Please help me make my vision blurry with prescription glasses.

[MedSchool Ed]

Can someone please help me out here. I developed a social anxiety disorder that developed from a fear of making eye contact. It just happened over the last few years and I can't seem to get rid of the problem.

Anyway, What helps is if I can't see the other persons eyes.

In order to help me get exposed slowly to making eye contact I want to get a pair of prescription glasses that will make my vision blurry.

Yes it sounds crazy, I know but I need to experiment here, everything else I have tried has failed.

Currently my vision is fine, I do not need any glasses.

Could someone tell me what prescription I would need that should make my vision very blurry? I would like it to be blurry enough to not see eyes clearly within like 2 feet away and further. As I expose myself more to eye contact and am able to at least look at other peoples faces then I will lower my prescription. Basically I'm going to do a form of exposure therapy.

Please, can someone give me an idea about what to order here?

Thank you and I appreciate the help.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[310]

Go to the pharmacy. Pick up different reading glasses and look off in the distance. Pick you favorite.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MedSchool Ed]

Thanks, I'll try this out and let you know the results. Reading glasses would be the best for this you think?

 

[KHE]

I don't think this is a good idea. In order to blur your vision out such that you can't make eye contact in a social situation, you're going to need a prescription that is fairly high so it's going to look bad. That will lead to more social anxiety.

I think you need a different therapist.

 

[PBEA]

terrible idea

 

[MedSchool Ed]

The thing is my social anxiety is based around eye contact. So crazily enough it wouldn't bother me all that much to look like I have a high prescription glasses.

It is much much worse to not be able to look people normally while talking.

I also am going to use them at first to talk with family and friends, so it won't matter what they think. This is just an aid to help me do exposure therapy.

 

[forthebirds]

The thing is my social anxiety is based around eye contact. So crazily enough it wouldn't bother me all that much to look like I have a high prescription glasses.

It is much much worse to not be able to look people normally while talking.

I also am going to use them at first to talk with family and friends, so it won't matter what they think. This is just an aid to help me do exposure therapy.

Instead of blurring your vision, why not experiment with different colored lenses? Even a slight color change may help you relax.

 

[MedSchool Ed]

I am able to use sunglasses with great success, but those can only be used in the summer really and it is difficult to use them indoors.

I never heard or think I saw colored lenses on regular glasses.

 

[Rain Clouds]

I don't think it's the best treatment for you, but you can try something called a Bangerter foil cut to occlude a portion of the top of a pair of glasses. It's translucent an comes in a variety of opacities.

 

[MedSchool Ed]

The Bangerter foil is an excellent idea. I was trying on the reading glasses and as they would seem to work, and I was going to order like a +3.5 lens power as putting two +1.75 power glasses together produced the blurry vision that I would need. The problem with this is that wearing the reading glasses seemed to hurt my eye even after I removed the glasses.

The bangerter foil I think could be perfect. I actually was trying to make something similar with scotch tape but it never worked correctly and looked horrible. I got the idea from googling "how to make your vision blurry", and what came up with a very religious group in Israel that had special glasses so they would not see other females. I think they probably just used this same bangerter foil.

I tried to find something similar but could not locate anything about how they did this or how to purchase those glasses. So I figured blurry vision is not something anyone would want to purposely do.

I just have to figure out what opacity I would need to blur out my vision enough to be able to look people in the face without seeing eyeballs. Would you happen to have an idea or an estimate? They are rated 20/20,20/25,20/30,20/50,20/70,20/100,20/200,20/300. Which would you think would block out eyeballs within say closest 3 or 4 feet?

Thank you, it is so difficult to live without being able to look at people in the face for fear of making eye contact. Since I developed this problem only during the last few years it kills me to not make eye contact. Even simple things like ordering fast food can be very difficult. Since I know I should be making eye contact it makes everything worse as I look away and then I look nervous in the face because I know I should be making eye contact. As I look nervous the other people get nervous and it's a vicious cycle.

