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I went pretty deep down this rabbit hole for a while. I've always been suspicious of eye doctors since every visit they find an excuse to bump you up a notch o

I went pretty deep down this rabbit hole for a while. I've always been suspicious of eye doctors since every visit they find an excuse to bump you up a notch or two. Anecdotally, me and my brother had the same prescription in high school. I started refusing to go to the eye doctor. He kept going. I happened to see his contacts prescription maybe six years later. His prescription was now over a diopter stronger than mine. I needed new contacts, so went to an exam about that time. My prescription was still the same, "Well we'd like to bump you up a notch, but you can stay at this level if you want." Further, I noticed growing up that the kids with the worst eyesight were the ones whose parents had the best insurance and could afford twice per year exams. Anyway, I think glasses do irreparable harm to vision (particularly during adolescence). I think that will be borne out by research if anyone ever looks into it. The myopia correction exercises do seem to help, but it's a fickle process. If it was easy it wouldn't be controversial. I would describe my experience as your baseline vision stays roughly the same, but you can learn to focus for short periods of time and improve your acuity by maybe 1 - 2 diopters.

deleted 6y ago
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outworlder 6y ago
You know what else does irreparable harm? Failing classes because you can't see! Most people don't just decide that "hey, today is a good day for me to start wearing glasses, wouldn't it be cool!?" For young kids, it's usually when they start doing badly in classes or people notice they are squinting. For adults, it's having trouble with things like the DMV exam, caught by routine checkups, or when they notice their peers can see much better than they can. I could also give you endless anecdotes "proving" the opposite point, that wearing glasses can slow down or stop the progress, but why bother. That's all they are, they are not facts.
- war1025 6y ago
  > That's all they are, they are not facts. And that's why I said, "I think that will be borne out by research if anyone ever looks into it." > You know what else does irreparable harm? Failing classes because you can't see! And I am implying that I believe we are treating that problem sub-optimally and that I believe a better solution could be found for the majority of cases where myopia is an issue. I read back through what I wrote and I believe I had a fairly measured tone with it. You disagree, that's fine. The whole point of "science" is that people are allowed to have contrary hypotheses and the data should be the final arbiter or who is correct.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

outworlder 6y ago

You know what else does irreparable harm? Failing classes because you can't see! Most people don't just decide that "hey, today is a good day for me to start wearing glasses, wouldn't it be cool!?" For young kids, it's usually when they start doing badly in classes or people notice they are squinting. For adults, it's having trouble with things like the DMV exam, caught by routine checkups, or when they notice their peers can see much better than they can. I could also give you endless anecdotes "proving" the opposite point, that wearing glasses can slow down or stop the progress, but why bother. That's all they are, they are not facts.

war1025 6y ago
> That's all they are, they are not facts. And that's why I said, "I think that will be borne out by research if anyone ever looks into it." > You know what else does irreparable harm? Failing classes because you can't see! And I am implying that I believe we are treating that problem sub-optimally and that I believe a better solution could be found for the majority of cases where myopia is an issue. I read back through what I wrote and I believe I had a fairly measured tone with it. You disagree, that's fine. The whole point of "science" is that people are allowed to have contrary hypotheses and the data should be the final arbiter or who is correct.