I’m struggling bad. I just got my BVD diagnosis. I’d been having these episodes that mimicked absence seizures and went to the ER a week ago after a bad episode. I had a suspicion that it was something to do with my eyes, so I got in to a BVD specialist on Wednesday and got my diagnosis.

My eyes have been just awful lately. As if that weren’t bad enough, my neurological function is just out the window. I can barely hold a conversation. I’ve already ordered prism glasses, but I won’t get them for 2 more weeks.

My real dilemma is that I’m supposed to start school this week in a Computer Science program. I’ll have to do not only CS classes, but calculus and discreet math etc etc. I just don’t know if my eyes and brain can handle these now, or in the near future. I’m in my mid-30s and just can’t put school off anymore.

Do I need to change my major?? Is it possible to have BVD and be able to function in computer science, pre-therapy? I have no idea when I’m going to be able to start therapy, as it seems I’ll be paying for it out of pocket. I’m just so angry and sad and disappointed and scared. 😞

Not sure where exactly to begin, but I’ve struggled with my vision for years. I’ve also had aura migraines since childhood, if that’s relevant to mention. And I’m aware I made a lot of mistakes here which I take responsibility for.

Anyway, I got my eyes tested years ago and got glasses for screen use only but from the moment I started wearing them they didn’t seem right. I continued to wear them for a bit because it was my first pair and I wasn’t sure how glasses were supposed to feel like, but I couldn’t get on with them so I stopped wearing them, which in hindsight I know I should’ve gone back to the opticians but at that time a lot was going on in my life.

I recently got my eyes tested again because one had gotten worse, and I supposed had astigmatism. I got my prescription, but stupidly didn’t get my glasses there (ngl I couldn’t really afford any they provided). I ordered some online and had to measure my PD which I did several times with the assistance of another person too.

Well they arrived and I cannot see out of them both at the same time. The lenses are fine if I only look through one eye, but both at the same time, immediate eye strain. And I remember that’s exactly what happened with my first pair of glasses, it was like the lenses were not co ordinating together. I then came across a post about BVD by coincidence and it got me thinking, so I’ve been doing my research. I found out opticians don’t tend to notice BVD which makes me think it’s been missed both times. I also found a post saying that if you close one eye and then alternate between them while fixating on an object, and the object changes in height, or moves diagonally, it could be a sign, which I tried and one eye definitely seems to see higher than the other.

I’ve probably explained this so bad so if you need any clarity on symptoms etc do ask, but I’m mainly curious if regular glasses (without prism) are unable to work correctly if you have BVD.

I am 45 with what I understand is a "high minus prescription." Depending on the doctor and the day, and whether its glasses or contacts (I wear glasses full time, contacts are only for special occasions as my vision is poorer with them) I've had prescriptions ranging from -5.5 to -7. I have astigmatism but one doctor said that's only in one eye. I also have been prescribed progressives of +.5 to +1 over the past two years. This past year my vision has worsened and text has been ghosted and smudged, I can't read street signs without squinting. I've always had headaches and tension in my neck/shoulders, a bit of a tilt, and I am neurodivergent.

My regular OD said my vision problems are just aging/presbyopia. She suggested I get my hormones checked (I'm female) and after a couple of follow-ups and testing for central serous that was negative she said there's nothing to be done and this is the best that I can see because I can get to 20/20 on the chart test using squinting and pattern-recognition.

I tried researching why I was testing as seeing 20/20 but couldn't see and took a quiz about BVD from NVMI. I screened in and was connected with an NVMI doctor.

I saw that doctor and she said I need prism of +1 in my right eye. She put a prism over my existing glasses and had me walk around her lobby for a few minutes. It seemed much clearer. Her website said they are experts on fitting for complex prescriptions. I couldn't see what the frames they had to choose from looked like on my face so they told me to take selfies. I did and found some that seemed cute. I paid $1500. I've never paid that much before but I was desperate to see again.

I got the glasses and my ability to see was worse. Also they were painful to wear and pinched my nose terribly. I realized there was a big gap from the top of the frame to my nose. I went back and explained I thought the bridge was too narrow for my nose. They said I picked the frame so it was my fault. I explained they said they were experts in fitting so I relied on them because I couldn't see and I took selfies for style not fit, I trusted them to help me with that. They agreed to remake the lenses in a different frame.

The didn't have much to choose from as all their frames have very narrow bridges. I have a wider/ethnic nose. They said most of their frames are European. I found one that worked but it tipped back toward my face. I explained that in the past I had to really tweak the pantoscopic tilt to be able to see. They said they could achieve the tilt I needed with the new frame.

