Is there one for after you get covid and makes your vision like you just stared at the sun for a few seconds so everything you try to focus on has a glare to it?
I have Keratoconus (KC). Simply, it's the warping/disfigurement of the cornea. Uncorrected, I see very blurry, double or multiple-images, halos/flaring around lights, poor depth perception, sensitivity to light, and dry eye. Some people with KC have it even worse...
I have a partially torn retina with no peripheral vision on the left side. The brain tries to compensate the empty space with fuzzy blobs and pink and green spots. A for effort, good guy brain!
Blind people do indeed see nothing at all. Legally blind people may be not actually / completely blind but visually impaired, sight-impaired, partially sighted etc. The English language has plenty of terms to differentiate between the two. In German, you'd never refer to partially sighted person as blind. Even people who see next to nothing are hochgradig sehbehindert (severely visually impaired) rather than blind.
It gets more complicated if you add in people who are blind due to brain damage. Their eyes still see and send visual information but some to all of it doesn't register properly. Some can even react to visual stimuli but can't describe what they are reacting to.
When setting up a new phone, tablet, pc or even TV for seniors always increase the font & icon size and increase text contrast. All of these settings can be found under Accessibility. You should also adjust sound settings but that requires a bit of trial and error. Lastly, screen size and the latest OS should take priority over any other criteria when purchasing new tech for seniors.
I went blind for an hour once. Allergic reaction to an anti-nausea medication. It was an eye opening experience and I don’t mean that as a joke. To appreciate vision truly the only way is to have experienced true blindness.
Going blind is a big risk for me. A few weeks ago I had emergency eye surgery because of a retina tear that was repaired. Today is my checkup. My vision is around -12. This post hits close.
I follow several disability accounts on social media and even though it's not my "first day on the internet", I'm always astonished at how many of them get harassed, called fakers/liars/cons, etc. I'm no longer surprised at how ignorant people are, but I am regularly shocked at how mean those ignorant people can be toward disabled persons.
Cataracts are a drag. The surgery is kinda tough too cus you're awake and they are cutting into your eyeball. I've worked around welders for 28 years and had so many arc flashes over the years it gave me cataracts. Protect those peepers folks. We only have 2.
And your lungs too being around welders giving off fumes and particles. Most lung disease takes decades to appear. My Dad worked on a ship he died of lung disease. My cousin worked on a sub and has the same lung disease. Welding on ships in confined areas, or other factors like asbestos even now 2023. Protect your lungs!
Yes you are right. I am very worried about that. Pretty poor quality air some days in our shop , especially in winter. According to the " powers that be" lighting up a cigarette is the worst but welding and cutting fumes are just part of the job. Would not be this way in a union shop. Use your respirators people !!
I just accompanied my best friend, who's terrified of medical stuff, to her cataract surgery and it went great. Good drugs, no stress during the procedure. Excellent outcome. Don't discourage people from getting cataract surgery. They sometimes put it off then wish they'd done it earlier!
Yep. Gyms. They're hot spots for smart people. I have sensory issues. Certain types of light and whatnot. Got told I couldn't wear sunglasses at the gym, because it makes people uncomfortable. Why? Because they can't see if I am staring at them.
All of these do terrible jobs at describing the experience of these conditions, in no small part because they are all progressive diseases. It's not 0-10 like that, it happens so slowly and imperceptibly that you don't even realise you're going blind. Sometimes so slowly that people forget what it's like to see properly and are amazed when the conditions are treated, for those that can be.
I had cataracts since I was at least 11 or 12. For years I felt bad thinking that I was spending too much time inside because every time I went outside it was so bright I would squint like Clint Eastwood. I did 8 years in the Army without knowing I had them, then diagnosed after getting out. I had to wait years longer for them to progress until they would finally be fixed. The difference was greater than night and day. Trees had individual leaves again, my skin has pores again. I went 1/2
from not feeling comfortable with driving to finally being able to open my eyes while outside. It was fucking amazing! Thank science, and thank the surgeon and medical staff who did the operation, it was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
While each of these can leave somebody legally blind, they're not what people generally consider when somebody is described as "blind". Which, in fairness, is part of the point. But people who are traditionally blind often DO see nothing. Many don't even see "blackness", but rather they don't see at all.
It was this way with my cataract. Eventually declared legally blind in the eye, but saw a new doctor and found out it was a cataract. It was like a miracle after surgery lived blind in one eye for a few years..
My dad is legally blind but is still able to take care of most things. Not reading or driving though. But he can tell you if the yard needs to be mowed and how many weeds need to pulled. Oh, and if you are driving incorrectly. Fun never stops.
I used to have really bad myopia (-8.00 prescription); basically everything was blurry except for 3 inches in front of my face. I would tell people that without glasses or contacts, I basically just saw colors and not lines. Surgery was worth every penny to finally have 20/20 vision.
Envious but happy for you! I have a similar prescription but am unfortunately not a candidate for any type of corrective surgery. My pupils are naturally too large, so I already have issues with light and nighttime driving, and I have blepharitis which causes chronic dry eye.
My eyes are like that. I can't leave my house without glasses. I can't see kerbs or stairs or uneven walking surfaces. At home I'm fine, I know where everything is and at night I often walk around with my eyes closed because that's easier. In the dark without glasses I get false information. Things that's aren't there or movement when there is none.
I had -6.5 and-6.25 and had lasik in 2012. I would say it is literally the best thing I have ever spent money on and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Research good doctors, and understand it’s not the same for everyone, but I would 100% recommend it. Life fucking changing.
