I think I have a squint

[lougle]

I've been trying to explain for a few years to my opticians, that I have to constantly strain my eyes to see clearly. I wear glasses and I'm long-sighted with astigmatism. I can never work out that without my glasses I feel blind as a bat, but the opticians say my prescription is very minor. I suffer chronic migraines. One day I was getting dressed and realised that with my eyes relaxed I have double vision.

It seems that to get clear vision with my glasses, I am constantly straining my muscles in my eyes to bring them into focus. If I just relax my eyes, I get double vision and everything is completely blurred. My DH says that my eyes take turns to be the eye that is looking straight ahead and that the left and right eye alternate being the eye that looks diagonally inwards towards my nose.

Should I see an optician or a doctor about this?

I think either would be appropriate. However, as you haven't had any luck so far with opticians I might be tempted to go to your GP.

I'm an optometrist and it's very normal to have double vision (Diplopia) when you relax your eyes. Your brain has a feedback mechanism (fusional reserves) that it uses to fine turn your eye position do that both eyes look in the same direction, it only dies this when you look at something, so when your eyes are relaxed it doesn't work.
In people who have a squint or lazy eye this mechanism doesn't work properly and it can be disrupted if you don't wear the glasses you need, or occasionally due to a latent phoria.

Anyway, if you aren't experiencing double vision with your glasses or when you're not relaxing your eyes, don't worry. If you are you need to go and have another eye exam , you may just need a stringer prescription.

Thank you, underneaththeash, that's very helpful. So is actually not a problem to have double vision when I'm relaxed. Fair enough. It just seems strange that I have to put so much effort into focusing my eyes, when my DH assures me that he doesn't have to strain his eyes at all to see, despite wearing glasses.

The straining is a separate issue, you just need to go back and have the prescription rechecked. Obtaining a prescription for glasses is not an exact science and can vary from day to day. About 2% of prescriptions end up being changed, they will also check the glasses and check they've been made up correctly.
Your optometrist will not mind re-checking at all, I hate people not coming back if they do have a problem, especially as it's usually very easily fixed.

I don't like to hear of opticians, or any other HCP being dismissive. They atleast should have explained so you felt reassured.