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8 Tips to Overcome Your Fear of Inserting Contact Lenses

woman scared of inserting contact lenses

Touching your eye isn't exactly the most enjoyable thing in the world. But, your eyesight shouldn’t suffer from it.

Some people think of this as an uncomfortable experience. Others have a genuine fear of things coming into contact with their eyes. Still, 45 million contact lens wearers do it every day.

When you go from wearing glasses to contact lenses, be patient. Fear of touching your eyes only makes this process more difficult.

It's not impossible though. There are many ways to overcome your fear of inserting contact lenses and getting used to wearing contacts as a whole. Take it slow, it takes time to adjust!

If you can't get over the thought of having to touch your eye when using contacts, relax. Take a deep breath and use the tips below to help yourself out!

1. Practice Without Contacts

One of the best ways to overcome any fear is to take it on little by little. First make sure your hands are clean and you’re being careful. Work on getting used to touching your eye without a contact lens. This helps you see that touching your eye is not all that bad.

Practicing also helps your hands get steady. Getting used to this motion without a contact can make it easier on you later on. Then, when you do finally have your lenses in hand, inserting them should seem easier.

2. Get Familiar With Your Helper Hand

woman holding eye open while inserting contact lenses

Keep in mind that it takes two hands to insert a contact lens in the right way.

Your dominant hand is what you will use to hold the contact lens and place it onto your eye. Your non-dominant hand is your "helper hand." This is what you use to hold your eyelid open so that you don't blink in the middle of the process.

Even though your helper hand doesn't actually touch your eye, you should get used to where you want to place it. Get comfortable keeping the top eyelid up with your pointer finger and the bottom eyelid down with your thumb. It sounds a little difficult, but practice makes perfect.

With time, this will become a natural movement for your non-dominant hand. Despite feeling nervous right now, you won’t give it a second thought once you get used to the motion.

3. Use the Mirror to Guide Your Movements

Another great way to overcome the fear of touching your eye is to look in the mirror. That way you won’t be too focused on your hands and contact lenses.

Looking in the mirror helps you focus on the lens application process as a whole. This lets you put more energy into getting a good contact placement. And the thought that you’re touching your eye takes a backseat.

woman in mirror putting contacts in

4. Look up While You Insert the Lens

As you're practicing in the mirror, practice looking up. When you look up you have more of the whites of your eye showing. The contact lens will be less in contact with your pupil. This eases the fear factor and it allows for easy contact application and removal.

5. Try Using Eye Drops

Speaking of an easy contact lens application, try using eye drops. You're going to be even more stressed about putting your contacts in if your eyes are dry or irritated. Not to mention, contacts do have the potential of drying your eyes out even more.

Putting eye drops in before your contacts helps solve both of these issues. The drops relieve any dryness or irritation affecting your naked eye.

closeup of eye and eye drops

Keep in mind, there's a big difference between a slight irritation and something more serious. If you're having constant issues with your eyes or you feel a sharp pain, don't put your contacts in. Talk to your eye doctor about what's going on and wear your glasses until you know it’s safe.

6. Talk to Your Optometrist

You don't have to wait until something feels irritated to talk to your optometrist. He or she is available to help you every step of the way when adjusting to contacts.

As such, it's a good idea to be open with your eye doctor about the fear of touching your eye. They can provide other tips to help you become more comfortable with the process.

More so, they'll educate you on all the reasons why you really don't have anything to worry about. Such peace of mind is a huge relief. Talking about your fear with your doctor will help you overcome it faster, altogether.

7. Stop Listening to Contact Lens Myths

It's easy to find out the truth about wearing contacts! All you need to do is talk to your doctor. Still, some people get all worked up due to certain myths about contact lenses.

There are all kinds of stories out there about the dangers of contacts. Of course, some things are true. Like the fact that you can harm your eyes by sleeping in some contacts and that you shouldn't swim with them on.

But, when people tell you things like "your contact can slide behind your eyeball" or "contacts can scratch your eye," don't listen to them. These things aren't true and the thought of them will only add to your fear, not help it.

true vs false signpost on sky with clouds background

8. Identify Where Your Fear Is Coming From

Here's something to think about: try to identify where your fear of touching your eye and inserting your contacts is coming from. This fear is affecting your perception of inserting contact lenses. Did you accidentally poke your eye when you were a kid? Do you consider it weird that some people think touching their eye is completely normal?

Wherever your fear is coming from, realizing the source can point you in the right direction. It helps you retrace your steps, so to speak, to when your fear first started developing. This is a great step toward overcoming it once and for all.

Discover the Beauty of Inserting Contact Lenses With Ease

The more you work on inserting contact lenses without freaking out, the easier the whole process becomes. Your fear may feel real but there are exercises you can do to get rid of it. Using our tips and talking to the right people will get you there.

It may also help you to learn more about contacts before you commit to wearing them all the time. Check out these contact lens facts to help you wrap your head around the thought of using these little medical devices.

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