I actually didn't qualify for Lasik. I ended up getting Visian ICL, which is a lens implant behind your cornea (think of it like a permanent contact lens). It's more expensive, and really fucking weird (yeah you're awake, and even though you're numbed to pain, you still feel it), but it's worth being able to see.
I was -5.50, had lasik. It's basically an intervention where they carve the equivalent of the contact lens curvature straight in your eye. You're awake and you see the scalpel come in your eye to cut open a flap. Then the machine whirrs and beeps and you see a red laser and smell burning. Hmm burning eye smell. Done in 5 minutes. Pain free. I had a touch up in one eye a month after and this one hurt like nothing else I ever felt tho. All worth IMO.
Can you expand on your experience? I have -9.5 in both eyes but am terrified of being blinded by an operation. But having one would be so, so nice. I’ve had bad vision ever since I was a kid
I did my research and found a doctor nearby that has done thousands of operations with virtually no issues. They really do about 10 - 15 per day with how quick and simple the procedure is. There is a lot of prep work, including imaging the eye, testing your corneal thickness, and many others. Then they fire a tiny laser in your iris to act as a vent between the cornea and new lens (although new lenses no longer need this done).
The surgery is basically waiting around for 2 hours to get all the paperwork and prepwork handled. They give me midazolam before the surgery as a relaxant (fun fact, turns out it makes me nauseated after surgery). Then they wheel you into the room, stick this tape thing over your face to keep a sterile operating environment. You feel a few pokes from the needles/scalpels which don't hurt, but feel weird). about 5 minutes later and I could read the clock on the other side of the room :D
I used to think that being blind would be blackness, then I had to have some of my eye removed. My blind spots are unbelievably bright grey and pink-green at the same time.
Your eyes are just photoreceptors, your brain is what interprets the signals and uses that to create what you “see” it would be different for different people, especially comparing someone who was blind at birth to someone who had their vision and then suddenly lost it
I'd ask my niece, but since she's been blind gro birth, she wouldn't know black from fluorescent orange. She can't see shapes or colors. As I understand it, it's just one solid. She just got back from A national Braille challenge, and, while not first place, did well. At least she was one of two to represent our state
At least I was under general anaesthetic for it, originally they wanted me awake during the vitrectomy then they'd cover the disc for the cryo. I still needed an emergency triamcinolone injection into the eye a couple of months later though. So that was fun.
I mean, light triggers ocular responses, but so could other things. I bet someone has ocular nerve damages that causes them to see splotches of "light" all the time. But I wouldn't know for sure.
That's why I mentioned nerve fatigue. If a sensor sends the same signal over and over the nerve will get fatigued and stop/slow transmitting. Your eye has micro movements to "refresh" the signal. If you hold your eye perfectly still (mechanically) it will slowly fade due to nerve fatigue. At least, that's what I learned.
Normally, yes. Nerves generally can't fire indefinitely, and you wouldn't want to constantly notice EVERYTHING, so your brain just...ignores things that aren't interesting. But in a pathological condition, I wonder if it's possible for that to not happen. Idk, idk much about neuro.
Huh. Always wondered why when I'm sitting under the water in the shower and just zoning out (gotta relax however you can, you know?) my vision will start to slowly grey over if I don't move my eyes at all. Guess it's probably that.
I've always slept very little so it didn't have too much of a effect on me. But I can see the glowing with my eyes closed, so someone more normal might have an issue with it.
This may not be an answer to your specific question, but blindness can adversely affect the wake/sleep cycle in humans. Most of those with some percentage of blindness end up with a type of Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, or in instances of total blindness, what's called Freerunning Sleep Disorder, which essentially means the brain sleeps when and only when it is ready and it doesn't follow a 24 hour cycle, sometimes the sleep/wake cycle can be as long as 44 hours in the vision impaired. Fun fact-
People in comas continue to have their Circadian cycles, and recently doctors are becoming more and more aware of WHEN they should be testing brain function on coma cases, and have shifted it later in some instances in order to cut down on any chance of it being Locked In Syndrome.
the fact that you describe it as pink-green is especially fascinating to me, given that magenta has no wavelength of its own; it's sort of invented by our brains for when there's blue and red light but no green. it's as if the default value when the visual signal is completely gone -- the answer to the question "is there this wavelength of light?" -- is "well yes, but actually no"
Ok people, just because one photon alone can't make magenta doesn't mean shit - we evolved to see in a universe with a whole bunch of photons, and if you combine some you get magenta.
Magenta can't be a wavelength, since it's actually caused by triggering the red and blue cones in your retina, but not so much your green cones in between. If all three cones were triggered, your brain would average to an "in between" wavelength like green or blue. But since the green cone isn't triggered, the object is essentially outputting two distinct wavelengths on opposite sides of the spectrum, and can't be combined into a real wavelength, so your brain combines them into a fake color.
I'm aware it can't be a wavelength, I said "would be if it existed". But I had the wrong spectrum I was remembering the source material wrong. The average for magenta WOULD be green but we have cones that sense green so... magenta. Magic.
I was in a auto accident years ago.. I hit with so much force it caused massive hemorrhaging in my eyes that the receptor damage caused color blindness.. lucky for me it didn't cause loss of sight. the doctors says my age has something to do with it because I was young and still could repair.
My ex went colour blind from almost drowning in his youth (also hit his head on his surf board). His colour vision gradually became better in his late thirties and afaik its all good now. When we met ten years ago he couldn’t differentiate red/green/pink.
