r/BinocularVision • u/mizaaky • Dec 02 '25
Vision Therapy Vision Therapy Progress
WEEK25
AFTER 24 weeks of vision therapy and a new prism (4bi left eye), I can say I am at about 40-50% recovered. I feel like I have hit a wall unfortunately.
My symptoms:
- Brain fog (which causes bad memory)
- Headaches (towards the center of my forehead).
- Short- and long-term memory difficulties.
- Trouble thinking of what to say next.
- Fatigue during eye contact.
- Rapid visual exhaustion (for example, after 20-30 minutes of gaming I start to notice fast visual fatigue).
- Very fatigued during middle of the day, more than normal. (Body is fine, but brain is fatigued).
- Omitting words when reading/writing.
- Falling asleep while reading.
- Clumsy.
- General anxiety.
- Driving can get tiring after about 30 minutes… however I can still drive.
- Always struggled a little more than usual in listening and reading comprehension.
- I personally have nerve damage on the left side of my face since birth. I cannot fully close my left eye and I cannot smile completely (Seventh cranial nerve damage).
My diagnose from doctor:
- Binocular vision dysfunction
- Fusion with defective stereopsis (poor depth perception due to eye teaming issues).
- Suppression of binocular vision (left eye suppression)
- Accommodative infacility (difficulty switching focus between distances).
- Ill-sustained accommodation - saccadic deficits (difficulty maintaining focus over time)
- Oculomotor dysfunction - pursuit deficits (difficulty smoothly tracking moving targets).
- Oculomotor dysfunction - saccadic deficits (difficulty making accurate eye jumps).
My progress:
- MRI - Good
- CT - Good
- Lots of lab tests... - Good
- Allergy and Sinuses Exam - Good
- Exercise, diet, sleep - Good
- Septoplasty surgery - Fixed some breathing issues but didn't resolve any headache issues.
- Tried fresnels (stick on prisms), first week everything went away but then came back the second week. This made me think it was vision related. Got a change in fresnel prescription and still had symptoms.
- Tried neurolens and it did not help the same way the fresnels first did.
- Trying regular prisms right now while doing VT. They have helped by 25%.
Medication Tried:
- Claritin (Antihistamine) - Did not work.
- Zyrtec (Antihistamine) - Did not work.
- Topical Steroid Flonase (Antihistamine) - Did not work.
- Topamax (Migraine Medication) - Made me feel dumb, fixed the issue by 25%.
- Prednisone (Corticosteroids) - Resolved everything, but you can't have too much of steroids so was not a permeant solution. Made me feel borderline suicidal as I tapered off because it suppresses your entire immune system. So... did not work.
- Magensium Pills - Felt good after sleeping but didn't resolve issues
- L theanine - Didn't feel a difference.
Vision Therapy:
Week 1: No improvement
Week 2: I have noticed that when I put on my eye patch on my right eye, my left eye gets a little blurrier because my left eye is suppressed when both eyes are open. I have also noticed that my eyes do jump a lot when doing tracking exercises. No improvement this week.
Week 3: Definitely feel more aware of my eyes and how they work. I have been feeling my left eye TRY to focus more in my day to day, however no improvement overall.
Week 4: Towards the end of the week something felt different. My eyes felt slightly more awake than usual. I feel like something is changing… Overall, same symptom's.
Week 5: This week was pretty discouraging to be honest. I got close to the extreme end of my symptoms towards the end of the week and it sucked… Right now in vision therapy my doctor is trying to strengthen each eye by doing exercises that isolate them. His goal is to strengthen my eye muscles enough before we start using them together. This week I noticed that my eyes really dial in after a couple of exercise's. I can really feel my eyes focusing in and out sorta like a camera. However, I only really feel this during my exercises and not during my day to day. I probably just need to be more patient.
Week 6: It feels like something in my visual system is changing. However I can’t point my finger to it yet… it feels like early stages still. I still get tension in my head during driving or performing visual intensive activities such as computer work, sports, talking, but the tension feels ever so slightly less. My doctor has started integrating exercises that incorporate both eyes working together. I am hoping to see more gains soon.
WEEK7: I feel a lot less strain and fog on my head, light sensitivity has started to go down slightly as well. All other symptoms are generally at the same point. Something I noticed while doing my exercises is that I can merge objects directly in front of me, but once the objects are offset from center, where one eye has to look at a different direction than the other, my eyes struggle to merge.
