I have had glasses since I was six and actually had contacts for 15 years before I gave them up. Without glasses I can’t do anything. My insurance will pay for new frames and lenses every year, so I have to have about six pairs of backup glasses. One at home, work, my car, my travel bag. Fortunately my prescription really hasn’t changed in years. I broke them once on a business trip before building up the stock of backups and had to cut my meetings short and head to the optician.
Glasses falling off the nightstand is the biggest problem for me now.
I am a candidate for LASIK but won’t do it or two reasons. My uncle used to work for a manufacturer of the devices and told me he would never do it himself. He thought the risk of side effects was too high. Second, I watched some show about it and almost threw up when I thought about going through the process myself.
I think I am in the -8 area. Been wearing glasses since 2nd grade. Luckily I took to the black plastic frame trend early - about 10 or 12 years ago? so that helps hide the thickness of my lenses wonderfully, hah! And it’s a good look for me anyway, I think, better than wire frames were.
I just never not wear my glasses unless I’m asleep. Am I the only woman who wears them in the shower when I shave? The current pair I went cheaper on the glasses so I could afford new sunglasses (new insurance not as good) and the frames don’t like to stay up on my face as well with a wet head covered in conditioner, but I cannot shave legs/bikini/etc blind as a bat. I really can’t see anything without them on but only wear them while actively shaving. I also swim with my prescription sunglasses on. I wear sunglasses a LOT really, I abhor squinting and I get migraines (non eye related) and often am just sensitive to light, so I tend to keep them on until I really can’t see anymore
Meh, taking a shower isn’t that big a deal. I know that this big orange blob is my shampoo, this white blob my soap, this other one my washcloth, etc. I can even tell which is which despite the fact that shampoo and conditioner are the same brand with nearly identical bottles.
As for looking at the time in the middle of the night, I can see fairly well from about a foot away, and cellphones are bright. And my cats are locked in the basement at night, so I don’t have to worry about them playing with my glasses.
I’ve also never lost my glasses. I know I should be prepared for the possibility, but I don’t wear contacts, and I don’t take my glasses off that often, so I’m never that far away from them.
IIRC, I’m -12.5 in one eye and -13 in the other (negative numbers are for nearsightedness, right?). I have contacts (for which the numbers are all different), but can’t afford the contact solution to keep them clean right now, so I’ve had to get used to my glasses all over again.
(I’ve always had glasses, since 2nd grade, but didn’t wear them much once I got contacts; always needed a pair to find my bedroom after taking my contacts out, though.)
I manage in the shower okay. I shave by feel - if I can feel hair, it means I’ve missed a spot and I shave it again.
I absolutely cannot drive, take a walk or even navigate my living room without glasses or contacts. Maybe if I lived alone and kept everything in the same spot all the time, but that’s not my reality. The glasses stay in a basket next to my bed when I’m sleeping, and go on if I need to do anything more than visit the bathroom in the middle of the night. I really can’t even refill a glass of water without banging the glass on the tap if I don’t have my corrective lenses in/on.
Once I realized I needed to get my prescription changed when I was in a strange city and discovered I couldn’t read the traffic signs on the highway. But mostly I’ve learned just to watch out for the blobs.
I recently rolled a car over, and the side curtain air bag knocked my glasses off. After a couple of minutes, I found them in the back seat, but it was really disconcerting not knowing where they were, especially since I was probably going to be taken away to a hospital and thus would have been effectively blind for some indefinite period of time.
I’m not exactly blind without my glasses – I can see to retrieve them from wherever I put them, for example, especially if I close my right eye (I’m antimetropic, among other things) – but it’s enough of a hassle trying to see without them that I wear them at all times when I’m awake (other than showering and such).
How do I cope without them? Well, it’s a pain in the butt. So I acquired the habit of always knowing where I put them. On the rare occasion when I don’t (cat knocked them off the nightstand, etc.), it is as sacred a duty for the normally sighted to assist the bespectacled in finding their missing glasses as it is to bring another roll of t.p. to the person marooned on the throne without it.