Sounds kind of similar to migraine headache sufferers experience, for them called a "visual aura" phenomena. I (millennial, M) had them several times/year from about age 11-17, and only once every few years since. It's very challenging to explain some of the symptoms to someone who has never experienced them. The "aura" is an indistinct blob, very slowly changing shape, obscuring a portion of my visual field; though @ClownishAntics 's is likely static in shape. What's (possibly?) similar is the…
I don't think it's the same. When I close my eyes in a dark room at night, my vision is filled with bright, moving shapes I can never define because they change too fast and sometimes it's so massive and bright that they "blind" me (a stark contrast to the grainy dark picture of the room I see when my eyes are open) and the shapes are monochrome and also all colors of the rainbow. Except for the color this is not the same as the blob of distorted vision from migraine, which I also get sometimes.
A handful of times a year I get tunnel vision where my peripheral vision goes really blurry and I’m insane to focus on anything. That’s when I know I need to call it a day and go lie down in a dark room for the rest of the day. Sure enough 10 minutes later I always get a migraine that feels like my right side of the brain has been pierced with a sharp object. No idea what the trigger is.
My husband gets exactly the same thing as this too. He needs to have a sleep in the bedroom that has the heaviest curtains to block out as much light as possible. He’s usually ok after that. It happens just a few times per year, since he was a teenager.
…"content" of this blob. I used to describe it as "continuously fluid stained glass", but probably more similar to "TV static" that's also very high contrast grey & white, while simultaneously somehow being brightly coloured: yellow & blue, and green & "kinda magenta". From what I understand, it's (migraines) caused by a constriction blood vessels in the brain. I've met numerous women who experienced migraines, though only about half had visual aura, and only half of them the other neurological…
…symptoms that I experience: arm aproprioception, aphasia, tongue/face/hand parasthesia. Then followed by nausea, and immense throbbing headache & light sensitivity. The weird thing about their prevalence: I've only EVER met ONE other man who's experienced them - though he did so to a frequency that was (literally) debilitating - several times a month for his teenage & adult life.
I had one yesterday, visual aura disturbance, I'd describe it as "You know that oil slick you see in puddles sometimes? Imagine that, but floating in your eye and undulating and flashing." They usually come in a C or J shape. It lasts about 20-60 minutes, but the pain can be up to 48 hours.
I have heard that people who were born blind, totally blind, see *nothing.* As in not even black, literally nothing in a way that someone that has had sight can not comprehend.
Less that someone who has had sight cannot comprehend and just more that you're so unlikely to be in a situation of complete and utter darkness, that the idea you have in your mind just isn't close. I've been in mines with total darkness, I can attest that spending time with your eyes open but seeing absolutely nothing is bizzare. Definitely different than just closing your eyes or having a blindfold on.
Yep. Think of it this way: close 1 eye, look around, you see your room but not blackness. Now open that & close the other eye, same result, room, but no black. People completely blind in both eyes don't see the room and they don't see black either. There's a perception void, nothing in it, not even black.
If I close one eye, I see the room and also blackness. The mind's eye when not imagining anything seems like a better comparison, cause it doesn't overlap actual vision and when not focusing on picturing things, it's entirely gone.
Total blindness is very rare, but it's not "I can only see as well as you can with your eyes closed" it's "I can only see with my eyes as well as you can see with your finger nails."
Just like no one can sense radioactivity (or many other things). We don't even perceive an equivalent of lack of it, we just not perceive anything at all in that regard and would have no idea such a thing exists, if we didn't discrover it through external tools and indirect means.
I sure can't. But how can we understand the difference? If blind people don't know the color black couldn't they associate the color black with nothingness? I am also fully aware that I am trying to comprehend something that cannot comprehend, and am twisting the logic to fit my own narrative.
The flip of this is that some animals see colors we cant, and because our ability to imagine color is based on our ability to actually see the color, we can’t comprehend them. Things like orange-blue and ultraviolet.
Can confirm I was born blind in one eye. As someone else said, the best way to describe it is what you see out of the back of your head. Absolutely nothing. I also can't comprehend what having depth perception is like :-)
I struggle to comprehend that, as my inability to see behind my head is entirely defined by what I *can* see in front of me. The absence of sight without the presence of sight to compare it to is incomprehensible.
I've heard it described as a totally missing sense rather than a faulty one. The comparison made was "seeing as much with your eyes as everyone else can see from their elbows".
People born blind have no reason for their brain to develop all the visual pathways when they "learn" to interact with the world. But instead of it being wasted space it gets divided up for the other senses to develop further and they experience it as having their other senses heightened
Their other senses don't _detect_ more raw data, but since they have more electric bacon devoted to _processing_ the data, they notice things sighted people would not.
Yeah it's all pattern recognition. But with something like smell that doesn't have a spectrum like light/sound the end result is being able to pick stuff out that otherwise would blend together.
The way I've heard it best described is like trying to see out of your foot. And imagine that the non working eye is just as functional at seeing as the foot it
That was my question…I’ve heard for total blindness like that it can be similar to closing your eyes and looking toward the sun. It’s not black, but there’s a brightness “seeping” through the eyelids. Is that true?
Technically you do, but perception is much more complicated than just like, blacking out half of your vision. If you experiment with facing towards and away from a bright light with one eye closed you'll (or, at least I) get a vague sense of blackness/redness in some ambiguous non-space adjacent to your open eye.
