I love Neha’s writing style.  She is always positive, inclusive, forgiving.

You know I struggle with this.  I struggle, because over the past ten years I talked to hundreds and hundreds of optometrists all over the world.  I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the profession.

Some optometrists are great.  Behavioral optometrists in particular, hats off.  These guys really try to help.

But then there is the mainstream.  The range there goes from casual ignorance to derisive condescension.  “You are not in the club!  You have no say in the matter of eyesight treatment!  Shut up, buy these glasses!”

I really don’t like those guys.  And you probably don’t either.

What brings this up is a recent comment by Kim, on one of the recently posted articles.  Here is what Kim says about her optometrist experience:

quotes-blueI actually asked my optometrist about lens induced myopia, and I was in utter disbelief by the end of the appointment.

I told him about how I read about lens induced myopia, and how I have been reading from some papers written by ph.d students on how wearing glasses that are meant to see far for close up work was bad. 

He told me that everything I said was true. I have been going to him since I was a child, so I asked him why didn’t he prescribed me differential prescriptions instead or tell me about any of this the last 15 or so years. He chuckled and told me that it was too late for me now, and that the rehab only works for kids and teenagers. I was 10 years old when I started going to him for glasses! 

I was a month into this rehab before I went to him to check on my eyesight. His tests verified that my left eye improved by 0.5 diopter and my right eye improved by 0.25 at that time. I told him about the active focus/pulling I have been doing, but he disregarded that as the reason why my eyes improved.”

Hmm.  Deep breath.

Let’s be honest.  Most people want a quick fix.  

Even if we had prevention talks with every myope, optometrists would still sell lots and lots of 20/10 prescriptions.

But also, we are the customer.  We have to suffer the consequences.  

We should be allowed to know what happens to our eyes, when we put them behind those glasses.  And most of all, we should be allowed to take a lower prescription, if we don’t want that sight destroying huge minus lens.

Just realize that when you walk into that optometrist franchise, it’s just like walking into a McDonalds.

Quick fix, long term consequences. 

In a state of huff-ness,

– Jake Steiner