Hello everyone!
I thought I'd tackle the next topic today - actually nobody gave me this question - I pulled it out of my own head - haha. So, as someone with CVI I usually get very visually fatigued after a normal day. But for someone who does not have it, they might find it hard to understand. So, what is visual fatigue? I can only speak from my point of wiew here so I'll talk about a few things that are triggers for visual fatigue for me . In short it is when you get ( litterally) mentally and physically drained by looking at things. My main triggers are :
Grocery stores/ shopping malls.
All of us have gotten that feeling on a friday afternoon, when we're super tired after a week of full workdays, but we have to go to the store and get some food before going home. We go in, the store is packed full of people all going for the same stuff. People is talking, kids running around, cashiers scanning food ... beep, beep, beep. Shopping carts rolling around .. etc. etc. You see where im going. This is how i feel every single time in a situation like that. If I have to go to a store or a shopping mall, technically I like shopping and stuff, so it's not that big of a problem in that way. But on the other hand because of my CVI I can't see well in those places. Why? Well, if there are so many people at the same place, so much stuff in the shelves, so many different sounds, smells, lights etc, my vision, either partially or even totally shuts down. In some people , me included the hearing is oversensitive so I get like a sensory overload wich is very draining. So when i get home all i wanna do is sleep. Sometimes i even need to sneak in an hour of sleep if i possibly can.
Same thing happens in all crowded places, f.x. airports, concerts ( ironically enough, me being a musician!), parties, and so on. And I thought, for the majority of my life I found shopping to be boring! A girl who doesn't like to shop?? Naah... CVI, all the time!
Unfamiliar places.
If i go somewhere that I haven't been before - or even somewhere I haven't been in a long time, I have to prepare myself beforehand. How so? I'm still figuring it out myself! Haha! Haven't had a diagnosis for very long. But what i know i can do is go there in advance if possible. For example if I am to sing at a place wich I haven't seen I try to go there and take it in before the preformance. Is there an extra step somewhere I would likely fall? Is the place dark? Does it have very bright lights? These are also triggers for me. If I don't do this, I would get an overload like I described earlier.
Cluttered worksheets
This is probably my biggest problem. Being a musician I have to use sheet music al the time. However I can't read it. The lines are too close together for me to read them, as well as the notes on top of them. In music class I have a bunch of worksheets at a time, bright lights, people, loud noise ( talking, other people in vocal classes, etc.). I'm not exaggerating when I say I get super fatigued and drained after only looking at my sheets for five minutes. In class you have to give answers really quickly. I can't do that cause of visual fatigue. Teachers sometimes find that hard to understand. I even face some discrimination because of this. But I love my teachers to bits and am not letting anything hold me back.
So, in short if you're visually fatigued, this can happen ( again, just my point of wiew here)
- Need of sleep
- Loss of concentration
- Headaches/migraines
- Sickly feelings
- irritation
- Brain fog
- anxiety
For me, it helps to be well prepared as much as possible, as well as get as much sleep as i can. I also have to try to reduce anxiety triggers as much as possible. Those things are not always doable so sometimes people are more fatigued than usually. People around someone with CVI also need to take this into consideration. Teachers, family, friends, workmates, etc. etc.
So, I write this to help people understand that this is a real problem. Just like someone with backaches, arthiritis, joint problems and all of that, this is a side effect of having CVI, and it needs to be appreciated. It's not that w'ere lazy, don't want to do chores, study, walk the dog etc etc.
We need to rest because we're visually fatigued due to the situation we were in :)
Thank you for reading my blog :)
Hugs.
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