is STARING an MS symptom

[babyatlas]

i promise, this will be my last question today.  i just feel so lost and am questioning everything.

so, is staring a symptom of MS.  i cannot find it listed anywhere though i see double vision and loss of vision often.  i guess, it somewhat stands to reason since MS can affect/attack the optic nerve but i wonder if staring is directly related to the optic nerve?  

anyway, just wondering if you have seen staring mentioned anywhere or heard of it as a symptom.  i would ask the same question of yawning BUT i'll save that for a different day (like tomorrow)  :)

R

[kwarendorf]

Hi Jane - This is a rather old. I don't think coldnhot45 is still participating here. Just didn't want you to think you were being ignored :-)

Kyle

[jane871]

what is the dose you take of Aicept and how long until you noticed the effects?

[PastorDan]

I think this thread deals more with attention, alertness, and mental focus, and not so much with actual functions of the visual system.  Ocular dysmetria is where the eyes nearly always focus at a distance other than the distance at which you intended for them to focus.  If I am trying to look at our carpet shampooer, for example, it is about 8 or 9 feet to my right.  However, if my eyes would instead focus as though they were trying to see something on my elbow (less than 2 feet from the eyes), or out by the front door (maybe 19 feet or so, past the carpet shampooer), that's the type of problem described by ocular dysmetria.

"dys-" = wrong, "metria" = measurement; the eyes measure the distance between here & there, but get the wrong answer.  Actually, the brain makes the mistake; the eyes just do what they're told.  Online references say that it's a sign of lesions in the cerebellum.  Not an executive function at all, really; it's something that all seeing creatures probably do.  Repeat coldnhot's disclaimer here, though.  I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one online.

[kathykush]

Ocular dysmetria.... I saw this on a recient post and was wondering of this s what we are all discribing with our eyes?

[coldnhot45]

A lot of these problems sound like concentration and attention problems- common cognitive problems seen in MS.

As far as the dx of ADHD- if you really have this disorder, then you would have had it all of your life. It is not something an adult develops so if this is something new, its not ADHD or ADD. A psychiatrist is the best type of doc to diagnose this and one of the first questions he will ask a patient he is evaluating for this is whether or not he/she had these problems as a child.
As far as cognitive problems associated with MS, I have had pretty bad ones, and I guess it would depend on their severity, but my MS doc put me on Aricept and Adderall (which is used in ADHD too) and they have helped a lot. These two together have improved my memory and some other cognitive problems, though I still struggle in other ways cognitively.
Although many ms cognitive problems and ADHD symptoms are very similar, they are usually two separate things- just like MS and Alzheimer's both cause memory problems, they are completely separate. But it has recently been discovered that Aricept-  One of the first, if not the very first, meds out for Alzheimers and other dementias found in the elderly, can help someone with ms with memory problems a lot.
I have a doc that is up on the very latest treatments and I wish the word could be spread that Aricept is so helpful in ms. I don't think it's used a lot because only a few, small studies on its' effect on ms memory problems have been done (but many other, larger ones are going on right now) and because your average neuro may not know that it helps with ms.

But I wish the word could get around, because if you have really bad memory problems, it can do wonders!

"Executive Functions" refer more to planning, and problem solving and other things like that, I don't know what all they include but are listed as a separate symptom of cognitive dysfunction.

I am not a doctor, so any docs who read this and have more expertise on these things, please correct me, but I believe I'm accurate here.

[Quixotic1]

For these episodes of staring off enough to drive off the road.  Please be checked for Narcolepsy.

Quix

[Wobbly]

I get this problem from the Meds I'm taking... when I take a certain one that might be new to my system.. it happens and it's like I zone out for abit... difficult to stay in focus.. but then at times it happens when I'm not taking a new med?  So... I don't really know.. sorry

wobbly
dx

[kathykush]

.... um lets see I was told adhd also.....NOT!!! I was tested for a seizers... includeing 24 hr eeg. and nothing. I was given meds for adhd, it exaperated all my symptoms. I was told it was because "i am diabetic" ....NOT had that testing too. had a complete psycho work up.... nothing... next week I see neuro-opthmo....hopeing for an answer.
all I can say is that I dont drive anymore because it happened and I drove off the road with my kids in the car. thankfully we were all ok and god saw to it that I didnt hit or damage anything. but I have been driving for 25 years and never got "out of control" behind the wheel it was enough to scare me out of driving. I can also say that I reciently had a optic nerve test and it was fine... lol. good thing I have a sence of humor or I would feel phychotic
hope someone can help

[lightshines]

I too  have this same problem.  All of the symptoms affecting my mind are the most scary.  Times of staring off almost uncontrolabley, no memory, inability to assign meaning to what I am hearing, lack of ability to concentrate.  I often, when listening to someone can't tell you five minutes later what they said.  I have no diagnosis yet, after five years of trying and 10 years of symptoms.  But I see a new neuro soon.