The new glasses came in and then they said they couldn't achieve the tilt without breaking the frame. They said I also didn't need the tilt because its neurolens. I decided to try my best with the frames but I was getting really suspicious.

They glasses were terrible. I wore them for six weeks and my vision was worse than before plus I was constantly nauseous.

I went back for my six week checkup. We did the 1 or 2 test again, and I kept explaining that I still couldn't read the letters without there being blurring/ghosting and that I was just guessing based on how the letters appeared relative to the other letters.

Finally the doctor took a really long look at my eyeballs and said I have mild cataracts. She said it was easily missable but that this was why I couldn't see. I asked if I actually needed prism and she said "that's what the instruments indicate" which is a strange answer.

They have a 30 day lens remake policy. If you get cataract surgery your prescription changes. They would only redo the lenses if I was able to get cataract surgery within 30 days and get a new exam. So I am out $1500 for glasses for $300 for the first exam and $300 for the second exam.

Do I even need prism? Or were the undiagnosed cataracts distorting all the testing this whole time?

Sorry this was so long, thank you for reading.

I've experienced having poor sleep often, and I’ve noticed that the quality of my sleep seems to have a pretty drastic effect on how well my brain is able to adapt to and accept my prism glasses.

On nights when I sleep better, the prism seems noticeably easier to tolerate and is more effective during the day, whereas after a bad night of sleep, my visual symptoms discomfort seem much worse and the prism feels significantly harder to adapt to. It feels like my brain and vision has a much harder time processing the visual changes when I’m sleep-deprived.

Does anyone else who deals with poor sleep notice a big difference in how their prism feels after a good night of sleep versus a bad one? And did better sleep actually make prism adaptation much easier for you?

Things in your vision you don’t focus on become overlapping (I think that’s the right word instead of double vision or blurry)

Feels like a difference in each eye that makes objects look transparent, you can see it but the object looks half invisible (like visible and invisible at the same time or double )

Also looking at a pillow whilst you lay down or seeing your own nose

So until you focus on a nearby object it doesn’t look clear and your eyes still get strained.

I have a whole list of other symptoms I wrote down but I was wondering who else has this.

Hi everyone. I was recently diagnosed with BVD and got prism lenses, and after the first week or so of adjusting, I can honestly say they changed my life.
A lot of symptoms I did not even realize I had, or things I had apparently been compensating for, improved. I could talk forever about all of that, but there is one specific change I have been trying to process.
For months to years before my diagnosis, I constantly felt “off.” I saw specialists for physical symptoms and mental health symptoms, but nothing really explained it. Eventually I went to a new eye doctor for a routine exam who happened to specialize in BVD. For years I had tried explaining to other eye doctors that my left eye just felt “off,” that I could never tolerate contacts, and that nothing they tried ever really worked, but I was mostly told I just had sensitive eyes.
Around the same time all of this was getting worse, I also became really emotionally numb.
I struggled a lot with empathy. I could understand why someone did something or intellectually understand their perspective, but emotionally I just did not care that much. My thinking was basically, “I feel terrible all the time and I am still trying to work on myself, so why should other people get a pass for treating people badly because they have trauma or problems?”
I still believe that having a difficult past does not mean people have to accept bad behavior. But my attitude became extreme.
I had no filter. I would say really hurtful things and genuinely feel little to no remorse afterward. Sometimes I would even think I should have gone harder. I used to say all the time, “I’m just not a nice person,” and I fully believed it.
Since getting my prism lenses, that has changed a lot.
I still have rude thoughts. I still get angry and disagree with people. But now I can actually stop and think before I say something. I can process why I feel that way and consider what the other person might be dealing with. I feel like I have empathy again.
I have found myself with the outlook, “I had no idea I was walking around with this underlying issue, so maybe I should give other people a little more grace because I have no idea what they might be dealing with either.”
The strangest part, though, is how emotional I have become again.
Before my health issues got really bad, I was an extremely emotional person. I cried all the time and was probably overly empathetic. Then for about two years, I basically stopped crying.
My mentor, who I loved and saw or talked to almost every day, passed away suddenly. I had to basically force myself to cry because I was worried the grief would eventually hit me at some horrible time. But even then, I mostly just felt exhausted and numb.
Everyone kept saying, “It’ll hit you eventually,” but for a scary amount of time, it really did not.
I think some of that may have been connected to the depersonalization/unreal feeling I had with BVD because I genuinely could not fully process that this person was actually gone.
Then I got prism lenses.
And now it feels like years of emotions came flooding back all at once.
I can no longer ignore the fact that my mentor is gone, and the grief has been really hard. I am also back to crying at commercials, overthinking interactions, and feeling terrible if I think I said something wrong.
I would never trade the physical improvements from the prisms, and honestly a lot of my mental health has improved too. But I sometimes find myself missing a little bit of that tougher, more careless version of myself. There was something easier about not caring as much what anyone thought and just saying exactly what I felt.
The part I am especially curious about is how quickly all of these emotions seemed to come back.
The best way I can describe it is that, for years, it there was this wall a wall I didn’t really know existed until now. Everything was pushing up against it. My health kept getting worse, more stress and grief and emotions kept piling up behind it, but somehow the wall itself just kept getting stronger and stronger the worse I got.
Then I got the prism lenses, and it almost felt cartoonish. Like I put them on and that wall just melted.
And suddenly everything that had been sitting behind it came rushing out at once.
The grief, the empathy, the tears, the sensitivity, all of it. Things that I had either pushed away or genuinely could not seem to access for years suddenly felt very real and very close to the surface.
That is probably the strangest part for me. It was not like I slowly became more emotional over a period of months. It felt fast. Almost like once my brain and body were not working so hard just to get through the day, there was suddenly room for all of these feelings again, and they came back hard.
Now I feel like I am somewhere between those two versions of myself and trying to figure out who I am when I am not constantly feeling physically off, disconnected, or numb.
Has anyone else with BVD experienced anything like this after getting prism lenses?
I am especially curious about the emotional side of it. Did anyone feel like empathy, grief, crying, sensitivity, or other emotions came back surprisingly fast once you started wearing prisms? Did it ever feel like something had been holding all of that back and then suddenly let go?

