I'm leaving the Escapist.

[beniki]

Anyway, when my mother and the optometrist were talking to each other, I overheard the word "astigmatism" being thrown around. So is anyone's wondering what exactly I have, that's the best answer I can give you.

Take it from a guy who has worn glasses for the better part of his life: astigmatism will NOT make you go blind under any circumstances. Furthermore, even the old CRT monitors were never hazardous to your eyes at reasonable distances. If you have an LCD/LED monitor, you will not have any problems, except perhaps for eyestrain from sitting in front of it at short distances for extended periods of time (harmless, though irritating at times).

Now here's a fun fact: light from monitors is not different from other light sources, at all. If the monitor is going to make you blind, so will the sun, a lamp, car headlights, digital clocks, candles, etc.
If that's really what your optometrist said, I suggest you find somebody who isn't an incompetent quack. Otherwise, I'd be curious to hear the exact nature of your condition as well. At any rate, the best of luck and health to you!

Hmm... Interesting. Maybe ilikemilkshake was right and mom DID bribe the optometrist to get me to go outside more. Then again, the sun CAN make you go blind...

I'm not saying it is not possible to go blind from visible light (~200-750nm), but that would involve some serious damage to your eyes, optic nerve damage, rod/cone degeneration, and so forth. It is physically impossible for light in that wavelength range to cause any damage otherwise. If you have such a condition, I would encourage you to find out immediately!

UV light is a different story, as it is energetic enough to break chemical bonds (visible light typically only causes excitations from HOMO to LUMO, at least in organic compounds). The interaction of light and molecules is really quite interesting, and much too broad a subject for me to explain here, sadly. But here's something I want you to take away from this: the shorter the wavelength of light, the more energy it has (blue/violet are more energetic than red light, for example). More energy means...more energy! A tautology, I know, but the rules of quantum mechanics are such that two photons of energy X do not cause electronic excitation of 2X in a molecule, which in our example would be enough to break a bond. In other words, if the optic receptor were to require light of ~100nm in order to break apart, two photons of violet light (~200nm) would not be sufficient. This in turn means that brightness, which is another measure for the number of photons that you see, is not going to harm your eyes. Yes, there's the whole snow-blindness thing, eye strain, and so forth, but those are temporary effects.

I would seriously confront your mother about this. If she admits that it was all just some way to get you off the intertubes, kindly relay the following:
"What the fuck is wrong with you?! Misinforming a child about health issues is no different from any other form of child abuse. You fucking suck at being a parent. Go die in a fire."

I did confront my mother, as best as I could. Turns out the astigmatism was just a hunch, and the truth is that I am actually getting increasingly short-sighted. But she won't budge on anything else. If she really is making up these treatments in full knowledge that it won't make a lick of difference whether or not I follow them, then she's not admitting it.

Tell her that short-sightedness is more strongly affected by text size rather than computer screens, and that reading glasses, or books with larger fonts will be of much greater help.

But seriously, 30+ hours a week in front of a computer screen is way too much, particularly if it's not your job. Go outside!! Not for your eyes, but for general well-being.

 

[Nikolaz72]

I hope for your sake your mother is lying. If only because then everything would be alright. I wish you good health, for whatever thats worth.

 

[Jailbird408]

okay, this might go on forever after all, so when the 50th post is reached, then I will close the window and depart.

 

[natster43]

Hope things work out for you. Have a good one.

 

[Angry Camel]

Terrible news. Also a great reminder to the rest of us to look after our own eyes.

I've been following the advice in videogame manuals about taking a break every 15 minutes. It really helps.

Good luck with your eyes, hopefully you can come back soon.

 

[staika]

D: thats so sad! I may have not known you but I am always sad to lose a member of the escapist D:
I hope you don't go blind and the rest of your life is filled with happiness ^-^

And I do feel really bad now that I came in here thinking this was one of the "The Escapist sucks now that EC is gone, this site is nothing without it Rage rage rage"

 

[Robert632]

Wow. I was prepared to be reading some whiny person talking about how awful the escapist has become, and now I just feel like a prick.

 

[Jailbird408]

D: thats so sad! I may have not known you but I am always sad to lose a member of the escapist D:
I hope you don't go blind and the rest of your life is filled with happiness ^-^

And I do feel really bad now that I came in here thinking this was one of the "The Escapist sucks now that EC is gone, this site is nothing without it Rage rage rage"

Wow. I was prepared to be reading some whiny person talking about how awful the escapist has become, and now I just feel like a prick.

Don't feel bad. If I were in your position, I'd make the same mistake. Wow, only one more post to go...

 

[IceStar100]

This is why my glasses have radiation shielding in them.

 

[Jailbird408]

And with that, I finally take my leave. Thank you for the inspirations, thanks for caring, and thanks for not yelling at me for thinking that people who do not know me would seriously care about some random dude's eyes. I will always remember the good times I had here, and hopefully during my absence I'll forget some of the stupider things I've done.

Goodbye Escapist Forums.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Anyway, when my mother and the optometrist were talking to each other, I overheard the word "astigmatism" being thrown around. So is anyone's wondering what exactly I have, that's the best answer I can give you.

