New glasses, nausea and "weird" vision

[Cicciograna]

Hello playgrounders, as the years go by my eyesight has started to progressively deteriorate. Nothing bad, really, but I recognize that my right eye sees "blurry", especially when reading. I already had a pair of glasses made years ago, and I started wearing them more often as of recently and all was fine, I'd wear it without any problem and enjoy life.

Then I decided to get a new pair. After all it was time for a new eyesight check, and my insurance covered it, so why not? I went to a glass store where they checked eyes, got my sight controlled and sure enough, my right eye is somewhat weaker than the other one. I wasn't told exactly what I had, though. I got to pick my glass frame and went home.

Fast forward to today. I go get the glasses, I briefly wear them at the store, everything is fine, I take them out and go to the car. When I try them to show them to my gf, everything goes wrong. I start feeling noxious, I have a pretty bad "fishbowl" effect, I can feel my left eye (the good one) straining, I have bad depth perception and even just writing this is painful because I feel pretty dizzy. I immediately went back to talk to the lady at the store, and she told me that all of this is natural, and that the eyes need to readjust, because apparently I also have some astigmatism, so the more I wear them the better.

So, is all of this normal? Do I have to go through days of this? I expected to receive glasses just like my old ones, that I could wear to "see better" without having to readjust anything. What should I expect? The lady at the store suggested to wear them for a couple of weeks and see what happens, and if the bad feeling persists come back and have them fixed. The thought of a couple of weeks of motion sickness is not really appealing. I kind of wished I didn't get this new pair, and that I stuck with my old ones, that I could wear and remove at my leisure without the need to "readjust".
What should I do? What are your experiences with glasses?

[Rogar Demonblud]

You were probably years overdue for a new prescription, so the amount of adjustment is apparently going to be pretty severe. It'll take a bit simply because your body doesn't adjust that fast. Unfortunately, there really isn't anything to do except gut it out and remember to get checked each year so you don't have to go through this again.

[tyckspoon]

I have not personally had that experience, but I've been lucky enough that my prescription has been relatively stable. The only major all-at-once change would have been way back when I first got corrective lenses, which is far enough ago that I don't really have a memory of how that felt. Similar things do happen if I try to go without wearing my glasses for long enough, however - it's a pretty common reaction to any significant change in your vision.

I would not expect the adjustment period to be weeks, but do give them a chance, and the more constantly you can wear them the quicker your eyes and brain should figure out that this is the new normal, your left eye will stop trying to over-compensate for the right, and you'll figure out what your depth of field is.

(It is possible either your prescription was incorrectly determined or the optical lab they used screwed up in making your lenses - if the issues continue those are probably what they're going to be investigating.)

[Cicciograna]

I see (!). I assume, then, that I won't be able to function without glasses, when I'll have adjusted, correct?

[Rogar Demonblud]

You will, it will just be sub-optimal, depending on how bad your astigmatism is. We can't really answer that without seeing through your eyes.

Right now, you're at the optical equivalent of trying to move around on a leg that's asleep. It hurts while the circulation is restoring itself, but you know it will get better. Eventually.

edit: although you should probably avoid bright light for a couple days, as your eyes may not adjust in two ways at the same time without 'significant discomfort'.

[Khedrac]

I have never taken more than an hour to adapt to new glasses (on the UK scale I am about -10 for short sight with added astigmatism) - usually they are not too bad at all, but one pair were bad enogh I went back to the optician to check, but even they I adapted to very quickly.

In short, yes it happens, but the brian adapts really quickly. If you are bad, don't wear the new pair to accustomise yourself until after you have finsihed driving for the trip.

As for the brain adapting, an experiment was done with trick glases that inverted the image - people adapted to it quite quickly, but had to adapt back after the experiment ended!

[Rynjin]

The last time I had a major prescription change I was terrified I was going to crash my car because it completely ****ed my depth perception until my eyes adjusted. It sorts itself out after a bit.

[Tarmor]

Yes, it can take some time. I'd be suggesting hours to days, depending on the amount of change and how much you wear them to adjust. If it takes weeks then something is wrong, and its not your eyes trying to adjust.

[drDunkel]

What should I do? What are your experiences with glasses?

Well, I got glasses for when using a computer. I have great vision outside of the first meter or so, and those glasses make me sick if I use them otherwise. Something like that? My brother, who is blind as a rock, got his a couple of years ago. He was overwhelmed by thing like leafs on trees. For him it took a few weeks to adjust. Could be that too.

[Peelee]

Could always call the front office and explain and ask if that's normal or if they'd like to schedule a glasses check.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Could always call the front office and explain and ask if that's normal or if they'd like to schedule a glasses check.

My recommendation is this, and soon.

I had this issue - glasses that made it impossible for me to walk in them, because of vertigo and difficulty in telling how far the ground was when directing my feet (I literally had to avoid looking at the ground to walk in them). I took way too long to have them checked - I relegated them to driving only, where the issue was not as bad after I strapped myself in, thus limiting the range of movement of my head. It turned out that the glasses had not been calibrated properly, and the issue was made worse by not sitting correctly on my nose because they were bent wrong. My optician had to tinker with them quite a bit before they were even vaguely acceptable, and still went and recommended getting a new pair. Which I did, and had no issues at all with - i.e. it wasn't me needing to get used to the glasses, it was actually a problem with the glasses. Now, I do know that it does take a bit for people to get used to new prescriptions on occasion, but if it has gone on long enough for you to post about it, I'd strongly recommend taking it to your optician to make sure the glasses aren't the problem.

Grey Wolf