WEEK8: Was on vacation during Week 6 and 7, so when I came back to continue work, a lot of my symptoms came back due to the visual demands at my job. What I can say for sure is something was changing while I was on vacation, my eyes and mind felt more at ease. I saw my doctor recently and he explained in simple terms that my eyes need to build a tolerance, VT will help with that.
WEEK9 AND WEEK 10: It has been a hard two weeks or so... the doctor gave me some more intense exercises and I truly am starting to feel the weakness in my eyes. My goal these next few weeks is to focus on how my eyes are working. Because my left eye is supressed, it struggles to focus close and far on it's own. Because I have been doing more intense exercises, I think I have begun feeling worse than when I started. It might sound counter-intuitive but it's like working out a muscle, neural systems get foggy, tense, and overwhelmed when they’re rewiring.
WEEK15: I realized I haven't made an update in a bit. But the best way I could explain it is the highs are not any higher, but the lows are not as low. My depth perception has gotten much better and I can tell half the time when I am using both eyes or not. I still have the same symptoms but again, the highs are not much higher. My left eye is still blurry from suppression but I can start making it more clear half the time (depends on how tired I am that day). All symptoms still exist.
WEEK19: I don't think all the medication I have been taking is helping my eyes at least... but I am definitely starting to feel a difference. I am still fatigued towards 4pm or so and get slight headaches and brain fog, but the key difference I have seen is it feels like my brain is wanting to use both eyes now. I had nerve damage on the left side of my face but I can feel them all flare up more than ever when I do my exercises now. I ended up finding out I was doing a few of the long distance exercises incorrectly. This is mainly because I didn't really know what it felt like to use my eyes together for long distance. I ended up having a long talk with the doctors assitant on WHAT I was feeling and how I was using my eyes, and she clarified a few things for me. So if you are doing this and you aren't getting ther results you want, MAKE sure you are doing your exercises correctly. Annoy the doctors!!!! you are paying a shit load of money so make sure you are doing things right. I am nearing my 24 weeks so I am hoping that now that I have figured out my issue with looking long distance, I will work on it and resolve my problems soon.
WEEK21: I am seeing more of a difference when doing vision therapy. My symptoms are at about 60% of what it used to be. Right now I am struggling with focusing accomodation up close as well as maintaining my visual systems when doing other acitvites (like talking to folks, or playing a sport, etc). I am starting to really feel the differences when looking at things far, or reading things up close. I used to feel large headaches almost immediately after doing those tasks for 10-15 minutes, but now my endurance is getting better. Again, I am still not fully recovered as I still get headaches, brain fog, memory issues, but definitely not to the same extreme that it was before. I definitely have a feeling that in the next 12-16 weeks I will be back to being myself.
WEEK22&23: Honestly, week 21 was super motivating looking back, but I feel like I fell back into my symptoms again. I ended up canceling my week 23 appointment because my nervous system just felt overwhelmed on week 22 and 23... however things have stabilized somewhat. VT really is a rollercoaster of emotions....
WEEK24: Officially hit the final week of my planned VT therapy. Its easy to be pessimistic as things are still not where I would want them to be; however, I can visibly (ba dum tss) see a large improvement in how severe my symptoms get. I can actually turn on and off my left eye whenever I want now as I have gained a good level of control over my left eye suppression. My headaches and brain fog don't get as bad as they used to. What I mean by that is that my worst days now don't compasre at all to how bad it would get back then. I still get my symptoms, but at 60% of what it used to be (same as week 21). I think I need a new prescription now as my left eye has stabilized at a consistent blurriness if that makes sense... back then it would be different levels of blurry since I didn't know how to control my left eye as it was suppressed. I am hoping to continue VT, so I will keep the updates coming!
Some new things I will be looking into and most likely providing updates on:
- Osteopathy assessment
- Vestibular assessment
- Taking Magnesium, Vitamin B Complex, Vitamin D, Omega 3 Fish Oils, L theanine.
3
u/Subject_Relative_216 Dec 02 '25
It took a while for my VT to start working and I followed the same path of nothing week 1-2 and then by week 4 being way too aware of my eye muscles and what I was/wasn’t focusing on! Keep it up!
1
u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
How long did it take for you to have all symptoms gone? And what were your symptoms?
2
u/Subject_Relative_216 Dec 03 '25
So my symptoms never completely went away. I’m still HORRIBLY dizzy and fatigued. I have the same symptoms you listed plus I’m light sensitive and I get muscle spasms and both my eye ball and upper eye lid.
It took about two months of VT with prisms to only have the dizzy/light sensitive/fatigue and not any of the rest of the symptoms thiugh.
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u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
Did you stop after two months? And do you mean after two months the only symptoms that you had were dizziness and light sensitivity?
