Twofold question about chronic eye twitching.

I woke up this morning with a twitchy eye. On the way to work, it spread to both eyes…one will go through a twitchy period, then subside, then the other eye would start.

It’s driving me insane.

So, my two questions:

  1. Is there anything that can be done to alleviate eye twitches? I have no idea what set it off, so I have no idea what to do about making it stop.

  2. A co-worker of mine said that she had a twitchy eye that lasted a few weeks, and that when she finally caved and went to a doctor, they said that a twitchy eye can be a sign of heart trouble and they gave her an EKG. I’ve never heard of this before. Why would heart trouble give you a twitchy eye? I’m not seeing the connection.

Any thoughts?

Hi, Jadis–

I’m not a physician, but I get the twitchy eye once in a while. What I’ve noticed is that a combination of a poor night’s sleep and lots of caffeine seems to be culprit. If I get rest and lay off the coffee, I don’t get any twitchiness

At my last physical, all of my vital signs were healthy, though my cholesterol was a little high (not in any danger zones, but just a bit higher than the physician would have expected). At the time, I was doing lots of contract work and eating fast food, so that might be the culprit. I’m in my late 30s, by the way.

Hope this helps. As I’m sure anyone would suggest, you might still check with your physician.

Everyone keeps asking me about the caffeine thing, but I don’t drink any. I also get plenty of sleep. This thing seems to be completely random. It’s only been going on today, so I think calling the doctor is a little premature. :wink:

Hmm. Stress? Allergic reactions to something–pollen, cat dander, skin cream? Sports injury?

My experience seemed connected to sleep/caffeine, so that’s the best I can do.

I will say that the older I get, the more odd little things my body does. All those jokes about finding hair growing in places you never expected or feeling little pains in places you don’t use are true. I also remember my parents telling me that some day, I would understand what they were complaining about when they said they were “getting old.”

Of course, if you’re relatively young and in good health, you might still consider getting a medical opinion. A lot of hospitals have free “ask a nurse” hotlines where you could get basic medical information if you don’t want to see a physician.

Not medical advice, but I sometimes get minor tremors in “bits” of my muscles, including face muscles. Hasn’t happened recently, but usually goes away with a bit of massage. I think they are called “fasiculations” (sp?) after fascia (binding tissue). As you age many people also develop benign essential tremors in the hands, neck, face, etc. I have this to a degree. Comes out at odd times. No biggee. You should ask around about the EKG story, though. Better that than to fall over dead. :smack:

It means you are going psycho… just like former Chief Inspector Dreyfuss

It’s called a tic and it’s caused by supressed stress. It’s made worse by moderate to heavy drinking, and poor electrolyte balanes.

Something is eating at you and you’re not dealing with it, and probably not even acknowledging it.

Mine started twitching about a year ago, when I started hating my job. Absolutely loathing it. It wasn’t the work, it was the people and the politics. Plus, I was getting paid crap for wages, and had a pregnant wife who, once baby arrived, would be no longer earning her salary that was nearly twice mine…

About a month ago I started a new, much better paying, much more rewarding job with growth potential and leadership role. And voila… overnite, my twitchy eyelid went away.

So… get a new job. Lay off the MD20/20. And have a banana.

But be warned. The eye twitch went away but I came down with a case of pruritis from hell. The devils own crotch rot. If I were a less scientific person, I might have inferred a causality there. I’ll leave that last step to you.

I get the occasional eye twitch every once and awhile, and for me it’s usually caused by stress. While I haven’t heard of a cure, I’ve found that the best thing to do is try to ignore it. It sounds impossible, I know, but the more you stress over it, the worse it will get.

Calcium/magnesium and some tonic water should settle it.