I can’t remember the last time I was somehow without my glasses for any extended period. I imagine it dates back to childhood.
I tried using contact lenses in my early adulthood but my eyes are very sensitive to touch on top of it, and trying to put them in always amounted to poking myself in the eye repeatedly for half an hour. It just wasn’t worth the hassle.
I’ve thought about Lasik but I can’t afford it, and I may not be a good candidate anyway for boring medical reasons I won’t go into.
I’ve worn glasses since I was about 2, and I’m 54 now, so I don’t remember not ever wearing glasses. I can actually see well enough without my glasses. I don’t need them to see my way around the house or when I’m in the shower. I can read the shampoo and body wash bottles, for example. I can read and balance my checkbook without them. I can recognize faces. I could walk around outside without putting myself or anyone else in danger, too. What I need them for is to see my computer screen. And I need them to see the TV screen from across the room. And, of course, I can’t drive without them. But if I didn’t have them, I could still function. I see things pretty well in general. I just need my glasses to resolve details at a distance. So, I guess you could say I’m nearsighted, but not catastrophically so. It’s more of an inconvenience than an obstacle.
I think you’ve got a “True Scotsman” situation there. Anyone who TRULY needs glasses or contacts has them, or has changed their life to no longer need them. Anyone who doesn’t want to, and can find any way to get by, will.
Personally, I used to wear glasses, but got sick of them, and just stopped wearing them. Obviously some aspect of glasses wearing is not optional, but also some aspect of it is. Over time I adjusted to not having them, and was able to function for the most part. The only difficulty I have is driving in the dark in the rain when I am going to a new place and need to see street signs.
Also, more recently (last year), I’ve been having issues with twilight - especially bright oncoming headlights from trucks in the dark.
But I think, generally people find a way to deal with what they need to deal with, by whatever means.
In my case, I’m generally not affected, but in the dark rainy foggy situations, I just drive slightly slower in the right lane if I haven’t been there before. But then, I make a habit (that all drivers should), of not driving faster than I can stop if an unexpected obstacle should cross my path. In the daylight on a straight road, this takes me well above speed limit, but on a really curvy road or in the dark, this can be below.
I’m pretty near-sighted, things get blurry around 6’ away and only get worse. However, I really only need them to drive as road signs turn into vague yellow or green blobs.
I really, really need glassses. My focal length is about one inch to one and a half inches past the bridge of my nose. And I don’t cope without them. There is one spot on my nightstand for my glasses. I get into bed, and when I’m ready to go to sleep the glasses go in that spot. I might read for a bit before putting up my glasses, but they go in that spot. And if I knock them off the nightstand, I’ll probably have to get my husband to find them.
When I shower, again, the glasses have their designated spot. We moved recently, and I had to figure out a new spot for the glasses where they wouldn’t get knocked over or down.
I’ve never been able to learn to swim partially because I sink, but also partially because I simply can’t see well enough without my glasses to be able to tell which is the nearer side of the pool.
When I was a teen, I got contacts and loved them. However, as I’ve gotten older, my eyes have gotten worse, and if I got contacts today, I’d have to wear a pair of glasses too, to be able to have my vision corrected enough to drive. Same thing with Lasik…I’d need a pair of glasses after the surgery. Granted, the glasses wouldn’t be so incredibly thick, but if I’m going to have to wear glasses to drive, I’m not going to go to the expense and trouble of getting contacts or surgery. And yeah, my glasses cost a bundle. My mother used to have two pairs of glasses at all times, a regular pair and a pair of prescription sunglasses. I don’t do that. Instead, I wear a cowboy hat which keeps the sun out of my eyes, except when the sun is low.
Before I started school, I used to sit extremely close to the TV, and my parents thought it was just a bad habit. When I started school, the school officials told my parents to get me glasses, as I was extremely nearsighted. I am still in the habit of sitting close to the TV/computer screen.