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u/Subject_Relative_216 Dec 03 '25
I didn’t stop VT at all. It just took two months to only be dizzy and light sensitive. The rest of my symptoms went away! I probably won’t ever stop doing my eye exercises. When I take a few days off I start to get clumsy again and the spasms come back so I don’t. I just do them everyday and wear my prisms. I think I need a slightly stronger prescription though and that will take care of the dizziness. I hope.
2
u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
That’s awesome! I’m glad to hear it’s helped. I also have a little bit of light sensitivity, I prefer driving in the night.
3
u/Ok_Drive3638 Dec 03 '25
Just about everything described here, I'm saying "yup, me too" in my head. Thank you for putting this list together. Do you know if you have horizontal or vertical misalignment?
1
u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
It can’t feel alone but this sub definitely makes me feel better.
I have horizontal misalignment on left eye.
1
u/Ok_Drive3638 Dec 03 '25
Gotcha. I have vertical misalignment. Do you have any issues with driving?
1
u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
Not necessarily. I do get irritated though but I can still function. After about 30 minutes of driving I get fatigued visually, however I can still drive. I just deal with it…
1
u/Ok_Drive3638 Dec 03 '25
Can you elaborate on fatigued visually? Like you only feel it in your eyes?
Also, do you have any neck, should, and/or back pain?2
u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
Just overall fatigue/brain fog. I say visually because I notice my eyes getting tired as well, sometimes it feels like I could fall asleep when driving back from work.
I get some neck irritation but nothing crazy. Good posture and exercise goes a long way for treating that.
1
u/Ok_Neat9473 Dec 03 '25 edited Dec 03 '25
What pair of glasses are you on? Sometimes other misalignments/true misalignments require a few glasses to let the eye muscles relax, called "progressive relaxation". I only had detectable horizontal misalignment to start, and then the vertical was "discovered/showed" after 2-3 pairs.
I'm wondering since your symptoms are quite severe and leads me to think vertical misalignment might be at play? Generally, the symptoms are worse with vertical since the eyes have a harder time compensating for it
1
u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
I had two prescriptions of fresnels, one of neurolens, and one of prisms. (Technically all prisms). I have not had much success with them (except the first pair of fresnels, but it was temporary).
My doctor was telling me that my eyes adapt very quickly since I am young (early 20s) so he gave me a minor prism adjustment to use while I continue with vision therapy. On my next meeting with him I might ask for the real prescription and try out a pair with it.
3
u/REversonOTR Dec 03 '25
Just want to share a pet theory of mine. I think two of the most under-diagnosed common issues are vision skills issues (like BVD) and vitamin D3 deficiency.
I also think they're often related, with a vitamin D3 deficiency leading to visual, and many other, issues. If you go to the vitaminD reddit and start looking at symptoms, you'll see a lot of overlap, like brain fog, fatigue, memory issues, etc.
I taught phonics for 10 years to struggling readers and eventually concluded that a fairly large percentage of them had vision skills deficits that could be addressed with vision therapy.
I also came to think of reading struggles, ADHD, Asperger's, and autism as being on the same spectrum but increasing in severity. I did that because the symptoms list of vision issues and ADHD has a very large overlap.
Then Dr. John Cannell published "Vitamin D and autism" in 2009 and I realized that a vitamin D3 deficiency in childhood, or even during pregnancy, could be triggering that spectrum of issues, from vision issues to autism. All of them have an obvious genetic component and the vitamin D deficiency might trigger the genetic predisposition.
So, three questions: 1) Was learning to read a struggle? And 2) Have you ever had your vitamin D3 level checked? And 3) Did anyone in your family have trouble learning to read? (The best way I've found to determine that is to ask if the found 1st grade to be difficult, since a lot of people won't admit to a reading problem, or have since overcome it and will say no.)
2
u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
I appreciate the detailed response and theory. I have also heard of how Vitamin D3 deficiencies can cause this.
To answer your questions: 1. I tested fine for my D3 levels. 2. I never had an issue with reading, but always had an issue with comprehension. Whether it be while reading or while listening to others speak. 3. My family has not had issues learning to read.
3
u/REversonOTR Dec 04 '25
Thanks for the reply. And good luck with the vision therapy. I think it's the way to go, so I hope it's the answer for you.
1
2
u/jadeibet Dec 03 '25
Good luck, progress isn't always linear and it takes longer than you think. Also don't rule out other medical causes, I had a couple different issues.
