The human eyeball has six muscles with the sole purpose of pulling the eyeball in different directions. The purpose of this is to allow each of the two eyeballs to fix on a common point. Without this, people would see double. Of course, as with any of part of the human body, even these powerful muscles are susceptible to problems. One of the primary problems is eye weakness, a troubling symptom common to a number of disorders.
This condition occurs when at least one of the six muscles has insufficient strength to hold up the eyeball. This might lead to the eyeball falling inward during near-sighted activities or falling outward otherwise. Additionally, this general weakness can lead a person to see double. These are all common symptoms of eye weakness.
Causes of eye weakness generally include heavy eye strain, injury or paralysis. Sometimes, it's a simple cause for a temporary problem, such as basic weakness during a bout of the flu. Other times, it can be a more serious problem, such as amblyopia, a problem coined by many as "lazy eye."
Amblyopia is one of the more well known disorders involving eye weakness, but the causes of lazy eye go beyond those six muscles. This is a disorder in which the optic nerve and the brain cannot transmit sight information properly, so the term "lazy brain" might be more appropriate. A patient will normally only suffer from amblyopia in one eye, though it is not unheard of for both eyes to be affected by the condition.
If you begin to see double or experience blurred vision when you normally see clearly, you may be experiencing eye weakness. Patients who notice these symptoms of weakness should make an appointment with an optometrist for an optical examination. Depending on the disorder associated with the particular muscle weakness, a patient may experience a number of other symptoms, as well. For example, anxiety, dizziness, joint pain, and muscle weakness somewhere other than the eye also may be present. When this happens, see a general practitioner along with the optometrist.
Eye weakness left untreated can lead to a variety of problems. Patients with prolonged, untreated weakness may lose all functionality in the failing muscle. This places more stress on the nervous system, leading to more problems, including the possibility of a permanent squint, further proving the critical need to treat any such problem early.