Help. DD has psychosomatic vision problems

amother

Thu, May 17 2012, 5:56 am

My daughter has been complaining for a long time that she can't see the board properly in school and that certain things look double etc. She can't read street signs from as far as I can (or so she says). She has been to opthomologists many times over the years and has never needed glasses. Today I took her again to a doctor who hasn't examined her in at least a year (in the past he has said that she doesn't need glasses). Today he examined her and she was having trouble reading the chart and when he put lenses in she could see better. After the exam he asked her to go out of the room. Then he told me that the lenses he had put in were zero lenses and that she has some kind of spasm in her eye that he often sees in girls her age. He says that we can't tell her there is nothing wrong because then she'll suddenly develop headaches or stomach aches. He has even seen girls operated on (!) for stomach pain that was supposedly appendicitis but really wasn't.
When she came in he told her that she has 1/4 number (not really true) but that it's not worthwhile to start with glasses. She told him that her girlfriend has 1/4 and has glasses which help. In short, she's very upset.

Anyone here have experience with something like this?

4Sisters

Thu, May 17 2012, 6:08 am

I don't have experience w. this per se, but am a pediatric nurse. Is there a reason you don't want to just get the glasses and see if that doesn't make the whole issue go away? Sometimes, small things make a big difference (which is why medication research trials always include a control group which gets a placebo pill. And there is always a percentage of that group that improves!).

I would 1) get her the glasses and 2) make sure her follow-up is always done with this optometrist, as he sounds like he has dealt with the situation in a caring way by speaking with your privately and not saying anything in front of your dd which might embarrass her.

From a natural health perspective: in you're looking at this through the lens of body symbology: is there something your dd "doesn't want to see/see clearly" in her life? Probably that is true for most teens....

Lastly, I remembered we did go through something similar w. a dd when she was in second grade. She went to the eye doctor and acted mostly blind. The tech doing the initial screening said, "oh, the doctor's going to have fun examining you!". Real exam turned out fine, b''h, but we went to Claire's and bought her groovy glasses w. clear lenses and she wore them quite regularly for while. The doctor told her it was "common at that age to have some slight problems and she would outgrow them", and after a while, she said she didn't need her glasses any more and we were done with that stage Smile

. Your dd is so much older that she will need a more sophisticated solution, however, than Claire's!

amother

Thu, May 17 2012, 6:13 am

4Sisters wrote:

. Your dd is so much older that she will need a more sophisticated solution, however, than Claire's!

How can I get her glasses if she has a zero number? Should I tell her she has no number and that she's getting zero lenses? She's in high school!

Yocheved84

Thu, May 17 2012, 7:09 am

Tons of people where fashion lenses; for a while, and even to a certain extent now, a lot of people where glasses because they think they look cool.

(If any of you remember the singer "Lisa Loeb" and her brown lenses, you'll know what I'm talking about.)

Why not just get her the glasses? DON'T take her to a glasses store where they might question her. If the optometrist sells lenses, get them there. There are also great websites that sell fun glasses. She can pick the ones she likes, and then you'll place the order later that day without her--for zero magnification lenses.

I'm curious though, OP, if your daughter has extreme anxiety, hence the doctor's advice to you? Also, this part seems like the doc is exaggerating, FTR: "He has even seen girls operated on (!) for stomach pain that was supposedly appendicitis but really wasn't. "

chani8

Thu, May 17 2012, 7:26 am

I am a little confused. If your DD is in high school, this doesnt sound like a fashion trend issue. Who wants glasses? But if it is, you could try something like, how about really cool sunglasses?.

Being a mom of a dyslexic child, which by now you would know if she has reading issues in general, I can tell you that some things are muscular related. IOW, my DS did not need glasses but still could not see the letters clearly. (No optimologist explained this to me, or seemed to know about this fact, but your Dr even mentioned the eye shift, which makes me wonder if this is muscular). To make a very long story short, we took our DS to Vision Therapy, a rather new legitimate treatment that is often covered by insurance.

Go online and look up Vision Therapy. It's all about convergence and divergence. If a person has trouble with this, then they could have perfect vision but not see clearly. There are even some home tests of looking at certain pictures (convergent and divergent) which can reveal to you whether or not you can do what normal vision people have no problem doing.

Yocheved84

Thu, May 17 2012, 7:30 am

chani8 wrote:

I am a little confused. If your DD is in high school, this doesnt sound like a fashion trend issue. Who wants glasses? But if it is, you could try something like, how about really cool sunglasses?.

Sorry--I wasn't clear in my response to the OP. My point was in response to "Do they make glasses with zero magnification?" and I meant to say yes, because they make zero-magnification lenses for fashion purposes...thus, they'd have glasses for OP's daughter.

chanahlady

Sun, May 20 2012, 8:52 am

amother wrote:

4Sisters wrote:

. Your dd is so much older that she will need a more sophisticated solution, however, than Claire's!

How can I get her glasses if she has a zero number? Should I tell her she has no number and that she's getting zero lenses? She's in high school!

No, don't tell her she has zero lenses -- the reason they're working is due to the placebo effect. She thinks they have some power, so therefore she sees better. Say nothing and just get her the glasses, at least for now.