I very much can tell my eyes are still trying to see with both eyes closed. With one eye closed, my entire vision is dedicated to the open eye, and there's no sense of blackness, or anything from the other eye... it's just gone. I lose my sense of its existence.
Yet when I take certain substances I can still look through my eyes with them closed, normally only seeing lights and patterns but I never realized that under normal circumstances eye closed means I automatically stop “looking” … weird
What a great way to describe it. Idk how in my 28 years on this chaotic marble I’d never thought about the fact that I don’t “see black” when one eye is closed. Damn, being blind from birth sounds a bit terrifying. They just see the spirit realm or some shit.
There is terrifying, but there is also terrifying and nauseating. I've read about Metamorphopsia (RVM) and how some patients can only see people inverted and walking in their heads. A complete 180 isn't entirely bad, you can adjust to it, but imperfect 180's where portions of your vision are overlapping is a nightmare on its own.
If you actively close one of your eyes (not cover it with your hand), your brain kind of "switches off" the processing of that eye, especially if you are focused on looking at something with your other eye. Now, if you close it and then focus on seeing through that closed eye, the dark will start getting processed and you'll perceive the faint light filtering though. But it's not about what light gets the eye, it's about what the brain does with that information to build your perception.
You'd have to have seen something first to be able to understand what black is though, right ? Look up aphantasia, I see 'nothing' when I close my eyes.
buoylady
was born with cataract, removed at 32. very accurate depiction
afatrollofmyown
FWIW, deafness is the same way. It's not a Sound/No Sound phenomena but a muddling.
counterfeitdreams
Is there one for after you get covid and makes your vision like you just stared at the sun for a few seconds so everything you try to focus on has a glare to it?
TheHappyHermit
I have Keratoconus (KC). Simply, it's the warping/disfigurement of the cornea. Uncorrected, I see very blurry, double or multiple-images, halos/flaring around lights, poor depth perception, sensitivity to light, and dry eye. Some people with KC have it even worse...
Blazefast
Daily thankful for my sight, respect to all "visually disabled" across the planet
BleedingQuasar
As a person actively going blind this is the hardest thing to get people to understand. Awareness is important.
or0b0ur0s
Note that it is entirely possible to suffer from several of these conditions at the same time.
Rkfinecake
I have a partially torn retina with no peripheral vision on the left side. The brain tries to compensate the empty space with fuzzy blobs and pink and green spots. A for effort, good guy brain!
FiftyShadesOfTiramisu
Blind people do indeed see nothing at all. Legally blind people may be not actually / completely blind but visually impaired, sight-impaired, partially sighted etc. The English language has plenty of terms to differentiate between the two. In German, you'd never refer to partially sighted person as blind. Even people who see next to nothing are hochgradig sehbehindert (severely visually impaired) rather than blind.
CyborgScribe
It gets more complicated if you add in people who are blind due to brain damage. Their eyes still see and send visual information but some to all of it doesn't register properly. Some can even react to visual stimuli but can't describe what they are reacting to.
CreativeThief
When setting up a new phone, tablet, pc or even TV for seniors always increase the font & icon size and increase text contrast. All of these settings can be found under Accessibility. You should also adjust sound settings but that requires a bit of trial and error. Lastly, screen size and the latest OS should take priority over any other criteria when purchasing new tech for seniors.
AtlasFutureOverthrowsAmerica
I went blind for an hour once. Allergic reaction to an anti-nausea medication. It was an eye opening experience and I don’t mean that as a joke. To appreciate vision truly the only way is to have experienced true blindness.
AtlasFutureOverthrowsAmerica
Zofran was the medication
Mewmus
VERY informative, thank you for this
casbott
You can try a blindfold sometimes.
ManOfEvil93
depends, are they blind, or legally blind
cavymeister
This post is very eye opening.
daddydeezy
Either way, that sidewalk looks like shit!
leonaNoodleBreaker
Now do one for CVI
SaintCody
The cataract one is exactly what i see when i am not wearing my corrective lenses. I can't do diddly squat without glasses or contacts
MoonQueenie
Same but only in my left eye so I get a weird double vision sometimes and when I'm tired
jfitz
Very informative, thanks. I did know that 'total blackness' was rare, but the illustration here was helpful.
FizzyBacon
Is that Philly dawg? Wtf, gotta ask J-Bo…
itsnotlaundryday
Bless you
FizzyBacon
No Bless you. You look exactly like a friend from college, Phill is a great guy!
ReverseSyzygy
doggo prints on mah eyeballs
RichardNunez
Going blind is a big risk for me. A few weeks ago I had emergency eye surgery because of a retina tear that was repaired. Today is my checkup. My vision is around -12. This post hits close.
sozensloth
yikes, and I thought my sight was bad at almost -6
minant
-11 here. Hopefully not any worse next time. Good luck for yourself.
Copperbrat
I follow several disability accounts on social media and even though it's not my "first day on the internet", I'm always astonished at how many of them get harassed, called fakers/liars/cons, etc. I'm no longer surprised at how ignorant people are, but I am regularly shocked at how mean those ignorant people can be toward disabled persons.
Mikey667
Cataracts are a drag. The surgery is kinda tough too cus you're awake and they are cutting into your eyeball. I've worked around welders for 28 years and had so many arc flashes over the years it gave me cataracts. Protect those peepers folks. We only have 2.
dghughes
And your lungs too being around welders giving off fumes and particles. Most lung disease takes decades to appear. My Dad worked on a ship he died of lung disease. My cousin worked on a sub and has the same lung disease. Welding on ships in confined areas, or other factors like asbestos even now 2023. Protect your lungs!
