Refusing to go to the opticians

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I feel uneasy about wanting to book an appointment with my local opticians because of the current crisis and have had eye tests every two years and my last eye test was that there was nothing really wrong with my eyes and no need really for glasses. I may feel like I'm being childish and know that if I keep ignoring them they'll keep sending me letters and don't feel like comfortable going to town when lots of people are about, not always social distancing especially even when the opticians notified that things will be made safe for customers. I still haven't been able enough to visit shops other than some places to buy something to eat on my break at work and still on my days off work I've remained at home. I do at times frustrate myself about not going out as much as I was doing a year ago and the enjoyment I got out of it and had people like my dad saying to go out for a bit and stop hibernating and finding the 'new normal' nerve wracking and not willing to visit places I haven't been to in the last 5 months.

There is nothing wrong with not wanting to exposure yourself to potential risk of COVID-19. If you can function with your current prescription, then you can wait.

I'm not worried about catching COVID, although I only follow the rules and restrictions to keep other people safe. My mind is too preoccupied with all the other things I could die of. Who knows, I might be hit by a careless car driver tomorrow and die. Very unlikely, but me dying or even getting really ill from COVID is unlikely too.

I'm not normally this mathematical about anything, but during this pandemic I have had 2 people I know die from causes that weren't COVID (one died from old age*, and the other died from a heart attack, both were tested negative for COVID), and 3 people I know rushed to hospital also due to causes that weren't COVID (one was injury from a building fire, one was from choking on a chicken bone, and one was from being bitten by a mosquito that got dangerously infected. All three of these people were also tested negative for COVID).

*I think loneliness encouraged his death, as he was self-isolating and didn't own any technology only a telephone, but his normal routine was all disrupted because of the pandemic and I don't think all the change and isolation done him much good. He was 89.

Yes, there are ways that you can die or be injured. Yet, the overwhelming majority of people do not suffer from accidents. This is not even a glass half empty kind of thing--the chances something bad happening are really slim.

I am sorry to hear about your friends. But one lived until the age of 89, that is a really good run. It kind of illustrates the opposite of your fears.

Yes, I can understand your anxiety. But while being cautious is good, letting it limit your life is not. When it gets that bad, then you are actually increasing your risk of bad health outcomes, including an increased risk of heart attack.

I don't know how I can help with your anxiety, but that is all it is. It is your brain chemistry, not a reality. I know that is easy to say and I certainly don't underestimate what you actually feel, but you need to find a way to help yourself.

Any time my vision seemed to be getting fuzzy, all I had to do was study the horizon closely for five minutes a day for a week and it sharpened right up again.

I prefer people to make their own executive decisions about their eyecare, and not to necessarily be cajoled into doing exactly what the health professionals (who are often for-profit businesses) tell them to do. I always feel uncomfortable when I take a different route to that of the advice of the healthcare people, but in balance I prefer that to the feeling that would come from deferring to them without question as if I were incapable of an independent thought or decision. I've mentioned the profit motive, which is rational grounds for suspicion about their advice (are they asking you to attend those appointments for your sake or for the sake of their own wallets?). There's also the "one size fits all" thing that tends to influence their advice - they often don't have the time to provide a thoroughly bespoke service tailored precisely to the individual with whom they're dealing.

None of that means that I think you should necessarily skip the appointments, just that I think it's your decision and that you'd be wise to take time to weigh up your decisions carefully. The other side of the coin to consider is that they're likely to have some expertise in eyecare matters that the layman doesn't have ready access to. There's more to it than just an eyesight test with a view to altering your lens prescription with a view to optimising your vision. They might also want to test for glaucoma, cataracts, eyeball pressure etc., and some of the ailments they test for may be quite serious and may have a better prognosis if they're detected in a timely manner.

I'm afraid it's rather hard work to figure out the wisest course of action. It involves trying to assess the risks of outcomes which are to a degree imponderable - you might get away with avoiding a particular test and you might not, and in the end your decision will probably have to be at least partly a gut reaction. After all the deliberation in the world you still won't know whether you're making the right call.

In my case it seems fairly clear that some of the advice of my eyecare professionals was less than honest. One time, they tested my eyes and sold me some contact lenses. I couldn't see with them as clearly as I used to be able to see with the previous lenses (which had become quite unusable due to wear and tear), so I went back. A worker higher in the food chain re-tested my eyes, looked puzzled, and went and had a private discussion with the previous worker, who then came in and said rather nervously that I might have a serious eye condition and must go to the hospital to get it checked. So off I went. My eyes checked out fine. Back to the optician with the results. This time the bigwig seemed abnormally nice to me and gave me some expensive freebie lens care solutions and equipment. My best guess is that they bungled the first test but the original tester had stuck to their guns and insisted it was correct, which, as the second test turned out so different, would have logically indicated I had an eye condition that had caused the measured parameters to vary wildly over a few weeks. They never admitted that they'd screwed up. With that kind of evidence of incompetence and dishonesty, it's probably natural that I prefer not to take what they say as gospel any more.

As for the virus risk, I strongly suspect that business interests are to some extent overriding the medical science, but to what degree and exactly what is hype and what isn't, I can't be sure. It's always a tough call to contemplate a small risk of something pretty horrific, but unfortunately I think that's the name of the game here. I would think it reasonably safe to postpone your eye tests for 6 months or so, as those "every 2 years" sessions are rather arbitrarily timed and it's logical to include the current abnormal circumstances (i.e. the pandemic) in the assessment of how long you should to wait, which your optician doesn't appear to have done. It would be reassuring to know that they're taking very good precautions against spreading the virus, such as social distancing and appropriate room ventilation (though that's a complicated matter and the jury is still out on some of the details).

There are so many relevent factors - your underlying state of health (age, strength of immune system, physical fitness, presence or absence of diabetes, etc.), current incidence of infections in your area, access to healthcare, vulnerabilty of other individuals you have contact with, and how wisely you think you'll act (in terms of avoiding getting infected) in the building. If only we knew if and when safe and effective immunization will happen, it would be much easier to plan, but we don't. As with a lot of the relevent information we'd like to have, nobody seems to know.

Anyway, I wish you luck in making the right decisions about your eyecare. Whether you go or not, there's probably good hope that the risks you end up taking will turn out to be fairly small, and like somebody already said, life will never be entirely risk-free.

The last time I went to an optometrist, he did as much general health diagnosis as he could manage with eye observations, trying to increase his business. However, he ignored the fact that for decades, my eyes have specialized, with one for close range and one for distance. His prescription for bifocals are fine for driving and texting, but useless for finding things in a store or housework. The middle range I had enjoyed for years is gone. Fortunately, I discovered a mail-order source for glasses, and deciphered the terminology of prescriptions, which is far less precise than I had imagined. I did my own testing, and bought three more pairs for intermediate ranges for less than half the cost of the official pair from a store. I had previously bought a pair with variable focus that I never used at all.