I'm at the point I wish I was just blind and couldn't see eyeballs. This way I can concentrate on other things besides worrying about seeing them. Funny is that your career is based on having to look at eyes while I wish I could just never see them.

My problem is so bad that if I make eye contact it is like someone put a gun in my face. Fear spikes through me and this fear is noticed by other people and they become fearful.

Hopefully you can understand that my problem is very bad and the only way I can deal with it is exposure, but I will need to do it in small steps with making my vision blurry. I will have to be comfortable just looking at peoples very blurry faces.

 

[KHE]

This still all seems like such a terrible solution to this issue. Wishing you were blind and saying that making eye contact with someone is like someone putting a gun in your face sounds like an issue that is much deeper than some reading glasses can correct. I really think you need a new therapist.

 

[forthebirds]

[QUOTE="Hopefully you can understand that my problem is very bad and the only way I can deal with it is exposure, but I will need to do it in small steps with making my vision blurry. I will have to be comfortable just looking at peoples very blurry faces.[/QUOTE]

I give you credit for making an effort to overcome your anxiety regarding eye contact, even if unconventional. Have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy? Something set this off for you, possibly you could look into EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) another therapy that was initially used for people with PTSD. Neither has to be time consuming, in fact I think both types of therapy are very goal oriented and not long term. The blurring is only a bandaid, it would be better to address the root cause.

 

[MedSchool Ed]

Thanks for the recommendations about therapy. The issue I have with therapy is that the problem I have is very unique and I would think most therapists would not want to deal with someone who gets frightened when making eye contact. They themselves may very well get frightened. You see, eye contact is a very delicate thing and any indication that something is up will freak out the other person. I've already freaked too many people out and don't want to do it anymore.

I am afraid to even make an appointment and have to see a therapist because of my problem. If I knew a therapist who dealt with people with this problem and were ready for it, then I would for sure move to any place in the world to see this therapist.

BTW. I only wish I was blind during social contact with other people.

I notice that the blurry vision will help. I will keep the opacity very blurry at first and reduce it as I make progress. This is simple exposure therapy I am going to do. Similar to someone who has a phobia of spiders, they slowly introduce spiders until the person gets comfortable with them. The blurry vision will help me slowly get used to looking at peoples general faces at first. It would be too much stimulus to me if I just tried and forced eye contact without blurring my vision. I could never do it.

 

[310]

There are psychiatry and psychology subforums here, if I'm not mistaken. You should start a thread there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ucbsowarrior]

go see a psychologist and get some help. your problem is beyond glasses and vision. your visual cortex is fine. it's other parts of your brain that has issues. also stay out of healthcare if you have poor interpersonal skills.

 

[MedSchool Ed]

I just wanted to give people an update. I've bought the bangeter foil and I must say it works extremely well. It blurs your vision while at the same time other people can not see that it is on the glasses. This is exactly what I wanted.

I am still in the testing stages as I had to order a pair of clear eyeglasses to use it on. But I want to say that I was able to for the first time in years look at my fathers face while speaking with him. The bangeter foil allows me to look at his face without actually making eye contact as his eyes are blurred out. Our brains are programmed to process a lot of information when making eye contact and this bangeter foil simply overrides all of this as you can't see eyes clearly! The best thing is he doesn't know I can't see his eyes and thinks I'm actually making eye contact.

Probably all of you take this for granted but being able to do something this simple as looking someone in the face is like being blind and being able to see again for the people who have difficulty with this.

The bangeter foil has given me such hope that I am actually going to do my two month backpacking trip in south east Asia which was out of the question before I got the bangeter foil. I'm leaving next week and will have plenty of practice with the bangeter foil as I'm in constant contact with new people in the youth hostels.

This stuff has given me hope that I can work out my problems and possibly still live a normal life.

I wanted to respond back with the people who recommended therapy. The first thing about therapy is that a problem like mine is extremely rare especially to the degree I have it. There is no known therapy who deals with this problem and I think there is simply no medical literature about this problem. To sum it up a therapist is not going to help. A therapist is not going to know what to do about it.