Take it from a guy who has worn glasses for the better part of his life: astigmatism will NOT make you go blind under any circumstances. Furthermore, even the old CRT monitors were never hazardous to your eyes at reasonable distances. If you have an LCD/LED monitor, you will not have any problems, except perhaps for eyestrain from sitting in front of it at short distances for extended periods of time (harmless, though irritating at times).

Now here's a fun fact: light from monitors is not different from other light sources, at all. If the monitor is going to make you blind, so will the sun, a lamp, car headlights, digital clocks, candles, etc.
If that's really what your optometrist said, I suggest you find somebody who isn't an incompetent quack. Otherwise, I'd be curious to hear the exact nature of your condition as well. At any rate, the best of luck and health to you!

Hmm... Interesting. Maybe ilikemilkshake was right and mom DID bribe the optometrist to get me to go outside more. Then again, the sun CAN make you go blind...

I'm not saying it is not possible to go blind from visible light (~200-750nm), but that would involve some serious damage to your eyes, optic nerve damage, rod/cone degeneration, and so forth. It is physically impossible for light in that wavelength range to cause any damage otherwise. If you have such a condition, I would encourage you to find out immediately!

UV light is a different story, as it is energetic enough to break chemical bonds (visible light typically only causes excitations from HOMO to LUMO, at least in organic compounds). The interaction of light and molecules is really quite interesting, and much too broad a subject for me to explain here, sadly. But here's something I want you to take away from this: the shorter the wavelength of light, the more energy it has (blue/violet are more energetic than red light, for example). More energy means...more energy! A tautology, I know, but the rules of quantum mechanics are such that two photons of energy X do not cause electronic excitation of 2X in a molecule, which in our example would be enough to break a bond. In other words, if the optic receptor were to require light of ~100nm in order to break apart, two photons of violet light (~200nm) would not be sufficient. This in turn means that brightness, which is another measure for the number of photons that you see, is not going to harm your eyes. Yes, there's the whole snow-blindness thing, eye strain, and so forth, but those are temporary effects.

I would seriously confront your mother about this. If she admits that it was all just some way to get you off the intertubes, kindly relay the following:
"What the fuck is wrong with you?! Misinforming a child about health issues is no different from any other form of child abuse. You fucking suck at being a parent. Go die in a fire."

I did confront my mother, as best as I could. Turns out the astigmatism was just a hunch, and the truth is that I am actually getting increasingly short-sighted. But she won't budge on anything else. If she really is making up these treatments in full knowledge that it won't make a lick of difference whether or not I follow them, then she's not admitting it.

I'm truly sorry to hear that. Before I go on, the golden rule of medical advice: Do NOT take medical advice from the internet! Ever. I'm a chemist, hence my skepticism regarding the monitor light (or astigmatism!) being hazardous to your eyes. Alright, let's proceed.

It sounds like your optometrist is worried about chronic/degenerative myopia then. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you, and how have the changes in your vision been over the last few years? It was like this for me, anyway. I'm quite nearsighted as well (started when I was in 4th grade), and it got progressively worse throughout puberty, but my vision eventually stabilized when I turned 19. I haven't had a stronger prescription since then, and one time was actually a weaker one. There are still several species of mole rats with better vision than me, but I'm not complaining...

The point being, do not get too worried about going blind. I am not saying that isn't a possibility, I am saying it is quite unlikely. If your myopia is indeed degenerative (and chances are that is not established yet), that's still no death sentence to your vision. There are plenty of options; glasses, contact lenses, or even surgery. Most importantly, do not lose hope!

Alrighty, now that monitor thing. If you have an LCD monitor, you shouldn't have any problems. You can reduce eye strain by closing your eyes for a few minutes every hour or so, and keeping your room well lit. The whole reading a book using only a flashlight and similar things contributing to the development of myopia are not true, incidentally. Eye strain isn't helping, but it won't make your vision worse.

And finally, all the best of luck and health to you!

 

[somonels]

Get a second opinion, but cutting the escapist will probably benefit you either way
Good luck to you. I'll stay here and troll / make retarded comments or a little while longer.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I have never seen a porno in my life, let alone masturbated to one. I'm not offended, just wanted to clear that up.

Anyway, when my mother and the optometrist were talking to each other, I overheard the word "astigmatism" being thrown around. So is anyone's wondering what exactly I have, that's the best answer I can give you.

I have astigmatism too and I have never heard anyone mention anything about computer screens accelerating the rate of deterioration. Someone may have given you some bad info, man.

 

[Jakub324]

That was so sad. I always feel that way when someone is forced to leave a community.
Goodbye, and I hope lack of screen time doesn't impact to hugely on the quality of your time.

 

[Boba Frag]

That's really awful news, I hope you can get better or that something comes up that can fix it.
I suppose you could always listen to some of the podcasts...

Best of luck!

 

[DasDestroyer]

I feel for you man... best of luck in real life!

 

[psychodynamica]

Wow man, that is a terrible situation to get dropped in. But hey atleast you're actually doing something, aye?

Well much love to you anonymous bro and live well.

 

[honestdiscussioner]

In ten years you can probably get replacement robot eyes. I'm not joking. They won't be perfect, but they'll be good. Maybe in another ten years the eyes will be just as good and "blindness" will be a thing of the past . . at least for newborns.

You could just go text. You can get a screen reader and use the internet with your eyes closed. It's what actual blind people do.

 

[Joepow]

Man, that's sad.

Here's hoping for a quick recovery.