[andrzejpw]

But will my eye really strengthen, or will it get overworked?

 

[Squalish]

As with most health-care issues, there are several opposing schools of thought on the topic.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by HappymaN Hirsch, I was talking to an opthamologist who is a professor at my medical school, and he said that the development of my "short-sightedness" had nothing to do with how close I read, or how close I sit to my monitor/television.

Opthamologists are not usually big believers in vision therapy. They are trained in a medical model. Put glasses on it, give it medication, or do surgery on it. Most vision therapy is done by optometrists, but many optometrists aren't trained in the area either, so you it's necessary to find one who has developed vision therapy as a sub-specialty.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw But will my eye really strengthen, or will it get overworked?

The likelihood is that it is already overworked. If you do a lot of reading/close work, you're straining your eyes a lot. It's a very common cause for nearsightedness.

The idea is to learn the skills so that it won't stay that way. It's not so much "strengthening" as skill learning.

 

[andrzejpw]

What's the best way to find an optometrist who does vision therapy? From what you guys say, Lenscrafters wouldn't be the best place.

 

[Strogian]

I thought about this same exact thing about a year ago (when I was 17 too, hmm

), and immediately did some research on it. (i.e. not asking a bunch of people on a headphone message board

) Anyway, I figure that the basic cause of my problem (exactly like yours -- fine in one eye, nearsighted in the other) was looking at things close-up. When you're focusing near, the muscles in your eye are constantly working to bend the eye's lens. If you maintain that too long, either the muscles will refuse to relax, or maybe the lens will actually become permanently deformed. I don't know which, really. But in any case, you won't see far-off things with that eye anymore. (not necessarily permanent, of course)

Oh, and the reason it only happens in one eye? Your brain uses your "dominant" eye for the close-up focusing, allowing the other eye to relax.

Keep in mind that that's just my (unprofessional) theory, based on some Internet research I did a year ago. It could be wrong. Also, I'm not sure if it's necessarily a bad thing. I can still see just fine as long as I'm not covering my "good" eye. If you start doing stuff like "cover up the bad eye when doing close-up stuff" you might end up hurting your other eye too!

The best advice I can give is to start being aware of what you're doing to your eyes. Don't do things you feel are harmful. Beyond that, you're gonna need to get a professional opinion.

 

[HappymaN]

Just be thankful that it is not your ears that are letting you down.

But seriously, there is nothing wrong with glasses - my girlfriend loves it when I wear mine.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Strogian Anyway, I figure that the basic cause of my problem (exactly like yours -- fine in one eye, nearsighted in the other) was looking at things close-up. When you're focusing near, the muscles in your eye are constantly working to bend the eye's lens. If you maintain that too long, either the muscles will refuse to relax, or maybe the lens will actually become permanently deformed. I don't know which, really. But in any case, you won't see far-off things with that eye anymore. (not necessarily permanent, of course)

That's actually a pretty good explanation of an accomodative spasm.

Quote:

Oh, and the reason it only happens in one eye? Your brain uses your "dominant" eye for the close-up focusing, allowing the other eye to relax. Keep in mind that that's just my (unprofessional) theory, based on some Internet research I did a year ago. It could be wrong. Also, I'm not sure if it's necessarily a bad thing. I can still see just fine as long as I'm not covering my "good" eye. If you start doing stuff like "cover up the bad eye when doing close-up stuff" you might end up hurting your other eye too! The best advice I can give is to start being aware of what you're doing to your eyes. Don't do things you feel are harmful. Beyond that, you're gonna need to get a professional opinion.

Look at it this way. Much of what we perceive as three dimensional vision comes from disparity in the signals we receive in both eyes. We need binocular vision to get full depth perception. It is not a good thing when one eye is is suppressing the other. We can still see enough depth to function, but how much harder is it going to be to say, catch a ball? Drive? (It's very possible to drive well using only monocular depth cues, but it's much harder).

A treatment for "lazy eye" used to be to cover the good eye to force the lazy eye to work. This treatment was flawed, as the idea is to get both eyes working together. You cannot get binocular vision using one eye at a time.

A good place to look might be your state's optometric association. They should have a listing of optometrists who do vision therapy.

 

[Strogian]

Quote:

Look at it this way. Much of what we perceive as three dimensional vision comes from disparity in the signals we receive in both eyes. We need binocular vision to get full depth perception. It is not a good thing when one eye is is suppressing the other. We can still see enough depth to function, but how much harder is it going to be to say, catch a ball? Drive? (It's very possible to drive well using only monocular depth cues, but it's much harder).

Yeah, that's just it, isn't it?

I *think* I'm using both eyes to detect depth, but I don't really know...haven't looked into it that much. (Ooh, good one!

) I know I notice a difference closing one eye in, say, a room. But I'm not sure about far-off things. I don't think that far-off depth-perception really matters, though. You don't have to catch the ball until it gets near you.

Really though, if I had to guess, I'd say I'm using both eyes (in some capacity) to look at far-off things, too. But, as with all this stuff, until I try wearing glasses or something, I'll never have anything to compare my vision to.