Struggling with glasses

[Italy2rome]

Help! 54 & eye sight went blurred over night. Had been squinting and struggling to read but in avoidance. Ended up in eye casualty who advised no issues with eye health & then. A&E as convinced a stroke or brain tumour..ct xcan clear so went to the optician who advised i need to wear glasses full time for distance, reading & work screens. I hate wearimg glasses feel i nave lost my identity. Everything looks so magnified can see every spec of dust and dirt which has lec to ocd & cleaning all day. I feel i am looking at the world in a different way & it is affecting my mental health

Rather than get glasses due to squinting etc you went to A&E thinking stroke/tumour?
I think that’s very odd behaviour.
Millions of people wear glasses, they do not affect your personality, do you fixate often?

If the prescription is correct and you keep them on your face at all times then you get used to them. Your feelings sound like health anxiety. Glasses don’t dictate your personality or even really how you look and the fact of it is that nobody in their fifties doesn’t need glasses of some description. It’s how the eyes age.

That sounds tough, especially blurry overnight. I'd have panicked a bit too.
Is it a very high prescription? If quite new and your eyesight has been slowly deteriorating a while it can take some time to adjust. However if it's very extreme you should speak to your optician in case there's been a mistake. I found my last pair had me tripping over things and my depth perception seemed off (been wearing glasses for 30 years with regular checks so not a big change in prescription) and I went back and turned out there had been a mistake, maybe related to astigmatism I can't recall exactly. Anyway, new pair were fine.

Surely eyes don't go blurry overnight for no reason? I don't know why other posters are minimising this, I swear half of you are bots these days.

Have they checked for any underlying conditions as it sounds like it's happened quickly.

FWIW, if it's varifocals I find they are impossible to get right. I've had two pairs and both are only tolerable for wearing for a few minutes over breakfast. I prefer contacts.

No one is minimising it, OP has already been to A&E, checked by Opthamology and Neurology, there is nothing wrong with her eyes, she has had no stroke, and no brain tumour. So yes she has been checked for underlying conditions.

She went back to the optician who told her prescription is correct and she needed to wear her glasses full time.

As a glasses wearer myself, if I didn’t wear my glasses full time then I would get sudden blurriness of vision because when you switch repeatedly during the day from corrected vision to uncorrected vision your presbyopia (after age 40, OP is 54) creates a lag time for your vision to adjust. The result is blurry vision caused by not wearing your glasses full time like you are supposed to.

I do have health anxiety but felt it was justified to attend A&E. The precription is plus 2 for distance glasses & plus 4 for reading

For anything visual you should go to optician first as they will see you quicker and can directly get you seen by opthalmology and they know what they are looking at.

I have to wear glasses now after being a contact lens wearer for decades, but menopause changed my vision and I just can't make contact lenses work anymore.
Glasses take some getting used to.
I have sensory issues with them.
I can cope with lighter metal framed glasses with nose pads better than plastic frames

This is why the A&E system is overwhelmed, you admit you avoided wearing glasses and ended up saying you’ve had a stroke or have a brain tumour, complete waste of resources.
Im appalled by your stupidity,

Lost your identify ? Because you have to wear glasses ? Led to OCD all day ?

@HortiGal before being so judgemental I lost a friend due to an un diagnosed brain tumour. Why would anyone not get themselves checked for underlying conditions. I didnt sit in A&E for 19 hours for fun

@Italy2rome you knew your vision required you to wear glasses, a quick google would have told you that you have to wear them all day, so yes the hysterics about strokes etc is ridiculous.
Its basic common sense but your vanity led to this situation,

To add, squinting and struggling with vision is not something we all run toA&E with, it would be an optician.

I actually really relate to how tricky you're finding it to adjust to.
I am autistic though. I think that it feels weird looking through a window. Having some heavy frames sliding down my nose. Making my face sweat. Rubbing on my ears and my nose bridge.
Feels like wearing a mask. They get grubby all the time and i just miss being able to wear contacts and having my face free.

I have quite a few pairs of glasses now so I at least can chop and change according to my mood or outfit, which helps with the identity thing.
I struggled with feeling 'ugly' in my glasses.
I was bullied at school and my glasses were mentioned then a lot, and then when I left school I got contacts and my confidence grew and I made loads of friends and people found me attractive for the first time in my life after being called ugly for years.

It was quite intense how anxious I felt when I no longer had contacts as an option.

It all passed eventually and I am mostly used to them now

@Branleuse i identify with everything you are saying. It is like looking through a window & concious of seeing the surrounding frame. I have a physical job so it impacts when bending down/getting hot. It will take a while getting used to something on my face, I wake up in the night & it feels like I am still wearing glasses which must be a sensory thing. Thank you for your kind advise

Op, I really recommend trying on something with a lightish metal frame and nose pads that stop the frames sitting on your cheeks.
It may not be the answer for you, but for me it's made enough difference that I can tolerate them now.
https://www.zennioptical.com/blog/comfort-of-glasses-with-nose-pads/?srsltid=AfmBOooJsFcH_bHGNDcqeyXnXKyEESGJ_I0V-CJEqcJGUsAYIZLExZp_

Aviator glasses are really trendy at the moment, and I have a pair from asda opticians that are so light and the extra bar on the nose makes them feel really secure and I actually forget I'm wearing them.

If I'm feeling insecure about wearing glasses, sometimes it helps to wear a tinted pair. Reactolight ones maybe? Then you're wearing sunnies instead of specs.

People who don't have sensory issues around things like this will not get it, but tbh, the amount of people that need glasses or have them prescribed but hate wearing them so just don't. It's much better to try find a solution, cos it's really good to be able to see properly!

Light titanium frames are good.
I've got just the frame around the top of the lenses, with nothing at the bottom so you don't see them at all.
They shouldn't be slipping or rubbing - go back to the opticians and get the fit adjusted.

Try to consider the benefits - you can read easily, watch TV without squinting, read food labels, recognise people at a distance, not kill people when driving - rather than the downside of being able to see the dust. You must have needed glasses for a long time to have that much of a difference in your vision, as your prescription isn't that strong.

The fact that you are now noticing every speck of dirt suggests that actually your vision has been poor for quite a while, rather than having changed overnight. I didn't realise other people could make out individual leaves on trees until I got glasses at 11. I thought we all saw them as green blobs! You are now at an age where your vision may keep changing so keep up with the regular eye tests at the opticians. And if you can afford to, pay for the better quality varifocals, they do give a better range of vision (I'm happy with Specsavers most expensive, my dad is fussy and forks out for Zeiss lenses, muly mum loses her glasses at least twice a year so it's cheap ones for her 😆). I always prefer glasses with nose pads. That way if you don't quite like where the varifocal area sits, you can squeeze the nose pads to bring the glasses a bit higher on your face.