Mikey667
Yes you are right. I am very worried about that. Pretty poor quality air some days in our shop , especially in winter. According to the " powers that be" lighting up a cigarette is the worst but welding and cutting fumes are just part of the job. Would not be this way in a union shop. Use your respirators people !!
Plasmodesmata
I just accompanied my best friend, who's terrified of medical stuff, to her cataract surgery and it went great. Good drugs, no stress during the procedure. Excellent outcome. Don't discourage people from getting cataract surgery. They sometimes put it off then wish they'd done it earlier!
servingmytimeinusersub
I had it to one eye. It's not at all bad. You are under partially. You arent really aware of it at remember very little
FireSpittingVacuumCleaner
Getting that surgery is probably a very eye opening experience.
LeftRightThere
EricPisch
Fuck me theree are so many stupids in America
Whenshaithitsthefanputyourheadinthebreeze
Stupidity is obviously everywhere but that doesn’t relate to why anybody would need to fornicate with you
daytimepajamas
Fucken what now?
Ifekinlovesauerkraut
Yep. Gyms. They're hot spots for smart people. I have sensory issues. Certain types of light and whatnot. Got told I couldn't wear sunglasses at the gym, because it makes people uncomfortable. Why? Because they can't see if I am staring at them.
notacobra
All of these do terrible jobs at describing the experience of these conditions, in no small part because they are all progressive diseases. It's not 0-10 like that, it happens so slowly and imperceptibly that you don't even realise you're going blind. Sometimes so slowly that people forget what it's like to see properly and are amazed when the conditions are treated, for those that can be.
CodeWarrior
I had cataracts since I was at least 11 or 12. For years I felt bad thinking that I was spending too much time inside because every time I went outside it was so bright I would squint like Clint Eastwood. I did 8 years in the Army without knowing I had them, then diagnosed after getting out. I had to wait years longer for them to progress until they would finally be fixed. The difference was greater than night and day. Trees had individual leaves again, my skin has pores again. I went 1/2
CodeWarrior
from not feeling comfortable with driving to finally being able to open my eyes while outside. It was fucking amazing! Thank science, and thank the surgeon and medical staff who did the operation, it was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
ComradeZoidberg
True, but this is being used to show how the conditions differ from the idea that blindness is just seeing nothing.
notacobra
While each of these can leave somebody legally blind, they're not what people generally consider when somebody is described as "blind". Which, in fairness, is part of the point. But people who are traditionally blind often DO see nothing. Many don't even see "blackness", but rather they don't see at all.
nomunnywunnytilugetthebunnyhunny
It was this way with my cataract. Eventually declared legally blind in the eye, but saw a new doctor and found out it was a cataract. It was like a miracle after surgery lived blind in one eye for a few years..
bbrown1012
My dad is legally blind but is still able to take care of most things. Not reading or driving though. But he can tell you if the yard needs to be mowed and how many weeds need to pulled. Oh, and if you are driving incorrectly. Fun never stops.
Override9636
I used to have really bad myopia (-8.00 prescription); basically everything was blurry except for 3 inches in front of my face. I would tell people that without glasses or contacts, I basically just saw colors and not lines. Surgery was worth every penny to finally have 20/20 vision.
periwinklepanda
Envious but happy for you! I have a similar prescription but am unfortunately not a candidate for any type of corrective surgery. My pupils are naturally too large, so I already have issues with light and nighttime driving, and I have blepharitis which causes chronic dry eye.
spejic
I'm this nearsighted. The good thing is that you can build 1/700 scale ship models really well.
LucilleWhoKnowsNot
My eyes are like that. I can't leave my house without glasses. I can't see kerbs or stairs or uneven walking surfaces. At home I'm fine, I know where everything is and at night I often walk around with my eyes closed because that's easier. In the dark without glasses I get false information. Things that's aren't there or movement when there is none.
Evolutionm0nkey
-7.5 here! *cries behind coke bottle glasses*
blockberd
So you have hindsight now?
mikeatike
Yeah I can't put a value on the couple thousand bucks to have Lasik. I wish I had done it 10 years earlier.
NoThankYouIThinkIWill
Yeah this is me. -8.5 in both eyes. I can see clearly to about the tip of my nose and after that it's a lot like the cataract example.
Dragonslayer183
I'm at a -6.50ish prescription I think, is the surgery you're talking about laser eye surgery?
geeelicious
I had -6.5 and-6.25 and had lasik in 2012. I would say it is literally the best thing I have ever spent money on and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Research good doctors, and understand it’s not the same for everyone, but I would 100% recommend it. Life fucking changing.
Override9636
I actually didn't qualify for Lasik. I ended up getting Visian ICL, which is a lens implant behind your cornea (think of it like a permanent contact lens). It's more expensive, and really fucking weird (yeah you're awake, and even though you're numbed to pain, you still feel it), but it's worth being able to see.
AllTheGoodUserNamesAreTakenFML
I was -5.50, had lasik. It's basically an intervention where they carve the equivalent of the contact lens curvature straight in your eye. You're awake and you see the scalpel come in your eye to cut open a flap. Then the machine whirrs and beeps and you see a red laser and smell burning. Hmm burning eye smell. Done in 5 minutes. Pain free. I had a touch up in one eye a month after and this one hurt like nothing else I ever felt tho. All worth IMO.
ifitsnotbaroquedontfixit
Can you expand on your experience? I have -9.5 in both eyes but am terrified of being blinded by an operation. But having one would be so, so nice. I’ve had bad vision ever since I was a kid
TheDarkPunisher
Here's a description from a group of eye doctors in California: https://assileye.com/visian-implantable-contact-lens
Override9636
I did my research and found a doctor nearby that has done thousands of operations with virtually no issues. They really do about 10 - 15 per day with how quick and simple the procedure is. There is a lot of prep work, including imaging the eye, testing your corneal thickness, and many others. Then they fire a tiny laser in your iris to act as a vent between the cornea and new lens (although new lenses no longer need this done).
