Should I get prescription reading glasses?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Call whoever wrote your current prescription and ask for a copy. Take the copy of the prescription and post in the usenet group sci.med.vision (which can be gotten to through google groups) and pay attention to anything Mike Tyner, Dr. Judy or Robert Martellaro tell you. Ignore the resident loon, Otis.

It's a pretty common progression for nearsighted people to become more nearsighted in early adulthood. With astigmatism, you're probably going to want glasses full time. If they are very strong glasses (like -5 or more), you're going to need to be more picky with how the glasses sit on your face.

I'm guessing that what you really need is a good refraction ("eye test") from someone who is really a skilled refractionist, not any random doc at the optical shop, and glasses that are carefully made so they really help your astigmatism. Or you may do better with contact lenses -- many people do.

Towards the end of her life, my mom was having terrible trouble seeing, and I finally persuaded her to try the practice that I'd found that specialized in people with "low vision". They spent nearly an hour on the refraction part of the exam, and we spent almost an hour while the optician they'd referred us to very, very carefully measured her for frames and lenses. Then another hour of fitting and adjustment when the lenses were made. Suddenly, she could see well again for the first time in about 10 years, and spent the next 6 years happily reading, watching tv, and doing all sorts of things she thought she'd no longer be able to do with her eyesight. A good exam and fitting can make that much difference.

PS: If you really think readers would help, you can try on some over your current glasses. What reading glasses do in this test, when someone is nearsighted is "subtract strength" from your current glasses. Yeah, you'll look silly, but if they do help, you can have bifocals or progressive lenses made.

old biologist

http://digbeaut.com/291385/reading-glass best place ever.

http://digbeaut.com/291385/reading-glass

"The problem, if indeed it is one, is that during that entire period I have been wearing my distance glasses for absolutely everything including extremely close work and reading music."

that is not a "problem". that is perfectly normal & average & expected and thats what you should be doing, if you want to see.

"Thus, I believe that both sides of my vision are bad. Reading street signs even with my distance glasses is tough, and yet if I take them off I can't read this computer screen."

that doesn't mean anything except you probably need new distance glasses if they're not clear enough far away

"If I get reading glasses, will it take some of the strain off of my eyes? (I am referring to the notion that reading with reading glasses would be better than reading with distance glasses.)"

OTC reading glasses...NO that will not work for you since it sounds like you're nearsighted. that will never, ever work for you. you could have custom-made underpowered nearsighted "reading glasses", I guess, but the vast majority of 25 year olds do not need this

"What I don't get is that, when I tell an optician (optometrist? whoever does the eye exam at the eyeglasses store...) that they are for distance, they don't pick up that since I walked in wearing them that I am wearing them for absolutely everything"

uh, yes...they do. give them a little more credit, please.

"and that that might be a bad thing"

its not a bad thing. its fine.

"I asked her about reading glasses and she said "oh you're still young and you should let your eyes focus naturally while reading""

YES she's right.

"but I forgot to tell her that they are already crap since I have been wearing my distance glasses for everything, and so you should give me reading glasses because that's what I came here for"

she would likely not give you reading glasses anyway. i mean if you DEMANDED them i guess she would comply, but you don't "need" them, you just think you do.

"So basically should I get prescription reading glasses and would it help me?"

No. unlikely.

"(The ones at the checkout counter at the drug store don't work for me, probably because I also have a stigmatism.)"

...and because you're nearsighted.

"And no, for the time being I am opposed to surgery unless they can knock me out at the door and have me wake up without remembering it"

you realize surgery wouldnt fix any of this anyway, right? lasik is like wearing your distance glasses all the time...the thing that you somehow believe or have been led to believe is wrong or somehow bad

your optometrist is treating you exactly as you should be treated, regardless of what you told her. sounds to me like she did a bang up job

optometrist
http://myeyepod.blogspot.com/

No problem, as for moving your eyes while sleeping is called rapid eye movement, or REM. Here is an easy solution, get your eyes checked by an optician at a store which sells glasses, at a clinic, not so sure about the drug store, or at the hospital. From there, the optician or the employees will tell and prescribe the prescription glasses you need. The reason I suggested this is because I was worried on whether I need to use glasses or not, turns out on one side its 0 while the other is 25. My cousin isn't so lucky and she has 50 and 50 on both sides, and we've suggested to get her glasses after seeing an optician. As for the laser surgery, I guess its not all that bad, as long as you look good wearing glasses, in my personal opinion, don't take it, my dad did, and it took me one or two years to get used it, since he looks more better with the glasses on.

Honestly, experience.