I am doing my own research and trying to fix the problem myself. Simply the best way in my opinion is with exposure therapy. There is no solving an eye contact issues unless you get comfortable looking people in the eyes. You are simply not just going to look people in the eyes with my problem. The bangeter foil is perfect as you can buy different degrees of blurriness and as you get better you simply reduce the blurriness. With the final goal of not needing the bangeter foil at all.

I have developed a eye contact phobia, so when I make eye contact it is like you pointed a gun at my head. I can't even look people in the face, I avoid all eye contact. However, the bangeter foil blurs the face so that I can look in the face because I can't see eyes. My brain simply doesn't process eye contact. Go research eye contact and you will see just how intricate the whole process is and how much information flows through he brain.

Really what I am doing is ingenious as there simply is no known therapy for my problem. I have read a very lengthy forum thread about people with my issues on another forum and simply almost nobody was able to fix their problem. The reason for this was you can't fear eye contact and then expect to just look somebody in the eyes. You need to expose yourself to eye contact slowly and there is nothing better than bangeter foil to do this.

And one more thing, I already lost my job as a CPA because of this problem so I don't have the money to pay $100's an hour for therapy anyway. But therapy wouldn't help as the therapists would not know how to treat the issue anyway. I'm basically on the forefront here with researching and experimentation on a way to help my problem.

 

[KHE]

That makes no sense. The reason other people's eyes are blurred out is because you are looking through the foil. But that also means that they are looking through the same amount of blur when they look at YOUR eyes.

The notion that other people wouldn't be able to tell that you're wearing the foil is absurd.

And the notion that you couldn't find a therapist who doesn't know what exposure therapy is is also absurd. It doesn't matter what the issue is, whether it's spiders, clowns, snakes or eye contact.

I'm starting to doubt that this person's posts are even real.

 

[Commando303]

I just wanted to give people an update. I've bought the bangeter foil and I must say it works extremely well. It blurs your vision while at the same time other people can not see that it is on the glasses. This is exactly what I wanted.

I am still in the testing stages as I had to order a pair of clear eyeglasses to use it on. But I want to say that I was able to for the first time in years look at my fathers face while speaking with him. The bangeter foil allows me to look at his face without actually making eye contact as his eyes are blurred out. Our brains are programmed to process a lot of information when making eye contact and this bangeter foil simply overrides all of this as you can't see eyes clearly! The best thing is he doesn't know I can't see his eyes and thinks I'm actually making eye contact.

Probably all of you take this for granted but being able to do something this simple as looking someone in the face is like being blind and being able to see again for the people who have difficulty with this.

The bangeter foil has given me such hope that I am actually going to do my two month backpacking trip in south east Asia which was out of the question before I got the bangeter foil. I'm leaving next week and will have plenty of practice with the bangeter foil as I'm in constant contact with new people in the youth hostels.

This stuff has given me hope that I can work out my problems and possibly still live a normal life.

I wanted to respond back with the people who recommended therapy. The first thing about therapy is that a problem like mine is extremely rare especially to the degree I have it. There is no known therapy who deals with this problem and I think there is simply no medical literature about this problem. To sum it up a therapist is not going to help. A therapist is not going to know what to do about it.

I am doing my own research and trying to fix the problem myself. Simply the best way in my opinion is with exposure therapy. There is no solving an eye contact issues unless you get comfortable looking people in the eyes. You are simply not just going to look people in the eyes with my problem. The bangeter foil is perfect as you can buy different degrees of blurriness and as you get better you simply reduce the blurriness. With the final goal of not needing the bangeter foil at all.

I have developed a eye contact phobia, so when I make eye contact it is like you pointed a gun at my head. I can't even look people in the face, I avoid all eye contact. However, the bangeter foil blurs the face so that I can look in the face because I can't see eyes. My brain simply doesn't process eye contact. Go research eye contact and you will see just how intricate the whole process is and how much information flows through he brain.

Really what I am doing is ingenious as there simply is no known therapy for my problem. I have read a very lengthy forum thread about people with my issues on another forum and simply almost nobody was able to fix their problem. The reason for this was you can't fear eye contact and then expect to just look somebody in the eyes. You need to expose yourself to eye contact slowly and there is nothing better than bangeter foil to do this.

