I'm a 65yr old female who had always struggled even in my 20's with contacts whichever ones I tried but was never diagnosed with dry eye. When I was 49 I decided to get cateract surgery as opposed to laser due to that causing dry eye in some people who didn't have it before. Over the yrs that followed ( probably due to my age and having fibromyalgia) my eyes were constantly gritty. In my 50's I was diagnosed with Glaucoma by an eye surgeon here in Nanaimo,BC who told me I had really bad 'Dry Eyes'.After a long discussion about how long I had felt this awful condition which was worse when I had to do my 2 X 12 hr shifts on night as a nurse he Px me Restasis eye drops,It has changed my life. I have been using them now for about 9 yrs and have gone down from twice a day to once a day. I always carry around some OTC drops for those odd days when they might still feel a little dry of I get a bit of mascara in my eye. They are expensive but the eye Dr gives me a discount card when I see him once a yr which gives me 3 boxes at half price.