I posted in the past asking if anyone had tried Vision Therapy (not vestibular therapy), and didn’t hear back from many – but I do wonder if any of you have been thoroughly evaluated by a specialized ophthalmologist for convergence insufficiency and other eye conditions not typically seen on a “normal” eye exam. I’ve been doing vision therapy for this and my therapist is convinced it’s 100% causing my dizziness issues (then again, he believes MAV is a blanket diagnosis docs give when nothing else is found). I am doubtful that this is the true source of my problem, but cannot doubt the finding that I have this eye issue, so I’m doing the therapy. Just wanted to put it out there in case anyone else wants to look into it.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
Do you have the strange head pressures and brain fog that most of us complain of? If so, does your therapist attribute those symptoms to Convergence insufficiency?
I’ve been told I have this too, and was prescribed vision therapy but I haven’t started yet.
Do you find it’s helping? My optometrist said it could absolutely be causing my dizziness. But I do know that Celexa and Prozac have helped a lot with the dizziness, so it can’t all be attributed to that, but may be making things worse.
Anne,
Just thinking this through. If the eye problem is causing the Migraine, then your meds help with the Migraine but not the eyes. Then it’s a never ending cycle until the vision is treated. Does that make any sense?
This is definitely something for me to consider.
That does make sense John! I’ll have to look at my specific diagnosis, it’s written down at home. I don’t remember exactly but it is also accommodative dysfunction as well.
I started noticing that when I look at anything with patterns (rugs, pictures on the wall, etc.) that they appeared to be wavy at first, almost like the effect of heat off of pavement if you know what I mean. At my first exam she asked if it gets better when I cover one eye but I hadn’t tried. When I got home I tried, and it did stop if one eye was covered, so I went back and she did more tests revealing the convergence/accommodative issues. I had to get my first pair of glasses, and we almost put prisms in to help with that, but it didn’t feel right to me. She prescribed the vision therapy.
This is an interesting thing I found while searching online about these things: visionspecialistsofbirmingham.com/
My vision was the first thing to start this rollercoaster…I have always felt that my vision oversensitivity was the main culprit. Since then, I developed anxiety and depression and insomnia, from my medical concerns and having no real answers, which have been helped with meds…but I wonder if that’s what it is??
I;ll have to loo into it. I saw two optometrists, an opthomologist, and a neuroopthomologist…no one said boo about it…never even heard of it till now…
so frustrating…
Kelley
I have a left eye that wanders 45 degrees outward – it is congenital, had it as far back as I can remember. Because of that I have had double vision my entire life. I guess my brain just rules out one eye at a time. I can force myself to converge the two lines of sight, but only for a moment if I strain.
When I got this condition 9 months ago, my eyes have been the ‘joker card’ in the deck.
Did they have a causal role in this, or do I simply have vestibular neuritis in my left ear as my doctors think?
Are my eyes keeping me from recovering since I need them to stabilize myself now, but they cannot do this properly due to double vision?
All my doctors say it is a wild card, a joker in the deck.
I do get brain fog/fatigue but not head pressure or headaches. I was also a very tired person before any of this started. I’ve been doing the vision therapy for about 10 weeks now and still dizzy, but I do think it has helped a bit with certain visual triggers such as busy stores, places with lots of people, etc. which would make me feel spinny-dizzy when this first started.
The first doc I saw at this clinic said the vision therapy may not fix everything, but like you said, Anne, will probably relieve at least some of it which is being set off by the vision problem and my brain’s inability to compensate.
Dear Dizzies,
When I started to get dizzy my doctor was 100 % sure it was due to convergance issues and I did Vision therapy once a week for 6 months. I did indeed have this problem , and quite bad , and it did get resolved after the therapy but my dizziness slowly got worse until the eye doctor following me said my eyes were now perfect so this was definitely not the reason for my dizziness.
He sent me to the neuro / otorino specialist dept of the hospital where they did a million nasty tests and said it was probably due to Migraine.
Then I found this site and doctor S and started to get better.
I have now been on Nortripyline for a year and a half, and I am really well.
I know my eyes have kind of bounced back to where I was back then with time , as I often see double if I don’t concentrate to focus , but the dizziness is still under control. I should probably start the excercises they gave me to do at home to keep this at bay.
In my case the eyes were a " by the way " problem despite everyone thinking this was causing the dizziness. I am grateful to the eye specialist that told me to stop coming to him as this was not the issue.
I hope you folks have some success with the therapy, but in my case it was just another problem that I had.
Best, Penny
I agree with Penny - 2 separate issues.
I have eyes that have tended to cross since grade school, but I “fight” it and straighten them out myself. The more I read and the older I get, the harder it gets to hold them in the right position. I finally tried vision therapy about 15 years ago, and it helped - this was before my dizziness started (was having migraine headaches, but they were mild and I thought they were “sinus” headaches back then - vision therapy made no difference in re the headaches, though). Once I stopped doing the exercises, the eye drifting problem came back. And the busier I got, the less time I had for doing the exercises, so I just wear prisms in my glasses now, and that corrects the problem.
Then perimenopause hit and that’s when the dizziness came on.
I almost feel like I want to print this out and take it to the eye doctor who sort of talked to me like I was simply an anxious nut for still thinking something more than this issue is causing my dizziness. Of course reading that others felt no better after it makes me just want to give up, but such is also the case with medications.
Hi
Just wondering if anyone has continued with their therapy for Convergence insufficiency and if it is helping? I contacted a Behavourial Optometrist (they are the ones who diagnose and treat this condition) and I’m interested in being tested. But before I fork out lots of money I wanted to canvas some opinions on whether it has helped with the dizzies? I also have problems with that wavy vision thing. Tiles seem to move backwards and forwards and patterns in carpets really set me off. I’ve also giving up driving (mostly) as it doesn’t feel safe and it feels like my vision is off somehow.
Thanks
Just a thought: prisms in eyeglasses - as long as you don’t get high fashion, high price frames - are the quicker, cheaper way to find out how much if any of your dizziness is attributable to convergence insufficiency. If they solve the dizziness problem, you can always start in on a course of vision therapy which might eventually make the prisms unnecessary.