I'm so afraid to wear glasses in public

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Not that I entirely need glasses in public because I can see clearly where I'm going, I just have trouble seeing if somebody is speaking to me or not when they're a distance away from me. Like when I was on the bus once, I sat near to the back, and the bus-driver said, ''excuse me, I gave you the wrong ticket,'' down the bus to one of the passengers, and I had no idea who she was talking to because I couldn't see who her eyes were looking at. Then, thank God, a woman stood up and walked to the front to sort her ticket out, so luckily it wasn't at me. If I had better eyesight, I would have known who she was actually speaking to.

But anyway, the point is I've always been reluctant to wear glasses in case they make me give off a vibe that gives other people the impression that I'm vulnerable or shy or too kind or something. For some reason glasses on younger people tend to make them just look less social or less ''tough''. Not sure if that is true or not, but it seems to work with me. The other day I was in Tescos and there were all youngsters on the tills, and I was feeling a bit self-conscious for some reason, so when I went to pay I went straight to the till where the cashier (who was young) had glasses, because I just felt more happier going to a youngster with glasses on than a youngster without glasses. Just somehow youngsters with glasses tend to make me feel less intimidated or self-conscious than youngsters without glasses. I'm not even sure if it's true or not, or if it's just irrational thinking of mine, but something about glasses makes me not want to wear them. Also about 95 percent of people who I've met who are on the Autism spectrum or have Down's Syndrome or other conditions, wore glasses, as though it is more common in young people with mental conditions to wear glasses for some reason. (I'm not talking about older people, since glasses is more common in older people therefore I won't mind wearing them so much when I get a lot older).

I know I will have to wear them in a few years time because I am on my laptop a lot and I do a lot of close writing, so I bet my eyes are gradually going blind by the week.

Aidan (old acquaintance of mine) in high school:



Aidan now:

Since your signature says you are 22 i am not sure why you say it is not common. I was always thinking that under 18 it is indeed weird but once you are over 18 it becoes quite common. In fact I am pretty sure having bad vision at 22 is just as common as at 40. In fact when you are nearsighted then by the time you are 50+ your nearsightedness would improve since it would be compensated by farsightedness.

Either way I would still advise against wearing glasses but for entirely differnet reason. If you don't wear them you have better chance at sustaining your vision or even having it improved whereas if you wear them it is likely your vision will get worse and even if it won't you basically would block a chance of it ever improving since glasses would encourage your eyes not to.

So at what age did your vision became bad? And what your vision is right now, what is your prescription?

I only wear my glasses while doing certain things at home like playing video games for example. I don't wear them in public not even while driving. If I go to the movies I'll bring them in my pocket in their case, and then take them off as soon as the movie ends.

If a person needs corrective lenses all the time they should get contact lenses. Otherwise, glasses are better since you don't put something in your eye.

This emoticon is called "nerdy". lol

Heh, no, it doesn't work like that. You just become both nearsighted and farsighted. That's what bifocals are for.



Myth. This is what used to be called an old wives' tale. Actually, having bad eyesight and not having glasses will cause more eyestrain - thus impairing vision at a more rapid rate (vision problems will always increase with age)

Last edited by edgewaters on 29 May 2012, 6:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

It depends on the person. I know SOME people who ended up needing bifocals once they are old and OTHERS who ended up having better vision once old. So it can go both ways.



Straining eyes is bad. But if you can manage without glasses in such a way that you don't have to strain your eyes (for example, try to look at the rest of the social context in order to "guess" whether such and such is looking at you instead of trying to actually see) then it is a much better alternative than glasses. True, if the effort is on the part of your brain rather than your eyes, you are not exactly doing any exercises for your eyes either. But at least you are not ''forcing'' them to stay nearsighted. If by some miracle your vision went from -2.5 to -2.25, then the -2.5 glasses will bring it right back to -2.5, but if you replace glasses with ''guesswork'' this won't happen.

Me personally, my vision was -2.5 when i was 23; I didn't wear glasses and at first it became worse anyway (slided down to -2.75 at some point) but then, at 31 (right now i am 32), i did eye test again and discovered it was -1.75. Back at the time when it got worse, I WAS straining eyes and that obviously didn't help. Later on I stoped straining eyes but I didn't wear glasses either, and that was when it improved.

Last edited by Roman on 29 May 2012, 7:56 am, edited 2 times in total.

When I was a student, I never wore my glasses outside, only in class or at home. It was really daft, because I couldn't see the bus number, until it was at the bus stop. When I hit my early twenties, I started to wear them all the time. I had the same fears as you, but they disappeared with maturity. And, as edgewaters says, wearing glasses will not worsen your eyesight. I wear mine all the time and I've had more or less the same prescription for nearly 20 years. If you're short sighted, it tends to worsen in the teenage years, then settles out by the early twenties. Your eyesight may worsen when you start wearing glasses, but it's not because you're wearing them.