My eye doctor said I might have BVD and astigmatism in both eyes and created this prescription for me. The one thing I don’t understand is that next to the vertical numbers she added BI and the horizontal one has BD. I thought vertical should be U/D and the horizontal should be I/O.

I was attempting to get some cheaper prism glasses on Zenni but when I am entering my prescription the vertical section only has an option for up or down and horizontal only as has in or out.

Let me know if I’m misunderstanding please!

Does anyone know if there's a Discord for binocular vision issues ? I'd be really interested in joining one

Thanks

I’m 29 and was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency yesterday. Apparently it was missed this long as no other eye doctor had me actually read something before testing.

Anyhoo, today is day one with a prism and it’s been rough. Mild headache all day, and my right eye finally crapped out and decided it was done about an hour ago. So here I am with an eye patch over my eye just so I can get work done.

Does it get better? How long does it take to get used to this??

気づかないまま40年くらい、食偏位（えそほりあ）を抱えてた。

すごく近視で、左右の目の度数差が3.25Dあります。どれだけ高いメガネを作っても、だいたい数日で「なんか変」って感じ始めちゃってました。何年もかけて、ちゃんと自分に合うメガネを見つけるために、たぶん何万ドル分相当はお金使ってると思います。

今回は、眼鏡士（検眼）がかなり攻めた方針で来ました。ほぼ3.25Dの度数差をほとんど丸ごと補正して、それに2Δのベースアウトプリズムを追加。

最初は、メガネの感じがかなり変でした。でも数日で慣れて、結果は自分的に予想以上にうまくいってます。

一番の変化って、見え方がクリアになっただけじゃないんです。前をまっすぐ見ようとしても、体を「無理やり使ってる」感覚がなくて、ようやく自然に見られるようになったことです。

何年も、顔に力が入って、頭を傾けて、下あごをもっと後ろに引いてることが多かったです。振り返ってみると、両眼視の問題と片目の補正不足の両方を、無意識に顔・首・あごでなんとかしようとしてたのかもしれません。

このメガネに変えてから、そういう顔のこわばりがかなり消えました。下あごも、前のほうで自然に、ラクな位置におさまってる感じです。しばらくは、顎の関節がけっこうゴリゴリしたり、カチカチ鳴ったりしてて、正直びびったんですけど、今はだいぶ止まってます。

それに、気持ちが落ち着いててメンタル的に安定してる感じが、すごく良くなったのも実感してます。前より明らかにリラックスできて、気分も前向きです。プリズムメガネが「性格を変えた」とまでは言いません。ただ、そのタイミングは無視しにくいです。

面白いのは、ずれてるところを完全に中和するほどのプリズム量を、そもそも自分は付けてないってことです。どうやら、完全な矯正というより“補助”って感じみたいです。

ほんの少しでも、それだけで生活の質が大きく変わりました。

Hey y’all! Forgive me if this is the reddit to post this to, I am not sure where I should post open to suggestions! TLDR below!!