And one more thing, I already lost my job as a CPA because of this problem so I don't have the money to pay $100's an hour for therapy anyway. But therapy wouldn't help as the therapists would not know how to treat the issue anyway. I'm basically on the forefront here with researching and experimentation on a way to help my problem.

It also would work to just apply some Scotch (or whatever be your favorite brand) tape to any eyeglass lens.

That makes no sense. The reason other people's eyes are blurred out is because you are looking through the foil. But that also means that they are looking through the same amount of blur when they look at YOUR eyes.

The notion that other people wouldn't be able to tell that you're wearing the foil is absurd.

And the notion that you couldn't find a therapist who doesn't know what exposure therapy is is also absurd. It doesn't matter what the issue is, whether it's spiders, clowns, snakes or eye contact.

I'm starting to doubt that this person's posts are even real.

That's somewhat callous and unwarranted. Anyone could be a troll, but all we know here is someone with a fear of making eye-contact asked for suggestions on how to optically mitigate this concern.

 

[MedSchool Ed]

The scotch tape doesn't work effectively for me. First, you would need to use many layers to get the same degree of blurriness that it would be highly noticeable. I tried scotch tape before I heard about the bangeter foil, it was such a mess I still have the pair of glasses sitting right next to me which I would never use in public. No matter how much I tried scotch tape doesn't work because it looks terrible when stuck onto glasses.

The reason why the bangeter foil isn't noticeable is that when it is on your glasses it is very close to your eyes. People see your eye clearly through the foil because it is so close. However, when I look through it I see everything blurry because the objects are so far away. You can probably test this yourself if you take a couple pieces of scotch tape and fold it on each other, hold it close to print and you see the letters clear, hold it a foot away and look through the tape and it will be completely blurry.

The other advantage about the bangeter foil is that there are different degrees and this will make it easy to reduce blurriness when I get more comfortable.

The problem with a therapist is that even if he knew what exposure therapy is how is he going to do exposure therapy properly with eye contact. I've been to another forum with people with a similar issue, there was a big thread about eye contact problems and there were a couple of things I noticed. I don't think anybody was able to fix their problem. Nobody talked about any kind of exposure therapy. Really nobody had a clue about how to go about fixing the problem. And yes many people went to a therapist about it.

Basically I could be the only one in the world trying to figure out a method to fix this problem. It is a very rare problem to have it to my degree.

I also think this stuff could be used for serious social anxiety disorder problems. If your eyes can't take in detail and see everything as a blur you will be less nervous in social situations.

 

[Commando303]

The scotch tape doesn't work effectively for me. First, you would need to use many layers to get the same degree of blurriness that it would be highly noticeable. I tried scotch tape before I heard about the bangeter foil, it was such a mess I still have the pair of glasses sitting right next to me which I would never use in public. No matter how much I tried scotch tape doesn't work because it looks terrible when stuck onto glasses.

The reason why the bangeter foil isn't noticeable is that when it is on your glasses it is very close to your eyes. People see your eye clearly through the foil because it is so close. However, when I look through it I see everything blurry because the objects are so far away. You can probably test this yourself if you take a couple pieces of scotch tape and fold it on each other, hold it close to print and you see the letters clear, hold it a foot away and look through the tape and it will be completely blurry.

The other advantage about the bangeter foil is that there are different degrees and this will make it easy to reduce blurriness when I get more comfortable.

The problem with a therapist is that even if he knew what exposure therapy is how is he going to do exposure therapy properly with eye contact. I've been to another forum with people with a similar issue, there was a big thread about eye contact problems and there were a couple of things I noticed. I don't think anybody was able to fix their problem. Nobody talked about any kind of exposure therapy. Really nobody had a clue about how to go about fixing the problem. And yes many people went to a therapist about it.

Basically I could be the only one in the world trying to figure out a method to fix this problem. It is a very rare problem to have it to my degree.