Override9636
The surgery is basically waiting around for 2 hours to get all the paperwork and prepwork handled. They give me midazolam before the surgery as a relaxant (fun fact, turns out it makes me nauseated after surgery). Then they wheel you into the room, stick this tape thing over your face to keep a sterile operating environment. You feel a few pokes from the needles/scalpels which don't hurt, but feel weird). about 5 minutes later and I could read the clock on the other side of the room :D
ClownishAntics
I used to think that being blind would be blackness, then I had to have some of my eye removed. My blind spots are unbelievably bright grey and pink-green at the same time.
bladeforester
Darkiplier vision-…sorry I’ll leave.
AlmightyThor117
Your eyes are just photoreceptors, your brain is what interprets the signals and uses that to create what you “see” it would be different for different people, especially comparing someone who was blind at birth to someone who had their vision and then suddenly lost it
G0MeatCube
Yeah tell him he's just making the shit up /s
Thekey147
Bahaha
SpadesNeil
bro found the real life missing texture error
Mas7er
It's all just a simulation maaaaan
Swiggy1957
I'd ask my niece, but since she's been blind gro birth, she wouldn't know black from fluorescent orange. She can't see shapes or colors. As I understand it, it's just one solid. She just got back from A national Braille challenge, and, while not first place, did well. At least she was one of two to represent our state
bod9001
I just imagine the guy inside of your brain going "aww man oh well, where is the fill tool"
Gandzialfman
omg, what? I took acid once and had a small crescent of those colors at the periphery of my vision. I was scared it would stay like this.
VulpesIncendium
How do you only have "some" of your eye removed? I guess I always assumed eyes were kind of an all or nothing sort of thing.
chaosundivided
I sort of wanted to ask the same question. but then I remembered that there is no possible answer that would let me sleep tonight.
ClownishAntics
At least I was under general anaesthetic for it, originally they wanted me awake during the vitrectomy then they'd cover the disc for the cryo. I still needed an emergency triamcinolone injection into the eye a couple of months later though. So that was fun.
gfunk01
Does this effect your ability to fall asleep? Genuinely curious.
binaryspike
Probably not, when you close your eyelid, it will limit any stimulus to your eye. I would bet nerve fatigue would help too.
DefinitelyNotMadeOfBees
I mean, light triggers ocular responses, but so could other things. I bet someone has ocular nerve damages that causes them to see splotches of "light" all the time. But I wouldn't know for sure.
binaryspike
That's why I mentioned nerve fatigue. If a sensor sends the same signal over and over the nerve will get fatigued and stop/slow transmitting. Your eye has micro movements to "refresh" the signal. If you hold your eye perfectly still (mechanically) it will slowly fade due to nerve fatigue. At least, that's what I learned.
DefinitelyNotMadeOfBees
Normally, yes. Nerves generally can't fire indefinitely, and you wouldn't want to constantly notice EVERYTHING, so your brain just...ignores things that aren't interesting. But in a pathological condition, I wonder if it's possible for that to not happen. Idk, idk much about neuro.
Blud4BludGod
Huh. Always wondered why when I'm sitting under the water in the shower and just zoning out (gotta relax however you can, you know?) my vision will start to slowly grey over if I don't move my eyes at all. Guess it's probably that.
ClownishAntics
I've always slept very little so it didn't have too much of a effect on me. But I can see the glowing with my eyes closed, so someone more normal might have an issue with it.
undercoverles
This may not be an answer to your specific question, but blindness can adversely affect the wake/sleep cycle in humans. Most of those with some percentage of blindness end up with a type of Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, or in instances of total blindness, what's called Freerunning Sleep Disorder, which essentially means the brain sleeps when and only when it is ready and it doesn't follow a 24 hour cycle, sometimes the sleep/wake cycle can be as long as 44 hours in the vision impaired. Fun fact-
CheshireCad
TIL that I'm totally blind, apparently.
undercoverles
People in comas continue to have their Circadian cycles, and recently doctors are becoming more and more aware of WHEN they should be testing brain function on coma cases, and have shifted it later in some instances in order to cut down on any chance of it being Locked In Syndrome.
Teneksi
the fact that you describe it as pink-green is especially fascinating to me, given that magenta has no wavelength of its own; it's sort of invented by our brains for when there's blue and red light but no green. it's as if the default value when the visual signal is completely gone -- the answer to the question "is there this wavelength of light?" -- is "well yes, but actually no"
crazyspelling
Ok people, just because one photon alone can't make magenta doesn't mean shit - we evolved to see in a universe with a whole bunch of photons, and if you combine some you get magenta.
streptovsky
IIRC the wavelength that magenta would be in if it was an actual thing and not a mass hallucination is the same wavelength as UV light thus invisible
marsilies
Magenta can't be a wavelength, since it's actually caused by triggering the red and blue cones in your retina, but not so much your green cones in between. If all three cones were triggered, your brain would average to an "in between" wavelength like green or blue. But since the green cone isn't triggered, the object is essentially outputting two distinct wavelengths on opposite sides of the spectrum, and can't be combined into a real wavelength, so your brain combines them into a fake color.
streptovsky
I'm aware it can't be a wavelength, I said "would be if it existed". But I had the wrong spectrum I was remembering the source material wrong. The average for magenta WOULD be green but we have cones that sense green so... magenta. Magic.