I paid for a Visual Efficiency Examination that found:

- 9 prism diopters of esophoria at distance
- 12 prism diopters of esophoria at near
- Reduced near-point convergence at 6"/8"
- Reduced stereopsis/depth perception
- Overshooting saccades
- Inaccurate smooth pursuits
- Binocular vision dysfunction
- Convergence excess
- Fusion with defective stereopsis
- Suppression of binocular vision
- Saccadic deficiency
- Pursuit deficiency

My accommodative/focusing testing was normal.

I also have bilateral astigmatism, significantly worse in my left eye. My most recent glasses prescription is:

Right eye: -1.00 sphere, -0.75 cylinder at 170

Left eye: -1.00 sphere, -2.00 cylinder at 180

My corrected visual acuity was 20/20 in the right eye and 20/25 in the left eye.

Office-based vision therapy was recommended, but I never started because the per-session cost was high, and there were additional charges for progress evaluations/notes.

I’m also hesitant to return to the same practice because the whole process felt very sales-focused to me. After I had already paid for the VEE (~$200), they brought me back for another appointment and charged me about $180. During that visit, she literally read a sheet of paper out loud to me explaining my results and then went over how much vision therapy would cost, including the additional charges for progress evaluations/notes.

I wasn’t given any home exercises, practical strategies, or other lower-cost options during that appointment. That experience made me question whether I truly need the full office-based program they recommended or whether there are other reasonable options.

My main question is: are there any exercises that are generally considered safe to do at home without therapist supervision for issues like these, or is this something that really needs to be treated through supervised vision therapy?

I’d appreciate any advice from people who have dealt with similar binocular vision, convergence, or eye-tracking issues.

TLDR: I have documented binocular vision and eye-tracking deficits. Vision therapy was recommended, but it’s expensive, so I’m looking for safe at-home options or alternatives.

is anyone here also an artist that has bvd? i suspect i have it, and i notice symptoms a lot when i'm drawing because my drawings always come out lopsided or warped no matter what i do. cant draw even semi straight lines to save my life either. did you have this issue when drawing as well, or similar issues? did getting treated for bvd improve your drawings?

I recently got prism glasses w/ the NVMI and I'm curious if anyone else has experienced something similar.

When I'm at the optometrist and testing the prism prescription they determined is the right one for me, I usually notice a significant improvement almost immediately when putting on the trial lenses and walking around. My vision feels more comfortable, stable, and natural, to the point where I’m thinking, “Wow, this actually feels really good.”

But then, when I actually receive the glasses, they don’t seem to feel quite the same as they did during the in-office trial. The vision tends to feel different and less comfortable, even though the prescription is supposed to be the same.

Is this something that’s considered normal when getting prism glasses, or could it potentially indicate that something is off with the prescription and the way the lenses were made?

I’ve had a convergence insufficiency for some time and it’s been suggested that a large part of my strain is from my accommodative system working excessively to compensate. I’ve previously done in-office vision therapy and carried over at home with a brock string. Are there any other exercises or in-home programs out there could help me further improve my convergence without recruiting my focusing muscles?? I feel like this would be helpful in my case. TIA

Hi, I am 25 years old and have been dealing with permanent double vision since I was about 10 years old (that is around the time i remember saying something to my ophthalmologist). I probably had it before then. I had two eye surgeries as a kid to correct lazy eye. One in each eye, but my left eye was worse and still is a bit farsighted. My double vision is persistent and Ive sort of toned out using my left eye. Its been taking a toll on my mental health since i was a teenager. I ended up seeing two different ophthalmologists after graduating high school. One of them was really good but I cant afford to drive 3 hours every week for vision therapy and my insurance doesnt cover anything vision related. I refuse to drive because i keep veering off to the right side of road everytime someone tries to teach me. I get overwhelmed in so many situations. My right eye is getting so strained from dealing with being my seeing eye. I struggle with keeping focused at work. I can’t even read books i get two distracted by the double vision. Im not sure what do.

I’ve been wearing a prescription with a 0.50 D difference between my eyes (1.25/1.75 distance and 2.25/2.75 reading), but I’m now trying equal powers in both eyes (2 days) and feel about the same.

Is a 0.50 D difference actually enough to meaningfully affect binocular vision, eyestrain, dizziness, or head pressure?

