Nystagmus – the way we see things
by Larry » Fri Apr 23, 201o
I though it might be useful for people that don’t have nystagmus and maybe parent’s of children that do to have a better understanding of the way nystagmus affects our vision, or rather, how our vision affects us. Maybe other members will add to this list to give a wider perspective.
Like the majority of people with nystagmus, I have a degree of astigmatism and glasses give me about a two line improvement on the eye chart. Normal glasses do not help to reduce nystagmus in any way. Contact lenses can help to slightly improve nystagmus in some people although they don’t help me (having nystagmus does not prevent people from wearing contact lenses).
So, how do I actually see things:
Firstly, I do not see my world as continually moving, as an infant my brain adjusted and adapted to this and I’ve hardly ever been aware of any eye movement.
My close up vision has always been very good although I’d still prefer to sit on top of the telly when I was a child.
I have no problems with depth of field and 3D although I think many people with nystagmus do. My peripheral vision is also very good.
The most annoying thing is not being able to recognise people until they are quite close. Generally, the soft and rounded contrasts of people’s features is subtle enough to mean that even a slight loss of focus makes them difficult to discern.
The most significant problem, I think, is that nystagmus causes focussing difficulties progressively over distance (it didn’t help that vanity prevented me from wearing my glasses full time) so I’ve always struggled with things like bus numbers and sign posts.
My vision has improved over the last few years thanks to EEG and a couple of other things but in the past, I was borderline for the driving test. I did manage to pass both my motor cycle and car tests in my teens and have been driving with no problems ever since (I’ve always worn my glasses for driving of course).
I was never any good at ball games like tennis or cricket because I couldn’t see the ball until it was too late to hit it – probably due to slow focussing. I was okay at football and badminton.
I see neon lights as continually flickering (it was only a few years ago that I realised that normally sighted people don’t). A lot of tail lights on new cars and traffic lights are now LED or neon, or whatever, and they flicker.
It does take me longer to read lines of script, TV subtitles are a nightmare as I always struggle to keep up with them.
People have asked me if everything I see is blurry. This is difficult to equate to because, for example, I have a brother-in-law that can see detail way in the distance that other people cant, yet these same people can comfortably read the bottom line on the eye chart – would they think that their vision was blurry compared to my brother-in-law’s? It’s all a question of degree I suppose.
There are loads of annoying little things, like, I can’t see whether or not it’s raining outside unless it’s quite heavy, I see less stars in the night sky, it’s also difficult to identify different birds and insects.
In particular, when I was younger, I used to avoid looking at people so I’d have an excuse for not recognising them. The downside of this is that I’ve never really learnt to read body language, facial expressions, etc, and I’m pretty damned useless at putting a name to a face.
Many Thanks Larry for letting us post this useful information.
for more info on this forum topic