I don’t have 3D vision, so after a lot of research, I decided to try vision therapy as I’m starting to have issues with parking the car. I know, you’re thinking driving would be a problem? No, because cars are far enough away, that my lack of depth perception doesn’t seem to matter. And not only is parking a problem, I’ve started driving over curbs when I cut around a corner more than I used to.
So I had my first therapy session this week. I actually have some 3D vision, but it’s minimal. I have one eye pointing out, and the two eyes don’t work together. The therapy is exercises to get the eyes to line up. There was a test with glasses where they can force 3D vision and it’s pretty creepy. Stuff just pops out at me. At one point I was looking at this image of a circle of rope (one eye sees one image and the other eye sees another) and I actually felt my stomach heave.
It’s kind of a risk whether it will work or not. I know my insurance won’t cover it, but I wanted to try, because if it does work it’s a big pay off for me personally.
So, has anyone here had vision therapy as an adult? Did it help? Even if you didn’t get a complete cure?
I also lack depth perception as I can only see with one eye.
I am curious about the onset of your driving problems. As you know, you can fake depth perception. I am 55 YO and have been blind in one eye since birth. I haven’t experienced any of the problems you mention. Is this my future :eek:?
I have heard of this therapy but I’m not sure where I came across it. Possibly here on the SDMB. Please keep us informed.
i’m not sure I can so much ‘fake’ depth perception, but that my brain uses visual cues to keep me from running into things. I think this is called ‘visual accommodation’. However, if things move too fast (like I can’t catch a fast baseball) or depend on a refined sense of where something is (no golf for me!), or isn’t a standard size then I don’t do well with them. I’ve mentioned earlier on the board somewhere,I could land a plane on a well marked airfield (lots of standardization) but not do an emergency landing on something like a road; so I had to quit.
I don’t know if my experience will be the same as yours. I’ve got what I’ve got, and I don’t know how representative that is.
Fortunately, the idea that there is a ‘critical period’ in your childhood where this treatment has to be done and won’t work afterwards, seems to have been shifted to ‘not as critical as we thought it was 50 years ago, and probably not real’.
I have no useful vision in one eye, and it is close work where loss of depth perception is most noticeable. I have great difficulty using a touch-screen, because I can’t judge how far my finger is from the screen. It is also difficult to walk on regular ground, because you don’t know how high or low the next footfall will be.
For distant objects, it’s not a problem, it is pretty easy to judge the distance of, say, a car, by the relative size of the object, and its speed can be judged by how quickly it changes size. The eye and brain have pretty amazingly learned how to do that.
One of my eyelids tends to droop when I’m tired. About 20 years ago I had climbed to the top of a volcano, and coming down I was exhausted. At one point I had to jump off a large boulder. My one eye was almost closed, causing me to lose depth perception. I horribly miscalculated the distance to the ground, and wound up landing on my knees, causing considerable damage. I’ve had serious knee pain ever since. Sometimes I have to actually hold that eyelid up, to get decent depth perception.
My daughter was getting vision therapy for convergence insufficiency for about six months. Then we quit, because it’s horribly expensive. She’s only 12 and not very communicative about whether it helped. I keep hoping someone will write a book with exercises to do at home.
I have useful vision in only one eye. This started about 5 years ago after a botched cataract operation when the second operation to correct the first led to a detached retina, which was reattached (twice) but left me with a drop of oil in that eye. Combine that with strabismus (cross-eye) and I basically use only one eye. The one thing that was never a problem was driving; I am not sure why, but it wasn’t and isn’t. Threading a needle is very hard however. I use a floss threader to get under some bridges and even that is hard, although the opening is an inch wide. Sometimes the milk misses my teacup unless I am very careful.
Two of my friends got the 3D glasses as teanagers. One because she was getting headaches trying to maintain 3D vision, the other because he didn’t have any 3D at all.
The male friend got the prism glasses just when he was starting to have an interest in girls. Girls had been flat before, like everything else. Suddenly they were popping out in glorious 3D. He found it interesting, distracting, and not the kind of thing that he could casually bring up in conversation with his parents, friends and teachers.
I’m 57 and been effectively blind in one eye since about 5 years old because of a childhood accident. I could play baseball and things where an object was close to my body but leaving tight parking spaces where the edge of the car (GMC Yukon SUV so it is largish) is several feet away has always been an issue and I will be very cautious being near other cars and make multiple in out corrections before exiting where others with perfect 3D vision will swoop in an out with inches to spare.
Are you saying you have no issues in parking large vehicles and you have only one eye?
I’m also blind in one eye (a lazy eye I never treated as a kid because I was dumb). Parking and driving in narrow spaces is hard for me but not impossible. I try to avoid issues by parking far away where there aren’t cars near me. I also avoid places that have really small lots that take a lot of maneuvering to get in and out. Good luck, I hope this treatment helps you.
Yes, no issues with driving or parking at all. I drive a pickup with a cap on the back, so fairly large.
I have difficulty with 2 things. Near depth perception, such as pouring into a glass or setting a glass on to a table. I usually stick my little finger out as a feeler.
The other problem has developed as I’ve gotten older, catching a ball. I played the usual US sports as a kid and into high school. No problems other than a poor long jump shot in basketball which I only blamed on my vision in hindsight (20/20:D). Played baseball and football without any issues. Not any more. Caught a baseball with my face a couple years ago and have pretty much stopped any kind of sport like that.
But I have had monocular vision since birth, that is all I’ve ever known.
May I ask if you used to have 3D vision and just lost it somewhere in late middle age, or whether you’ve never had it, but your coping mechanisms aren’t working as well as they used to?
I don’t remember ever having it. The tests show I have a little. I think my coping mechanisms aren’t working as well as they used when I try to park in crowded lots, or turn a sharp corner. I’ve gone over curbs now and then, and ruined a couple of tires.
Wow, we could start a Cyclops Club here! I’ve got 20/30 in one eye, 20/800+ in the other. I could pursue any of a number of treatments, but I’m fine with essentially just using one eye.
I’ve never seen things in 3D. But I wanted to take exception to the phrase “lacking depth perception”. It’s really “lacking PARALLAX”, which is only one of eight or more depth cues. Like many here, I’ve gotten along fine by tracking the size, direction, and speed of objects.
I do have trouble with speedy analysis of where a ball is (so I kind of suck at racquetball – the small monochromatic court adds to the lack of depth cues). But for some reason I’m better at soccer. Maybe due to the outdoor venue, and longer distances where I have time to figure out how soon the ball will be where.
Every once in a while I wonder if I’m missing some of the awe of the natural world (and I wonder whether 2D movies seem more “real” to me, because I don’t notice the lack of “3D look”). I have seen that 3D effect with something like a ViewMaster, or some 3D movies, but it’s like a fun-yet-unnatural special effect to me.
I’m on my 4th session. I’ve been moved to the ‘fast track’, with the therapists opinion I’ll be finished in one set of visits. Normally it takes three sets (36 sessions).
I’m now at the level where the muscles in my eyes are stretching, and I’m able to see some ‘forced’ 3D. My ability to target small objects has increased, and my ability to get the ‘forced 3D’ with and without my glasses.
Am I seeing 3D without forcing it yet? No. Although for a couple of seconds, I’ve had a sensation of 3D, but I"m willing to concede that may be wishful thinking.
I have to go do my reading with my red and green glasses now, to make my weak eye coordinate with the strong eye.
After my therapy session, I’m exhausted as if my brain is rewiring myself. I don’t know what’s really happening, but it is tiring even though it’s not physically demanding.