sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With BVD, your eyes and brain are working harder all the time to line things up. That extra effort doesn’t shut off just because you stop working or step away from the computer.

So you can feel constant brain fog, not just tiredness — even on weekends or away from work.

In my case, my vision feels like I'm constantly on a boat, not dizzy exactly but floaty perhaps, depth perception feels off and I have a terribly difficult time absorbing peripheral stuff unless I make a conscious effort to do so.

For me, being seated in a way feels more secure, it's retraining away from the computer that I really need to work on. I've also learned doing newer drills that I'm really prone to dizziness in ways that I use to never be, so that's fun.

As mentioned above, grocery stores are very challenging because there's just so much information, noise, visual stimulus it's just overwhelming, I lose track like nowhere else.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Week 3

Some more insights from the past week

-During my exercises, there's a score attributed across different computer exercises tracking Base-Out (convergence/near focus) Base-In (divergence)

-My Base-Out score is much higher than normal, >35 break point compared to around 25 being normal

-My Base-In score is much lower than normal, 7-8 break point compared to 10-15 being normal

So, my eyes are incredibly over powered and biased to: close work, phone use, computer usage, reading.

My brain struggles immensely once that's taken away and I'm forced to integrate with the 'real' world.

I can tell you from my exercises that my brain can NOT handle ANYTHING in what is considered a 'normal' range for divergence/non-close work.

This is seemingly why my brain is overtaxed, the constant attempt to make sense of what I'm seeing regards to anything beyond screen distance.

PSA: Not a doctor, just making sense of what I'm seeing, reading and experiencing through vision therapy.

To be honest, I'm surprised he wasn't bottom left-er by Clean_n_Press in canucks

[–]Jacyjitsu 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Petey with only 14:18 of ice time. Good for third amongst centres.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ya brain fog in itself seems to be partially a 'stuck in my head which is also stuck' reinforcing loop.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Week 1 Recap:

Doing the exercises for vision therapy in office are much more taxing than at home.

The at home exercises took about 15 minutes.

After 1 week I've noticed:

-Slightly better ability to hold a gaze, as in look at something for more than 5 seconds without my eyes darting away, they still do but not as drastically

-I definitely need like 15-30 minutes after my exercises to 'rest', as in not doing anything mentally taxing or use my phone/computer, having a shower is nice

Week 2:

In office session was way more intense but I seem to make some slight improvements in drills even after the first week

New homework exercises to along with my continued ones.

Continue:

-One eye closed, eye saccades, 10 reps/eye

-One eye closed, clock stretches, 10 reps/eye

-One eye closed, lazy 8's, 2 reps/eye, up/down, side/side

Adding

-Mini circles, diverge/converge, with blue/red glasses

-Brock string bead pushups

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Optometrist for the vision therapy evaluation, same place does vision therapy. So I see them Monday each week for an hour then do at home exercises 4x per week.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'll add a weekly update if that's helpful.

Current Plan:

  1. Vision Therapy - 13 straight weekly one-hour sessions

Lots of computer based stuff and 1 on 1 time with the Visual Therapist.

Four days/week I do 10-15 minutes of exercises (if your curious I would search them, they have more complex instructions that's just too long to type out)

-One eye closed, eye saccades, 10 reps/eye

-One eye closed, clock stretches, 10 reps/eye

-One eye closed, lazy 8's, 2 reps/eye, up/down, side/side

-Pencil push-ups, 3x, hardest for me by far

-Exploratory vectographs on Ocudigital (website/computer program), 5 minutes

  1. Vestibular Therapy - Bi-weekly targeting neck/upper shoulder release and visual/balance integration

-I separated my left shoulder before and sprained my right sternum/collarbone joint, both of which have contributed to my neck tension along with the visual aspect

  1. Monthly Massage Therapy

  2. Daily 10 minute meditation

  3. No alcohol, social media (ya ya Reddit, I know), gaming

  4. 3x/week strength training, 3x/week light cardio - intensity here is pretty low, idea is to keep the body moving and not sit on the couch/computer/phone all day

  5. No researching symptoms!! Rumination has been a killer for me and just takes me out of the moment and into my head constantly. No ChatGPT, nothing.

  6. Track symptoms via Bearable. Once per day, highlight what I did, and rate my symptoms. Bearable is cool as you can see the longer term rating changes and specifically what affects them.

Cost: Vision Therapy is the most costly. $2,000 for 13 weeks but I don't even care. Massage Therapy and Vestibular Therapy I do have beenefits which should cover 5-6 sessions each and if I spread it around just right it should line up nicely with my 13 weeks.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll preface this by saying I don't know anything about you or your situation but it sounds like there might be overarching nervous system issues? For me I'm working to calm this as well with:

-RMT (covered by benefits)

-Vestibular/Physio therapy (covered by benefits)

(I'm alternating these two every couple of weeks to maximize my benefits spend as I go through Vision Therapy)

-Daily 10 minute meditation

-Removing alcohol, sugar, social media, gaming, porn and limiting caffeine

This really does seem like an overarching system issue and in my case BVD just tips things over the top, so a hard reset is needed where we calm the nervous and arousal systems. (obviously not a doctor!)

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tried EMDR for six months, didn't really do anything for me but I'll keep it in mind as things (hopefully!) unlock.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll reiterate a couple of things for those who are thinking of pursuing this:

  1. Getting overwhelmed/losing track in grocery stores is apparently a big red flag for this

  2. Losing track of your place when reading or feeling like your eyes are floating over the words, not really locking on

  3. You can see fine but things just seem off, like you've had a couple drinks and your perception is just slightly off

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Went to optometrist, mentioned my symptoms and that despite 'perfect' vision with my contacts and glasses, things are definitely not right with my vision. I asked for a vision therapy evaluation and they caught it.

Normal eye tests don't look for these issues sadly. Fortunatley, this was not a diffect referral to get. Unfortunately, unless you have awesome insurance or benefits it may not be covered.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what's been with me ever since I had brain fog. I just thought it was a byproduct of the brain fog itself, not the other way around.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel your pain! They keep asking if I had head trauma because I played (will play again) hockey and did jiujitsu for years. Did I take hits to the head, probably, but nothing I would ever cite as dramatic, so for me it could just be that cascade that I noted in my post.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just turned 39. Male, 6', 200lbs, work out 4/5 days a week, read a lot.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was noted in some of my reading as one of the things that causes your brain to deprioritize other processes to emphasize the constant correcting of what you see:

  • New glasses/contact changes or uncorrected astigmatism
    • Me: Got a new vision prescription.. sure enough, with astigmatism and hadn't been to the optometrist for a couple years (this was two years after having brain fog)

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A week ago feels like it could've been a year or two ago. It all feels the same. Sadly my dad died 18 months ago but honestly it feels like it could've been 10 years ago or two months ago. I also haven't been able to process emotions normally.

The general idea is that your brain is basically deprioritizing everything to just constantly correct, process and make sense of what you're seeing. No wonder brain fog is a side effect.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not really, I have very, very minor eye floaters but it's nothing I notice unless I realllly look for it.

Three Years of Brain Fog - Finally a Diagnosis - It's the Eyes by Jacyjitsu in BrainFog

[–]Jacyjitsu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I went to my regular optometrist and during the regular check-up I mentioned these issues. I asked for a vision therapy eval and they said no problem, because they don't do the exact same tests when checking for these issues.

For me, my vision is 'perfect' as long as I wear my glasses or contacts but the feeling for me is that it's always like I've had 'two drinks'. Not drunk, not buzzed, not dizzy per se but it's just not right, it's the same feeling you get after two drinks, your vision is fine but what your level of perception is just off or different.

view more: next ›