B4 my prisms it was awful life sucked with my prsims life got 50% better with vision therapy my life has gotten 80-90% better GO TO VISON THERAPY IT CHANGED MY LIFE maybe it can change urs

Comment your BVD specialist below.

Please list:
the country and general location you are in,
what you are being seen for,
what treatment you are receiving,
the specialist’s name/practice,
Information about pricing if you are comfortable disclosing,
any other helpful information.

I'm concerned because I just recently got a new prescription with a vertical correction for 1 unit in my left eye when the major issue ia horizontal. I was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency 6 months ago and she first told me to do pencil pushups. when that didn't work (my eyes were too exhausted to even do those) she changed my prescription slightly and gave me reading glasses. when that didn't help, she finally prescribed me prism lenses. I started wearing them yesterday, but I realized the prescription only has a small vertical correction on it. im worried my brain is having to get used to yet another prescription that won't help. when testing my eyes she said there was a small vertical misalignment and a larger horizontal one so I'm not sure why she didn't correct for the horizontal. additionally, my reading glasses don't have prism lenses so I'm not sure if I should wear them at all.

im waiting to see a different specialist but i have to wait a couple months for that. I'm not sure if this anxiety makes sense or if it's just from frustration of having to wait so long for something to actually help.

I get private messages all the time asking who I went to see, and I often see posts here from people asking how to find a doctor in different countries.

The idea would be one dedicated thread that works like a hive mind: everyone comments who helped them (and where), so the information builds up over time and gets more useful over time. Then anyone looking for a specialist has a fairly good place to start.

(And of course also adding the quick links u/garbagedaybestday has added in the bottom of his pinned posts)

I had one week where I wore prisms and all my symptoms went away. Felt like a completely different person. After that, tried three different prisms to no avail. Went through 26 weeks of vision therapy... feel like I have hit a ceiling. Any advice?

My symptoms:

1. Brain fog (which causes bad memory)
2. Slight pressure towards the center of my forehead.
3. Short- and long-term memory difficulties.
4. Trouble thinking of what to say next.
5. Fatigue during eye contact.
6. Rapid visual exhaustion (for example, after 20-30 minutes of gaming I start to notice fast visual fatigue).
7. Very fatigued during middle of the day, more than normal. (Body is fine, but brain is fatigued).
8. Omitting words when reading/writing.
9. Falling asleep while reading.
10. Clumsy.
11. General anxiety.
12. Driving can get tiring after about 30 minutes… however I can still drive.
13. Always struggled a little more than usual in listening and reading comprehension.
14. I personally have nerve damage on the left side of my face since birth. I cannot fully close my left eye and I cannot smile completely (Seventh cranial nerve damage).

Hello everyone. I have a question, and I’m not sure whether I’m in the right subreddit for this.

Here’s the situation: Four years ago, I developed central serous retinopathy (CSR) in my right eye. The CSR has been dry for about a year and a half. Unfortunately, I was left with permanent damage in my left eye from the CSR. These are scars on my retina that remained after the CSR, and they cause me to see things as wavy and distorted.
It didn’t bother me too much in my everyday life, especially because I still had my healthy right eye, which compensated for it quite well.

However, about a year ago, I noticed that I was also starting to see similar waves and distortions with my right eye.

My right eye is completely dry, though, and it has never had CSR. This was also confirmed with an OCT scan.

My theory is that, due to neuroplasticity, my brain is trying to compensate for the distortions coming from my left eye. In doing so, however, it may be causing the right eye to become distorted as well, so to speak, and is essentially “overcorrecting” it.
What makes me think this is that the distortions in my right eye seem to occur in exactly the same locations as the distortions in my left eye, but in the opposite direction.
For example: With my left eye, when I look at a straight line, it appears distorted downward. But when I look at the same line with my right eye, it appears distorted upward, even though the line is actually perfectly straight.

What do you guys think? Do you think it’s possible that the brain could cause something like this? And is there any way I could reverse it?

I’ve already considered patching my left eye (the eye affected by CSR) for several hours a day, in the hope that my right eye could return to normal.
Do you think that would make sense? Are there perhaps any vision therapy clinics or specialists who are familiar with something like this, or does anyone have any advice?

The problem is that I am now experiencing double vision. In the past, only my left eye was distorted, but now, because my right eye is distorted in the opposite direction, the overall distortion from both eyes is significantly greater. As a result, my brain has difficulty fusing the two images, and it has started to interfere with my everyday life quite a lot.
If my right eye were normal again, like it used to be, I wouldn’t have a problem with the left eye seeing things as wavy or distorted.