23rd September 2019
Foolishly, I forgot to make a note of the date I started trying to heal my myopia naturally. So I'm going to try to remember to put dates on my updates from now on.
My first weaker pair of glasses arrived in July. They were only a quarter of a diopter weaker than my original (over prescribed I feel) prescription at -4.25, so I quickly adjusted to them. I finally printed out an eye chart and on testing them again recently I can see 20/20 with them. My printer doesn't work very well, so I had been putting off printing out a chart, but decided I could just top up the lettering with a marker pen. Using this chart has put some of my concerns to rest, namely that even with glasses I always felt I could never see as well as I should. I guess that's what you get for living with people who are slightly long sighted.
About three weeks ago the new glasses arrived. I'd made bigger steps back on the prescription for these three pairs, because I can't really afford to be buying a pair for every quarter diopter and it's a bit wasteful really, because, if all goes well, I won't be wearing them for very long and with the astigma adjustment I have they'd be hard to pass on to someone else. I started out just wearing the -3.75 ones for the next couple of days around the house and garden, because I didn't need to drive anywhere. The difference was a bit more obvious than last time, but I saw an improvement in a few days.
The first time I drove in them, I noticed street signs were a bit harder to read, so I tried changing back to the -4.25 and got almost instant head pains behind the eyes. I was a bit concerned that my sight wouldn't be quite up to standard for driving with the lower prescription, but now I've got the chart, I can see that I'm actually seeing with them at 20/25 vision, or 20/30 if a little tired. Apart from the initial improvement, I feel like I haven't noticed any further improvement, so I've taken to wearing the -3.25 glasses indoors and in the garden and use the -3.75 ones just for driving. These have taken up residence in my car, so I don't forget to change them if I'm rushing out. Yes, I did forget and go to pick up my daughter from the local train station with my indoor glasses on once…or twice. The fact that I didn't realise until was halfway there probably means I wasn't driving too blind, though.
I’m now trying to form new habits to help get my eyes working more and to avoid doing things which will increase my myopia. One of the things I probably really need to work on is not doing so much close up work on my tablet (not doing very well at this at the moment). Jake Steiner's End Myopia website has a lot of blogs and reading to help with getting back to 20/20 vision, but that means close up work again. Fortunately, he also has a YouTube account, so I've been putting his videos on and listening while I do other things. I found it interesting that a theme which often comes up is being mindful.
Mindfulness comes in with training your brain to send the messages to the eye muscles to work on making the adjustments you need for the results you want. If the brain normalises the blur, then your eyes won't be trying to make the adjustments needed to clear it. So if I'm going to use my tablet I take my glasses off completely and position it just at the point where the writing starts to blur. It's easy to end up drifting closer, however, so trying to be aware that the blur has gone and readjusting regularly is important.
Developing habits is a good way to make sure you improve. Jake suggests implementing one or two at a time, to make it easier to remember and be consistent. One he suggested was actually one I already do in part; starting your morning routine without glasses. This I have always done. I get up, get dressed, go to the bathroom, and do my hair, before I go to my bedside table and pick up my glasses. However, he then suggests being mindful once you put them on. Observing the difference between how things look with your glasses on compared to with the naked eye. Briefly I have always noticed that difference, but not really thought about it much or taken the time to look at things and compare them more purposefully.
So far the habits I've implemented have been having indoor and distance, or driving, glasses. I'm working on being more thoughtful about screen use, cutting down unnecessary time on them and trying to remember to take my glasses off if using mobile devices. For the computer and TV I try to make sure my position puts me just on the edge of blur, so my eyes try to work to focus in the distance rather than adjusting closer up all the time.
I keep something Jake calls Auto Focus (AF) in my mind as much as possible. The principal behind this is looking to the edge of where your sight is clear and trying to clear up the blur a bit beyond it. So when I have a moment where I'm not occupied by something else, this will come to mind and I will look into the distance, observing how much clarity I can make out, or finding things with just that bit of blur to see if I can get it into better focus. I find I achieve this best with letters and numbers, because the brain needs to clear it specifically in order to comprehend what's written there, whereas with larger everyday objects you don't always have to have perfect clarity in order to identify them. Your brain almost fills in the gaps without you realising.
I try to be more aware of when my vision is dropping. This usually happens towards the end of the day. For example I might be talking to a friend and their face has started to go out of focus a bit. Once I realise what has happened my brain seems to see this as a signal to do something about it, then a minute or so later their face clears up again.
Warmer days are coming and with this I should probably try to work on a habit of getting outdoors a bit more often. It's becoming better known that outdoor light promotes good eyesight and helps to stave off myopia. In China they are increasing outdoor play for schools in a bid to try to improve the myopia epidemic. Recently someone shared a photo of a poster at their optometrist which prompted outdoor time to help stop myopia from increasing. Outdoor therapy is probably twofold in that it promts you to look into the distance more, as well as having better light.
I've had ups and downs and the other day when I was feeling tired and low my sight regressed a bit. However, today I tested myself on the eye chart with my indoor glasses, which are usually at 20/40, and I just about managed to read the 25/25 line. Nothing like seeing improvement to keep the motivation up.