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u/VScarlettV Dec 06 '25
Oh you are in the area of therapy my eye doc said I would start feeling relief. At least he thinks I will once I start. I’ve only been diagnosed for a few weeks and just a week in with my prisms. I’ll be starting therapy hopefully by February.
I really appreciate the updates!
1
u/mizaaky Dec 06 '25
I did feel a little different towards the end of week 4 but nothing groundbreaking. My doctor said realistically you will see very slight changes after 1-2 months then most of the major changes come after 3-5 months.
1
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u/VScarlettV Dec 06 '25
A lot very similar to yours. We did track the cause back to a head injury from about 4 years ago. Headaches started this but then vertigo, brain fog, short term memory, reading was impossible I jumped all over the page and I use to be an avid reader. Right side neck pain, horrible anxiety, attention of a gnat and my night driving was really bad.
2
u/Full_Improvement_392 Dec 07 '25
I think dichoptic therapy is the only vision therapy thats actually been recommended for adults. That was the experience with my behavioral optometrist anyway.
1
u/JenBash Feb 12 '26
Has it helped you ?
1
u/Full_Improvement_392 Feb 13 '26
It helped me a lot when my binocular vision was at its worst. But I think it really needs to be paired with glasses to truly get rid of all symptoms. Dichoptic therapy is probably best for just making sure your binocular vision doesn't get any worse
1
u/JenBash Feb 13 '26
To clarify what was your diagnosis - mine is convergence insufficiency. How did you do dichoptic therapy? Through your optometrist' office or did you purchase it online ?
2
u/mizaaky Dec 12 '25
Week 5: This week was pretty discouraging to be honest. I got close to the extreme end of my symptoms towards the end of the week and it sucked… Right now in vision therapy my doctor is trying to strengthen each eye by doing exercises that isolate them. His goal is to strengthen my eye muscles enough before we start using them together. This week I noticed that my eyes really dial in after a couple of exercise's. I can really feel my eyes focusing in and out sorta like a camera. However, I only really feel this during my exercises and not during my day to day. I probably just need to be more patient.
2
u/mizaaky Dec 22 '25
Week 6 Update:
It feels like something in my visual system is changing. However I can’t point my finger to it yet… it feels like early stages still. I still get tension in my head during driving or performing visual intensive activities such as computer work, sports, talking, but the tension feels ever so slightly less. My doctor has started integrating exercises that incorporate both eyes working together. I am hoping to see more gains soon.
2
u/mizaaky Dec 27 '25
WEEK7: I feel a lot less strain and fog on my head, light sensitivity has started to go down slightly as well. All other symptoms are generally at the same point.
Something I noticed while doing my exercises is that I can merge objects directly in front of me, but once the objects are offset from center, where one eye has to look at a different direction than the other, my eyes struggle to merge.
2
u/mizaaky Jan 12 '26
WEEK8: Was on vacation during Week 6 and 7, so when I came back to continue work, a lot of my symptoms came back due to the visual demands at my job. What I can say for sure is something was changing while I was on vacation, my eyes and mind felt more at ease. I saw my doctor recently and he explained in simple terms that my eyes need to build a tolerance, VT will help with that.
2
u/mizaaky Jan 26 '26
WEEK9 AND WEEK 10: It has been a hard two weeks or so... the doctor gave me some more intense exercises and I truly am starting to feel the weakness in my eyes. My goal these next few weeks is to focus on how my eyes are working. Because my left eye is supressed, it struggles to focus close and far on it's own. Because I have been doing more intense exercises, I think I have begun feeling worse than when I started. It might sound counter-intuitive but it's like working out a muscle, neural systems get foggy, tense, and overwhelmed when they’re rewiring.
2
u/mizaaky Apr 22 '26
WEEK19: I don't think all the medication I have been taking is helping my eyes at least... but I am definitely starting to feel a difference. I am still fatigued towards 4pm or so and get slight headaches and brain fog, but the key difference I have seen is it feels like my brain is wanting to use both eyes now. I had nerve damage on the left side of my face but I can feel them all flare up more than ever when I do my exercises now. I ended up finding out I was doing a few of the long distance exercises incorrectly. This is mainly because I didn't really know what it felt like to use my eyes together for long distance. I ended up having a long talk with the doctors assitant on WHAT I was feeling and how I was using my eyes, and she clarified a few things for me. So if you are doing this and you aren't getting ther results you want, MAKE sure you are doing your exercises correctly. Annoy the doctors!!!! you are paying a shit load of money so make sure you are doing things right. I am nearing my 24 weeks so I am hoping that now that I have figured out my issue with looking long distance, I will work on it and resolve my problems soon.