I also think this stuff could be used for serious social anxiety disorder problems. If your eyes can't take in detail and see everything as a blur you will be less nervous in social situations.

Tape on a spectacle lens would be as far from the eye as the Bangerter foil, and a single layer would effect plenty of blur. I can accept it didn't work well for you, and that the latter did, but there's nothing tremendously ground-breaking about your use of the foil to help with your problem.

Glad you're doing better.

 

[MedSchool Ed]

The ground breaking you are talking about is not the use of the foil itself, it is the idea that if you blur your vision it will help with eye contact issues and even social anxiety issues. That is why I set out to do this. To me it is ground breaking because I suffer from the problem, although I never said anything about ground breaking before.

Why the bangerter foil works so well is that it is specially made to apply to glasses to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Scotch tape isn't designed to blur vision, you will need to use a lot of it to get the desirable effects, easily over 5 layers. These layers will act more like sunglasses and darken the area it is stuck to when you start layering it up and you will notice. The other problem with scotch tape is that the sticky part of it will haze up in a distorted/haphazard way, especially when applying so many layers. This will help blur your vision but it will be highly noticeable as it isn't uniform. The bangerter foil just falls in place without this sticky mess, as it is just held on by static electricity I believe.

In a pinch it could be done. I recommend that if you guys are in optometry and working with patients who suffer from conditions needing to obscure their vision you recommend the bangerter foil over scotch tape. As I said I worked with the scotch tape before and it looked like crap, I never would go out in public with that.

I'm flying to Bangkok shortly so I'll have plenty of time to try it out. I had to sit with someone across the desk at the bank yesterday and I'll tell you it was so nice having the blurred vision. In the past I would have to wear sunglasses to do this so I can look away without them noticing.

 

[Commando303]

In a pinch it could be done. I recommend that if you guys are in optometry and working with patients who suffer from conditions needing to obscure their vision you recommend the bangerter foil over scotch tape. As I said I worked with the scotch tape before and it looked like crap, I never would go out in public with that.

With due respect to your (heartily-boasted) personal success, I think you sound more like a shill for a product right now than someone sharing a happy finding.

In many instances in eye-care, taping a lens is a rather more appropriate choice than using a Bangerter foil.

 

[MedSchool Ed]

Funny story, for those who saw the movie Gattaca maybe remember the time he had to remove his contacts and had terrible vision. He then had to cross a very busy street almost blind.

I had a similar experiences, I used the glasses for having dinner with someone (I can't say bangerter foil because people now think I'm trying to market it to like 20 people who read this forum and thread). I used the blurry glasses during dinner, and what a life saver as sitting across from someone is one of the hardest things to do when you can't make eye contact.

After dinner I don't want to remove my blurry glasses as to cause suspicion so I have to cross a very busy and crazy street in Thailand with basically 20/200 vision (probably worse as I doubled up) at night. This street is so busy with traffic whizzing by that even during the day I have to wait minutes to get across.

Lets just say that it's like a walk of faith and hoping that the cars and scooters have their lights on as that is all I can really see, hazy headlights.

Gattaca is a great movie and worth seeing, they did a good job on what it looked like when crossing the street visually impaired.

It's hard to make eye contact but I am very slowly improving, or so I hope. I'm forced to meet and speak with a lot of people. I'm still using sunglasses during the day and the blurry glasses at night to help me get by.

It's going to take a lot of work to fix my problem, Even making eye contact with someone who was almost blind was very hard at first to look at his eyes, even though I knew he couldn't see my fear as I did it.

 

[jroberts]

Funny story, for those who saw the movie Gattaca... Gattaca is a great movie and worth seeing.

Thanks for the laughs.

 

[sdeforum]

I'm so glad I came upon this post. I have the exact same problem but with added physical reactions to sudden eye contact. I tried using reading glasses but they magnified my vision too much which made it almost impossible to walk. The Bangerter foil sounds like the perfect solution and I'm very anxious to try it.

I'm also seeing a psychiatrist who suggested cognitive behavioral therapy, which I'm more than willing to try, but this seems like a good short term solution.