I can spot low myopes who refuse to wear glasses, just by the way they walk and the way they interact with people, strangers in particular.
When you can’t see clearly, your body hunches, and you avoid eye contact.
This goes much further than people think. Ignore it long enough and you might actually believe that you are a socially awkward introvert with chronic back pain, rather than just a mild myope who doesn’t want to wear glasses.
The myope walk.
I’ve seen some amazing transformation, getting low myopes to wear glasses.
You get guys who were shy and quiet and a little awkward, to open up and enjoy the social environment. Posture changes, better head position while sitting and walking, sometimes you see people transformed just by a seemingly small adjustment.
Of course it usually takes a little prodding. You have to re-learn to not look at the ground when you walk. Chin up. Practice making eye contact and saying hi to people. A little gym time, perhaps.
But when you can see, these things all come together for a much better experience.
This guy can see (not that you’d know, judging by the hat).
Of course it’s not always eyesight or glasses. But if you can’t see what’s in front of you, if you can’t clearly make out people’s facial expression or where they’re looking, you will absolutely end up feeling uncomfortable and awkward.
There’s a long forum post today, about low myopia and some common mistakes low myopes tend to make.
I won’t post the original question (quite long). Basically the poster is summarizing how he’s come to ignore his low myopia after making initial progress reducing it successfully. Once not wearing glasses was a reasonable option, that’s become the default way of operating. Never seeing quite clearly, and never really making progress.
Here’s what I suggest, for those with this issue (low myopia, refusing to wear glasses):
Pretty common scenario. Not to worry! Sometimes we go into denial about our myopia and just pretend it isn’t there. Low myopes do it all the time, especially after starting with the programming, getting some initial traction, and then doing the “oh I got this” move.
I think I posted something in the blog a while back about low myopia. It’s not to be underestimated, for being tricky like that. You can kind of “fake it”, so you’re less likely to apply proper habits. And the denial is a huge factor. “I don’t need these glasses”. Pretending the number is lower than it really is. I’ve done it, too. ?
Here’s the thing: It’s not a contest. Not even with yourself. The number is just a number. Try to look at it coldly, without emotion. What do you need for clear – double – blur progression that applies to your primary distances? (close-up and far)
Keep a log, not keep a log … I was never good about the log. You do want to at least have some basic environmental landmarks, though. The sign across the street, the mailbox numbers in the building, anything like that. Something that you can look at in passing. You’ll notice three months, six months, a year from now, how those get clearer. Just something to affirm progress. Centimeter isn’t so important with low myopia really. Snellen, or just things in the neighborhood that are text, and static distances.
You can go hard on it sometimes, just not wearing glasses for a whole day. But you want that in contrast to other days where you have some assisted vision, so your brain doesn’t accept blur as the status quo. You end up reducing your vision distance subconsciously, looking at the ground, not looking into the distance. Your posture changes, your social interactions change, all sorts of things that are less than ideal happen to compensate for blurry vision that you’re imposing on yourself. You’ll want to reassess all that also, make a point of keeping that chin out outside, interacting with strangers a bit, etc (maybe you are anyway – I just see it as a super common extension problem of low myopes refusing to wear glasses).
Go back to the beginning, figure out what you need for blur horizon. Don’t assign any meaning to the numbers (ie. omg I can’t believe … etc etc). Your eyes are healthy, they’ll respond to stimulus.
And post anytime. We’ll poke at things as necessary.
I’m not suggesting the poster has any issues with social awkwardness or posture.
The post just reminded me about the many times that I found eyesight constraints to affect the person on a whole level of being. Sometimes we need an external influence, somebody who can look at us dispassionately and as an expert stranger, to help us see where we’ve gone off course.
All this post is for, is to get you motivated to tackle the problem. Don’t go pretending you can see great, if you can’t (yet). Acknowledge the shortcoming, then fix it. It’s much more productive than spending years ignoring it. ;-)
A lot to be said on this front for high myopia also, but that’s for another day.
Housekeeping Notes: Feeling a bit burned out lately. December BackTo20/20 invite quota, 10 left for the year. I know, that’s a tiny number. I need a relaxing year end. Still no promises for when I’ll open up a bigger invite volume. Sorry guys!
Q&A video status: OSMO camera broke completely, after two days. It’s honestly a pile of crap (as you may already know if you follow me on Twitter. 20 minute battery life, useless audio, and now finding out, also zero support). DJI, not on my favorites list by a long shot.
We’ll get back around to Q&A videos when I get back home, after next week.
Cheers!
-Jake
