Complicated Eyeglasses Problem:
I've been wearing eyeglasses my whole life, and this is the first time
anything like this has ever happened.

I have been suffering with my eyeglasses for the past 2 to 3 years.
About 2 years ago, my original pair got scratched badly so I went in to
get them replaced.  When I got my new pair (new frames, new lenses), my
vision through them was very stressful - I could only see clearly if I
looked through them dead center - if my eyes shifted slightly, it would
become blurry.  After wearing that for weeks, I started getting a
strain all over my neck and shoulders.  I went back and the lab tried
again, and then we tried different frames, different tilts, and all the
adjustments known to man (or so it seemed).  The different lens would
clear up the blurriness a bit, but having to turn my head EVERYWHERE to
see things clearly (unlike my old pair) was just putting  so much
strain on my upper body.  This went on for about a year or more.

I finally gave up, and went to another doctor (from the previous
optometrist's recommendations!), an opthamologist instead.  However,
even after knowing about my horrible past year's experience, the new
doctors remeasured everything, and then had the new optometrist
carefully adjust my 7th pair of eyeglasses.  Guess what?  Everything is
much clearer, but I still have a strain all around my shoulders
especially if I look down to walk, read, or work on the computer.  If I
take off the eyeglasses, my upper body immediately relaxes, literally
as if the strain had been lifted!  It's the strangest thing.  I had
gone back to have the new doctors readjust again, add a bit of a tilt,
and anything else I could think of.  But nothing has help.  I'm now
wearing my eyeglases, and just taking them off when the strain is too
much.  But after a few weeks, I will notice my whole upper body has
tensed up so much that I have to just switch to contacts to give them
some relief.

My questions:
1.  Do the high-index lenses change the vision around the non-centered
area?  Would a lens with a higher index number be less clear in  the
areas surrounding the center than lens with a lower index number?
We've tried to investigate this, and the only thing I can remember is
how the index numbers have changed.

2.  Has anyone ever had an extreme pantoscopic tilt?  I ask this
because with my current pair, the only way to relieve my strain
(besides taking them off) is to tilt them to almost a 45 degree angle
(from the temples).  This is so extreme that the doctor won't do it for
me, for fear of breaking the frame also.  But time and time again, I
tilt it so that the temples sits about 1 inch above my ears, and the
lenses are tilted to about that angle, and my entire body relaxes
immediately.  I can look downward and not feel strain, and I can look
straight ahead, especially during driving, and not have to make any
adjustments.

Please help!  I'm so desperate to find some relief and get back to a
normal life again.  I can not wear my contact lens to read (so I don't
wear them often); I can't have lasik surgery because my cornea is too
thin.  I've tried everything, and they all point back to wearing
eyeglasses.  But if my eyeglasses are not working for me, I don't know
what else to do.  I want to just throw my eyeglasses on the floor and
crush them (which I'll do if I ever figure this out and get a real
pair).

Thanks for any help!

My nearsightedness is something like:
R:  -9.25 +150 095
L:  -10.00 +175 080