Froggie243
Pushing on my eyes to relieve tension headaches presents this way for me too.
SonrisaFlores
The best feeling in the world
DarkLynx13
I was in a auto accident years ago.. I hit with so much force it caused massive hemorrhaging in my eyes that the receptor damage caused color blindness.. lucky for me it didn't cause loss of sight. the doctors says my age has something to do with it because I was young and still could repair.
leadinurface
Glad you're still with us
EpilatorAlligatorBothReduceGrowth
My ex went colour blind from almost drowning in his youth (also hit his head on his surf board). His colour vision gradually became better in his late thirties and afaik its all good now. When we met ten years ago he couldn’t differentiate red/green/pink.
MADchemEE
Sounds kind of similar to migraine headache sufferers experience, for them called a "visual aura" phenomena. I (millennial, M) had them several times/year from about age 11-17, and only once every few years since. It's very challenging to explain some of the symptoms to someone who has never experienced them. The "aura" is an indistinct blob, very slowly changing shape, obscuring a portion of my visual field; though @ClownishAntics 's is likely static in shape. What's (possibly?) similar is the…
Fuyu159753
I don't think it's the same. When I close my eyes in a dark room at night, my vision is filled with bright, moving shapes I can never define because they change too fast and sometimes it's so massive and bright that they "blind" me (a stark contrast to the grainy dark picture of the room I see when my eyes are open) and the shapes are monochrome and also all colors of the rainbow. Except for the color this is not the same as the blob of distorted vision from migraine, which I also get sometimes.
EclecticSheep
A handful of times a year I get tunnel vision where my peripheral vision goes really blurry and I’m insane to focus on anything. That’s when I know I need to call it a day and go lie down in a dark room for the rest of the day. Sure enough 10 minutes later I always get a migraine that feels like my right side of the brain has been pierced with a sharp object. No idea what the trigger is.
NoOneSomeOneEveryOne
My husband gets exactly the same thing as this too. He needs to have a sleep in the bedroom that has the heaviest curtains to block out as much light as possible. He’s usually ok after that. It happens just a few times per year, since he was a teenager.
MADchemEE
…"content" of this blob. I used to describe it as "continuously fluid stained glass", but probably more similar to "TV static" that's also very high contrast grey & white, while simultaneously somehow being brightly coloured: yellow & blue, and green & "kinda magenta". From what I understand, it's (migraines) caused by a constriction blood vessels in the brain. I've met numerous women who experienced migraines, though only about half had visual aura, and only half of them the other neurological…
AgentCatherine
I’ve had migraines my whole life but only once have I had an aura.
MADchemEE
…symptoms that I experience: arm aproprioception, aphasia, tongue/face/hand parasthesia. Then followed by nausea, and immense throbbing headache & light sensitivity. The weird thing about their prevalence: I've only EVER met ONE other man who's experienced them - though he did so to a frequency that was (literally) debilitating - several times a month for his teenage & adult life.
afatrollofmyown
I had one yesterday, visual aura disturbance, I'd describe it as "You know that oil slick you see in puddles sometimes? Imagine that, but floating in your eye and undulating and flashing." They usually come in a C or J shape. It lasts about 20-60 minutes, but the pain can be up to 48 hours.
Vydrach
I have heard that people who were born blind, totally blind, see *nothing.* As in not even black, literally nothing in a way that someone that has had sight can not comprehend.
TheTechDweller
Less that someone who has had sight cannot comprehend and just more that you're so unlikely to be in a situation of complete and utter darkness, that the idea you have in your mind just isn't close. I've been in mines with total darkness, I can attest that spending time with your eyes open but seeing absolutely nothing is bizzare. Definitely different than just closing your eyes or having a blindfold on.
Comagirl
We went to Luray caverns in VA ages ago and they turned out the lights at one point to show "the darkest dark known to man". It was pretty freaky
NotTinyPancakes
peopelk born with no eyes i wonder whatthe inside of their thoughts looks like
piewacket
Yep. Think of it this way: close 1 eye, look around, you see your room but not blackness. Now open that & close the other eye, same result, room, but no black. People completely blind in both eyes don't see the room and they don't see black either. There's a perception void, nothing in it, not even black.
Namjies
If I close one eye, I see the room and also blackness. The mind's eye when not imagining anything seems like a better comparison, cause it doesn't overlap actual vision and when not focusing on picturing things, it's entirely gone.
skathir
Little kids (who can see) don’t see the sky as blue. They see it as a void.
skathir
A downvote! Ha-ha! Fact check this, it’s a pretty wild ride!
kepilot1350
Open both eyes, close one, what you se from the closed one, thats it
MoonQueenie
You can get close by closing 1 eye and realising the closed eye isn't black the brain is just noping
Slewth87
Total blindness is very rare, but it's not "I can only see as well as you can with your eyes closed" it's "I can only see with my eyes as well as you can see with your finger nails."
AnOceanOfStars
Just like no one can sense radioactivity (or many other things). We don't even perceive an equivalent of lack of it, we just not perceive anything at all in that regard and would have no idea such a thing exists, if we didn't discrover it through external tools and indirect means.
