difference, since the two words mean different things that are unrelated to each other except they both happen to eyes.
Is the ‘crosseyedness’ uniform in both eyes? I can’t think of any reason that would set in in adulthood that isn’t neurological.

17

The OP’s answer:

(bolding mine)

18

Me neither. Must be one of those regional things, like calling all soda “coke.”

19

Here

http://www.aapos.org/terms/conditions/11

Adult Strabismus

20

I think what the OP meant by “both pupils on the inside” is that he was squinting so much that his eyelids covered his pupils. Think French Stewart.
If it happened that fast, my guess is…
a)He’s off a med, as mentioned earlier.
b)He’s on a med. Accutane, for example makes your eyes very dry and very sensitve to light. I could hardly walk outside without sunglasses on while on that med.
c)Maybe for some reason he’s not wearing contacts right now and he was before and is trying to cope without glasses.

Also, have you seen him more then once? Maybe he just had something in his eye that day.
You could ask around the office. Maybe when it ‘happened’ he told other people and since you were out, you missed the memo.