[Lulu54]

Just to throw one more idea into the mix - have you ever considered absence seizures as a possibility?    This seizure disorder is much more common than recognized.  Google it and read more and then you might want to discuss this with your doctor.  

One thing we always have to keep in mind is not everything that's wrong with us is connected to our MS.

my two cents,
Lulu

[saveone]

I have the same thing you describe and yes I have deficits in my executive functions including attention

I know when I am doing it and I have to work to snap myself out of it.  It actually feels comfortable????

[supermum_ms]

When i was in my mid 20's, i started having these weird episodes, I'd had bad tonsils for ever and it was put down to the infection from my tonsils, they removed them at age 29 but it didn't solve the problem.

The weird episodes i was having was staring into space (like a zombie lol), i was running a national computer dept at the time, life was just about as good as it could get, well i though so at the time. I didn't know i was staring though, i just seemed to zone out, i'd feel ok, until i'd regain focus and find someone in front of me clicking their fingers in front of my face, or doing the wave saying "helo, you still in there" then i'd feel confused by the other person's weird behavior, i was still unaware i was the weird one.lol

It wasn't something that i'd always done, or something that made any sense to me but when i mentioned it to the dr, i was told my toncils where probably poisoning me after all these years. I saw a specialist and with in a week i was having my tonsils removed, i expected the staring to never happen again.

The last time i found my self loosing focus and staring was 2009, i now think its connected to my brain, cog fog from fatigue, maybe. When i was in the middle of last years episode, i would find my self driving along, id zone out and be staring, seeing nothing, off with the fairies but driving, my son's yelling at me would penetrate the fog and i'd again be back in the land of the living, though somewhat freaked out.

When it first started happening i can honestly say my executive functioning was tops, though now its gone to rubbish, ADHD without the hyperactivities would be about right.

cheers....JJ

[Deb61]

I have this problem with staring, and difficulty with following conversations as well.  My neuro told me that it was attention deficit disorder and increased my Provigil that I'm taking for fatigue.  It really helps!  I'm far from perfect, but I can follow most conversation and find that I don't stare off into space near as much as I used to.

Deb  

[kathykush]

well I dont know what it is or why it happens but it happens to me alot too. it started when I was 20 and has gotten to the point where I cant keep focus much at all anymore...I guess I just chalk it up to fatigue.and I think you did a great job discribing this

[Quixotic1]

I agree with jen, this is likely an "attentional"  problem related to the cognitive probems that are famous in MS.  In the case of staring aimlessly it would be the problem of keeping your mind on whatever task you are doing.  In kids with Attention-Deficit, they have "daydreaming".  When you ask them what they were "thinking" about they will honestly say "nothing."

All sorts of attentional problems are seen in MS, from classic Attention-Deficit (the inability to stay on task), to inability to split their attention between two or more tasks (problems with multi-tasking).

So, it's not your eyes, but your gray matter, your higher so-called "executive" functions.

OH, Look!  There's a squirrel!!!

Quix

[jensequitur]

I don't know about you, but I had some cognitive problems last year that really changed my behavior.  I wasn't always tracking what was going on, and sometimes I'd find myself looking at something while my mind was full of nothing!  

Being aware of it is a good thing.  As long as it's not noticeable, or interfering with your life, it should be okay.

I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have these MS forums.  I visit MedHelp and MSWorld regularly - they help me feel not so alone with these strange symptoms.

[babyatlas]

i guess, several times a day, i find myself staring.  i am still aware of what is going on around me and i even say in my head "hey, you're staring at that pencil (or whatever), knock it off" and then i pull myself away from the staring.  it probably lasts about 10 seconds or so.  i may have done this most of my life but i have really noticed my staring in the past 5-8 years.  my husband comments on it once in awhile but by that i mean a few times a year so i guess it is not happening so much that people think i am strange or anything.  

it bothers me though.  i feel like it is not normal to stare off into space so much.  i have mentioned this to my MS doctor and he didn't say anything about it - he neither confirmed or denied it as a symptom and now i am curious.

thanks for your thoughts - as always - this board is a lifeline.

[jensequitur]

Not sure what you mean by staring - describe your behavior and maybe we can help...

Staring off into the distance and getting lost in thought happens more often when you're emotionally upset, so keep that in mind.  Not an unusual thing to happen in somebody diagnosed with MS.