How Does Alcohol Affect Eyesight? Temporary Changes vs. Permanent Damage

Many people use alcohol to relax after a long day or to celebrate life’s little accomplishments, such as payday or the end of the work week. But sometimes, this habit can spiral, allowing alcohol to take more and more control of your life and time. This can quickly lead to alcohol-related health problems. 

Heavy drinking's damage to the liver is well known, but there are other ways alcohol damages the body. Drinking’s harm to eye health is a common problem and can be a symptom of alcohol use disorder. Alcohol impairs eye function (sometimes temporarily), but continued use can cause permanent damage and even blindness.

Learn how alcohol affects the eyes, why reducing or stopping alcohol use is vital for vision health, and how Clear Steps Recovery can help.

Table of Contents

• The Connection Between Alcohol and Eye Health 
• Short-Term Effects of Alcohol on Eyesight
• Long-Term Effects of Alcohol on Vision
• Can Alcohol Cause Permanent Eyesight Loss?
• Protecting Your Vision and Your Health

There is no part of the human body that is unaffected by excessive use of alcohol, which the CDC describes as more than 8 drinks a week for women and 14 drinks a week for men. 

While the dangers of excessive alcohol use to the liver and the brain are common knowledge, fewer people know about the severe effects of alcohol on ocular health. Here are a few ways alcohol can affect eyesight permanently: 

• Nervous system depressant: Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, which can make the delicate nerve network of the ocular system less functional both short-term and long-term. 
• High blood pressure: Even moderate alcohol consumption is linked to high blood pressure, which can damage the retinal blood vessels. 
• Impede healing and eye health: Alcohol can worsen or accelerate macular degeneration or cataracts by suppressing the immune system and inhibiting healing. 

If you suspect your drinking is impacting your eye health, it's time to cut back. If you find that you cannot cut back on your drinking despite negative health outcomes, consider attending a program for alcohol use disorder.  

Immediately after drinking, you can expect the following effects on eyesight and eye health. 

Blurred or Double Vision

The human nervous system is an amazing, finely tuned tool that communicates messages from the body to the brain. For the ocular system, this involves sending messages from the eyes to the brain to interpret what you are seeing. 

Alcohol acts as a major central nervous system depressant, so when a significant amount of alcohol enters your body, it impedes the eyes’ ability to translate what they are seeing to the brain. 

This is why heavy drinking causes blurred vision, seeing double, and sometimes temporary peripheral blindness or “tunnel vision.” 

Reduced Pupil Reaction and Light Sensitivity

The eye’s pupil is crucial to the functioning of vision. It acts like a camera lens, reacting to light by making pupils smaller to avoid damage. This is called the pupillary light reflex and is the work of photosensitive optic nerves. 

Alcohol is a nervous system depressant, and as such, disrupts the eyes' pupillary light reflex. This can cause damage to the delicate, photosensitive parts of the eye as well as impair vision and reaction time, making it yet another reason you should never drink and drive. 

Eye Twitching and Redness

The human eye is 98% water, so it needs a lot of moisture to function properly. 

Alcohol is a diuretic, and heavy drinking can easily leave you dehydrated and low on electrolytes. This can lead to red, irritated, and itchy eyes that lack the necessary lubricants for ideal function. 

Short-term effects of drinking on vision can be alarming, but can alcohol affect eyesight permanently? Here are some ways that long-term heavy drinking can damage vision and eye health. 

Nutritional Deficiencies and Vision Damage

Did you know that continued, heavy alcohol use can contribute to nutritional deficiencies? Heavy alcohol use interferes with healthy eating patterns, resulting in overall malnutrition. 

In addition, heavy alcohol use impedes the body’s ability to uptake valuable micronutrients, like zinc and thiamine. These nutrients play a vital role in eye health, especially thiamine (B1). 

A deficiency in thiamine can lead to Wernicke’s encephalopathy, a neurological condition that causes severe eyesight problems like double vision and uncontrollable eye movements. 

Some of these eye problems can be reversed with treatment, but if left untreated, nerve damage can be extensive and permanent. 

Alcohol and Optic Neuropathy

Optic neuropathy can occur in heavy drinkers. It is a neurological problem caused by alcohol-related nutritional deficiencies, specifically vitamin B12 and folic acid, which are critical to eye functioning and nerve repair. 

Symptoms of optic neuropathy include vision loss, especially “blind spots,” loss of vision clarity, and problems seeing colors. 

Increased Risk of Eye Diseases

Alcoholism increases aging while slowing the body's ability to heal. For eye health, that means worsening any age-related eye diseases that may already be present. 

Macular degeneration, cataracts, and any other eye conditions that may be present are all worsened by the immunosuppressing nature of alcohol, as well as the nutritional deficiencies needed for ocular cell turnover. 

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Yes, in rare cases, excessive and prolonged alcohol use can cause blindness. 

This is due to toxic amblyopia, a condition that causes vision loss due to poisonous substances and nutritional deficiencies, both of which are brought on by excessive alcohol use. 

In most cases, addiction treatment and cessation of alcohol use can restore sight over the course of several months. If left untreated, this condition can become permanent. 

Can Vision Loss From Alcohol Be Reversed?

Yes. With early medical intervention and proper treatment, most alcohol-related vision problems can be reversed as long as the patient stops drinking. If you suspect your drinking is impacting your eyesight, stop drinking immediately and seek medical attention. 

Some people find they cannot stop or slow their drinking, despite attempts. Sometimes people experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms that are so severe that stopping feels impossible. If that sounds familiar, consider attending an alcohol use disorder treatment program.

Vision changes from alcohol, even when sober, are a serious warning sign. 

The reality is that if you are experiencing long-term vision problems related to drinking, your health is at risk. Vitamin deficiencies and nerve damage are all symptoms of severe alcohol use disorder, and if the eyesight is affected, it is likely that other major body systems are shutting down from alcohol consumption as well. 

Protect your health, and reach out to a certified alcohol use disorder recovery program like Clear Steps Recovery to learn more about how we can help you safely detox from alcohol and get your health under control.

How Clear Steps Recovery Supports Healing

There is no shame in getting help for your alcohol use disorder. This common problem affects almost 30 million people across the country, and it takes bravery to accept help. 

Clear Steps Recovery offers a wide variety of treatment options for alcohol use disorder, from medically-assisted detox and recovery to outpatient programs specializing in supporting sobriety. Wherever you are in your journey, Clear Steps Recovery can help put you on the path to a sober tomorrow. 

Contact us to learn more about our cutting-edge treatment options. 

The content in this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.