Never had a lazy eye when I was young...can you get lazy when you get older?!

Never had a lazy eye when I was young...can you get lazy when you get older?

Hey...I was born normally with no lazy eye...right now I'm turning 16 and can I get a lazy eye? I always kept thinking I can lazy eye...but when I look into the mirror I do not have a lazy eye...but what can cause you to have a lazy eye if you never had it before?

Anything that interferes with clear vision in either eye during the critical period (birth to 6 years of age) can cause amblyopia. The most common causes of amblyopia are constant strabismus (constant turn of one eye), anisometropia (different vision/prescriptions in each eye), and/or blockage of an eye due to cataract, trauma, lid droop, etc. http://www.lazyeye.org/#causes
Since you are not under 6 I am assuming, it can't be actual amblyopia. But strabismus can appear as having a "lazy eye"

"Strabismus is the medical term for eyes that are not straight. An eye can turn in either the horizontal or vertical direction. Thus, there are different possible misdirections:
a) If the eye turns inward it is often called a “crossed eye” and the medical term for this is “esotropia”.
b) If the eye turns outward it is sometimes called a “wall-eye” and the medical term for this is “exotropia”.
c) If one eye is higher than the other eye the medical term is “hypertropia”.
d) An eye can drift at an oblique angle such that it is misaligned in both the horizontal and vertical directions at the same time."

"Strabismus in adults can arise from many other conditions, including:
a) Loss of vision in one eye, as a result of diseases in the eyes such as cataracts, glaucoma, or retina abnormalities
b) Trauma to the eye or the eye socket, causing damage to the muscles of the eye or the nerves that send messages to move the eye muscles
c) Neurologic disorders, such as strokes and head trauma that affect the signals from the brain to the eye muscles
d) Other medical conditions such as diabetes or thyroid disease in which the muscles or nerves that move the eyes do not function properly"
"An adult who develops strabismus for the first time will likely have difficulties such as double vision, if the angle of the misalignment is large, or blurring of vision and eyestrain if the misalignment is intermittent or of a smaller degree. This is especially true if the misalignment is in the vertical direction, as the brain has difficulty coping with images displaced in the vertical direction"

So yes there is a possibilty you could develop strabismus, but you should see an optometrist and they can do certain tests to see if you have. Also have you considered that maybe you always had a slight bit of a lazy eye and just havent noticed it until now.

I got my info from http://www.doctorkraft.com/as.html... There is more information there if you would like to do some further reading :) Hope that helps