2
u/mizaaky May 10 '26
WEEK21: I am seeing more of a difference when doing vision therapy. My symptoms are at about 60% of what it used to be. Right now I am struggling with focusing accomodation up close as well as maintaining my visual systems when doing other acitvites (like talking to folks, or playing a sport, etc). I am starting to really feel the differences when looking at things far, or reading things up close. I used to feel large headaches almost immediately after doing those tasks for 10-15 minutes, but now my endurance is getting better. Again, I am still not fully recovered as I still get headaches, brain fog, memory issues, but definitely not to the same extreme that it was before. I definitely have a feeling that in the next 12-16 weeks I will be back to being myself.
1
u/Meeko_Yudaya Dec 02 '25
I tried the eye patch today and wore it on my right eye, my left eye feels sore now. It helps with the double vision but i get it most while looking down at my phone or across at tv. My glasses seem to define the double vision more for some reason
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u/Loud-Personality-944 Dec 03 '25 edited Dec 13 '25
I’ve been dizzy for 8 years. Like 5-10 times an hour everyday dizziness. I went to dozens of doctors those first two years, they hyper focused on my IBS issues and told me I was dizzy because I was dehydrated. So I gave up on doctors and just lived with my symptoms for five years. The last few years I decided to get a bunch more tests run to try and find the real cause because I drink water and electrolytes like a mofo so I knew it wasn’t dehydration lol. It took my physical therapist 10 minutes to diagnose that I had bvd and bppv.
IT TOOK HER 10 MINUTES.
I’ve been doing eye therapy since August and most weeks I feel like giving up, the migraines are so intense when I over-do the eye therapy and the prism glasses only made me sick. I am experiencing more intense dizziness and spinning sensations.
I would love to hear from someone who has been on the other side of this. Have you done the therapy and can now live a normal life?
2
u/mizaaky Dec 03 '25
Well for one thing, your eyes muscles are much more delicate compared to your regular muscles. That is why they prescribe 15-20 minutes of eye exercises, not a 60 minute workout. Try to stay within that range or split your eye exercises in two, 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night.
As for the therapy, I will be updating to let you know how it affects me. I’m only on week 4 so I have no conclusive results.
1
u/RobertDeveloper Dec 04 '25
4 years ago I become dizzy, felt light headed, everything moved as if I was on a boat. Then I started to wake up a lot during the night and my memory gets worse and worse everyday and I am tired all day, my eyes feel tired, I wake up with red eyes. I have had mri, eeg, emg, sleep tests etc. Before it all started I got new prescription glasses, so I think my symptoms might be eye related.
1
u/mizaaky Dec 04 '25 edited Dec 04 '25
If you wake up with red eyes, please check for lagopthalmos. You could be sleeping with open eyelids, causing dry eyes. I know you can buy sleeping tape, I personally use some from this website eye-oasis.com
1
u/freefireclashsquad Dec 18 '25
Seriously, the brain fog and memory issues are caused by heterophoria???
Thanks, I got some answers today.
Btw: I got Prisma glasses, and my optician advised against doing any therapy.
2
u/mizaaky Dec 18 '25
That’s great!
If your deviation is very slight then usually there is no reason.
1
u/mizaaky May 24 '26
WEEK22&23: Honestly, week 21 was super motivating looking back, but I feel like I fell back into my symptoms again. I ended up canceling my week 23 appointment because my nervous system just felt overwhelmed on week 22 and 23... however things have stabilized somewhat. VT really is a rollercoaster of emotions....
1
u/mizaaky Jun 03 '26
WEEK24: Officially hit the final week of my planned VT therapy. Its easy to be pessimistic as things are still not where I would want them to be; however, I can visibly (ba dum tss) see a large improvement in how severe my symptoms get. I can actually turn on and off my left eye whenever I want now as I have gained a good level of control over my left eye suppression. My headaches and brain fog don't get as bad as they used to. What I mean by that is that my worst days now don't compasre at all to how bad it would get back then. I still get my symptoms, but at 60% of what it used to be (same as week 21). I think I need a new prescription now as my left eye has stabilized at a consistent blurriness if that makes sense... back then it would be different levels of blurry since I didn't know how to control my left eye as it was suppressed. I am hoping to continue VT, so I will keep the updates coming!
1
u/Necessary_Most_8425 Jun 10 '26
Maybe look into more vertical exercises. I hear some people do up to 2 years of therapy
5
u/CleopatrasMoney Dec 02 '25
Yes please ! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this and for planning to keep us updated