Pretty much what everyone else said. I’ve very dependant on my glasses and wear them unless I’m sleeping, bathing or swimming. or having sex… If I mislay them when I take them off, or they get knocked someplace, a normally sighted person has to find them for me, and I’m well familliar withe the “myopic grope” I cope ok in the shower, shave by feel, and am very very grateful I have my glasses. I couldn’t function without.
One of the things I just loved about Harry Potter was, finally, an accurate description of how people really wear glasses. Harry wakes up and the very first thing he does, is reach over and grab his glasses. That’s me, too. My vision isn’t completely outrageous without; I can read without them, close up, but it certainly isn’t great. I can also navigate across a room as long as no one has changed the stuff on the floor. I can see big things, though they have blurry edges.
Showers are of course blurry. I have a great clock that has big green numbers so I can see what time it is when I wake up. But it also has a thing that projects the time onto the ceiling which I love…except I can’t read it without my glasses. :smack: You make do.
I first got glasses when I was 11. Mostly because I couldn’t read my sheet music in school orchestra rehearsals. I often didn’t wear them and tried to do without. As an adult I needed them mostly to drive (if I needed to read street signs). I could see the cars ok. Filling up with gas was a problem because the digital display on the pump is hard to read from five feet away.
By my forties glasses are less of an option. I’m finally to the point now where I notice my blurry world. Can’t read the clock at night anymore without reaching for glasses. It’s been an adjustment.
I’m about ready for bifocals. Last few years, my glasses won’t let me read books or fine print. I’m constantly taking my glasses off (or shifting up on my forehead) to read. Then back on for distance sight. PITA
Reading this thread, I realize I was lucky. At least I wasn’t dependent on them all my life.
Showers and walks to the bathroom are no problem for me without my glasses, but anything more complicated than that and I need to put them on. I recognize the bottles in the shower by shape, or I have a little trial-and-error game as I pick them all out and check them a few inches from my face. I shave by feel most of the time, and I often find myself needing to touch up missed spots after I get out of the shower. The glasses only come off for sleep, showers, and sex - otherwise they’re on all the time. I can’t really wear contacts because my eyes are too dry and itchy, which is too bad because I would really prefer them to glasses. Surgery is not going to happen, because I don’t want sliced eyeballs. So, it’s glasses on my face for all my waking hours.
This is one of my biggest fears. I have nightmares about being in an accident and not being able to see what’s going on. I had surgery several years ago and when I woke up in the recovery room, I was freaked out because I could only make out shapes and couldn’t tell the nurses and people apart. Really stressful. And my eyes aren’t nearly as bad as some others in this thread!
I was always severely nearsighted in only one eye. Now that I’m somewhere north of 40, I’m farsighted in the other eye. So in order to read anything I have to hold it really really close, or really really far away. Generally while getting around my “good” farsighted eye compensates, so I see pretty well. Can’t drive that way, though, because it’s harder to focus when moving fast, and I have bad depth perception. If both of my eyes were like my nearsighted one, I’d be feeling my way around to find my glasses.
Generally, we don’t cope without them. We keep them on whenever we can. When I take mine off, I make sure to remember where I put them down. If I can, I enlist someone else to help me, as well.
Mr. Neville has good vision. If I lose my glasses and can’t find them, I ask him to help me find them.
On the rare occasions when I go swimming, I wear my glasses, and do not put my head under the water.
Stuff in the shower generally stays in the same place, and there aren’t that many wrong bottles I can pick up, so it’s not really a problem.
I do often cut myself shaving my legs. I put a Band-Aid on it when I do.
I had Lasik; one of the best things I ever did for myself. Before, if I dropped the soap in the shower, I would turn off the water, lean out of the shower, grab my glasses, find the soap, put my glasses back on the sink, and turn the water back on. Otherwise I was sure to slip on the soap and kill myself.
The Lasik was 6 or so years ago; now I have reading glasses that I don’t really need to wear, but I do at work because the lighting isn’t really great over my desk. I also have glasses to drive at night that I’m not required to wear, but they cut down on the halo effect. Lasik is awesome.