Dondarian
I sure can't. But how can we understand the difference? If blind people don't know the color black couldn't they associate the color black with nothingness? I am also fully aware that I am trying to comprehend something that cannot comprehend, and am twisting the logic to fit my own narrative.
Eschscholtzia
But how would they describe "nothing" if they dont have the notion of black for instance ?
LinkGoesHIYAAA
The flip of this is that some animals see colors we cant, and because our ability to imagine color is based on our ability to actually see the color, we can’t comprehend them. Things like orange-blue and ultraviolet.
CaptainBergatron
My favorite etymology fact is the more names a language has for colors of a certain hue, the more colors they can see
12Centuries
This is the entire basis of the movie Arrival. We can't understand time travel until we have the words (language) to conceptualize time that way.
CaptainBergatron
Yup and that is my favorite etymology movie!
12Centuries
I love that you have a favorite etymology movie. Are there others?
chencking
There is no way to tell. The whole point is they have never seen while we have never not seen. It's incomparable
Vydrach
I'm talking people who were born blind and regained vision somehow. It's rare, but has happened.
Crowlands
They can see what you saw in 1823.
jakobbp
Neverending stooooooryyyyyy~~~
platformingJunkie
Can confirm I was born blind in one eye. As someone else said, the best way to describe it is what you see out of the back of your head. Absolutely nothing. I also can't comprehend what having depth perception is like :-)
mightymak
I imagine it like the view we have of behind our head, we can’t see behind our head as we don’t have eyes there, it’s just an absence of sight.
AllSystemsNominal
I struggle to comprehend that, as my inability to see behind my head is entirely defined by what I *can* see in front of me. The absence of sight without the presence of sight to compare it to is incomprehensible.
Banana369
I've heard it described as a totally missing sense rather than a faulty one. The comparison made was "seeing as much with your eyes as everyone else can see from their elbows".
CaptainBergatron
People born blind have no reason for their brain to develop all the visual pathways when they "learn" to interact with the world. But instead of it being wasted space it gets divided up for the other senses to develop further and they experience it as having their other senses heightened
mithiwithi
Their other senses don't _detect_ more raw data, but since they have more electric bacon devoted to _processing_ the data, they notice things sighted people would not.
CaptainBergatron
Yeah it's all pattern recognition. But with something like smell that doesn't have a spectrum like light/sound the end result is being able to pick stuff out that otherwise would blend together.
Alurkerforcedtologin
Less "lense cover still on" and more "camera turned off". Like when you close one eye, you don't see black though it, you just don't see through it.
PosthumousExile
The way I've heard it best described is like trying to see out of your foot. And imagine that the non working eye is just as functional at seeing as the foot it
MeshHatMafia
That was my question…I’ve heard for total blindness like that it can be similar to closing your eyes and looking toward the sun. It’s not black, but there’s a brightness “seeping” through the eyelids. Is that true?
nicky512
Wow. That is amazing. I never noticed that with just one eye closed you don’t see black. Mind. Blown.
Babaloga
Technically you do, but perception is much more complicated than just like, blacking out half of your vision. If you experiment with facing towards and away from a bright light with one eye closed you'll (or, at least I) get a vague sense of blackness/redness in some ambiguous non-space adjacent to your open eye.
smegheadenergy
Wait, you guys see black when your eyes are closed? Mine just shut off
ShadusMacAoidh
I very much can tell my eyes are still trying to see with both eyes closed. With one eye closed, my entire vision is dedicated to the open eye, and there's no sense of blackness, or anything from the other eye... it's just gone. I lose my sense of its existence.
kickahippie
Yet when I take certain substances I can still look through my eyes with them closed, normally only seeing lights and patterns but I never realized that under normal circumstances eye closed means I automatically stop “looking” … weird
JustJoshinya9001
What a great way to describe it. Idk how in my 28 years on this chaotic marble I’d never thought about the fact that I don’t “see black” when one eye is closed. Damn, being blind from birth sounds a bit terrifying. They just see the spirit realm or some shit.
VictusVonGuyver
There is terrifying, but there is also terrifying and nauseating. I've read about Metamorphopsia (RVM) and how some patients can only see people inverted and walking in their heads. A complete 180 isn't entirely bad, you can adjust to it, but imperfect 180's where portions of your vision are overlapping is a nightmare on its own.
keepbeachcityweird
Whoa!
beoluves
Teeeechnically light still filters through but I'm not pedantic enough to ruin a good example.
SlyMrFox
I've read that people without eyes tend to develop 36 hour days in order to sleep better, as we rely on that filtering to develop Melatonin.
Alurkerforcedtologin
If you actively close one of your eyes (not cover it with your hand), your brain kind of "switches off" the processing of that eye, especially if you are focused on looking at something with your other eye. Now, if you close it and then focus on seeing through that closed eye, the dark will start getting processed and you'll perceive the faint light filtering though. But it's not about what light gets the eye, it's about what the brain does with that information to build your perception.
PreciousPotato
You wanted to write „acktually“, didn’t you? 😂😂😂
beoluves
FeChefImgur
You'd have to have seen something first to be able to understand what black is though, right ? Look up aphantasia, I see 'nothing' when I close my eyes.
Seradhe
try hyperphantasia. every stray thought turns into an image inside my eyelids. it's like flipping channels when the TV is running 2x speed
Hagenman
holy shit
doppelfisch
Wait a minute... *Scans over some google pages* holy cow THAT'S what it's called? I now have a name to a thing I experience. Thank you kindly! ^_^