Think logically. If ''eyesight worsening when wearing glasses'' is a mere coincidence, you won't be mentioning it any more than saying ''eyesight worsens when you buy blue shirt''. The fact that you just mentioned it implies that you admit it is a pattern. If it is a pattern then yes, it is BECAUSE you are wearing them. So how can you say it isn't?

I always get that I am a rare exception for not liking glasses and for not thinking that glasses look "sexy" or simply "good", especially on young women. How weird.

Anyways, the other weekend, I was just talking to someone my age who also was anxious about getting glasses and whether they might cause her to be dizzy and make her look stern or nerdy. I'm going to repeat what I and the others told her:

picking the right frame is crucial and can make all the difference between looking extremely awesome or horribly four-eyed. It's best not to rely solely on your judgement when choosing a frame, especially if your uncorrected eyesight is too bad to look at yourself both up closely and from a distance in a mirror. Take someone your age and/or someone who knows you well, knows your styling, clothes and preferences colours to help you deciding on a frame that suits your face best.

If your eyesight was tested correctly, you don't get all dizzy or sick from wearing glasses for the first few days/weeks - unless you were desperately in need of having your vision corrected and with glasses you're amazed that omg, out of sudden everything's extremely colourful and back in focus and looking super new and shiny. In those case, headaches may sometimes occur.

Isn't it also a myth that reading in low illumination causes a person's vision to get worse? Extremely bright light can damage vision which is the opposite of course.

Your eyes relax and aren't as strained when you're wearing glasses. This means they aren't used to having to strain anymore, and consequently without your glasses, you won't be able to see as well because your eyes won't strain as hard or as well. If you stopped wearing glasses your eyes would become more habituated to straining all the time, and consequently your vision would seem to improve some, merely because you're once again more used to straining to see. In other words, your vision hasn't really degraded from the glasses, you're just used to the glasses.

But eyestrain degrades vision over time. So not wearing your glasses will, over time, result in worse eyesight, not just from being habituated to anything but actual permanent vision degradation.

Last edited by edgewaters on 29 May 2012, 8:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

Its the first time I hear its even controversial. I always assumed that everyone knows for a fact that reading in dim light can cause vision to get worse. I mean thats the whole point of switching on a light when its dim outside; if that wasn't for that, then reading in dim light isn't that difficult so might as well save electricity.

As far as bright light, there is no contradiction. I mean, going without clothes when it is snowing outside is bad; going into extreme heat is also bad. There is no contradiction here. In case of the eyes the two effects are different. In case of low illumination the problem is that you strain your eyes so thats bad. In case of high illumination the problem is that extreme light can damage just like extreme heat can. Two things are logically unrelated to each other. So we are lucky to have evolved in such a way that there IS a range of light that NEITHER causes eyes to strain NOR damages them; thats the range of light we are to use while reading.

Last edited by Roman on 29 May 2012, 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well I think glasses look nice on some people but teenagers tend to pick on young people with glasses and call them ''geeks'', and because I look younger for my age they will probably mistake me for another teenager for them to pick on.

Also I can't see writing that is far away from me, I have to squint to read it.

I don't think teenagers pick on 22 year olds anyways since they are not in a position to. I mean when I started college all of teasing completely stoped. High school kids wouldn't be teasing a college kid it just won't happen; and fellow college kids have long outgrown it.

As far as looking younger than your age I also look younger than my age, but still I wasn't picked on once in college. I guess even if my appearance says I am 13 while in fact i am 18, it is still the case that I am not in THEIR high school, so they don't know me well enough to pick on me. Either that, or its that places I frequent are not the ones frequented by high school kids and my schedule would give away the fact that I am in college.

Either way, people who are nearsighted at their 40-s usually became nearsighted in early 20-s. So I don't see why having bad vision at 22 is any mroe weird than later on in life. Besides having bad vision is a lot more common among college people than elsewhere since they read a lot. So I don't see why you are worrying about that aspect of it.



Maybe try to sit at the front row and also find someone you know well and ask them to take notes for you. Thats what i have done.

I don't like wearing my glasses in public either. I might wear them once in awhile if I'm out of contacts or something. I usually wear my contacts every single day. One of these days I'd like to get laser eye surgery.

Yes, contacts can be a good alternative if you're willing to make an effort to get used to them. Besides other reasons such as being hyperactive, glasses drive me mad sensory-wise which is why contacts won out as soon as I was old enough to get them.