I was born with a crossed/lazy eye.
My parents tried to get this corrected. They took me to several specialists, a few of whom suggested surgery. My parents were against eye surgery because, well, it's eye surgery.
They went with more non-invasive correction, such as patching the good eye or putting drops in it to blur the vision in order to get the weaker eye to work harder. But surgery was out of the question.
As far as anyone really knew, this was a cosmetic issue.
I'm sure my parents were told that I may see double some, but that my brain would figure out how to suppress the second image over time and see one image.
For the most part, that is true. And, considering how much was really known about eye surgery when I was a kid, I fully support their decision to have done what they did.
My eyes did, indeed, learn to make one image most of the time. At times, I do see double, but usually there is just one image of what I am looking at.
It is not always spatially "correct," but it is still one image.
So, what I didn't know was that, all this time, I was fighting convergence insufficiency.
I started to learn a bit about this in visual therapy. Basically, yeah, my eyes HAVE learned to see one image most of the time.
But it takes work, man.
Sometimes CONSCIOUS, DELIBERATE work.
Like, if I am having a conversation, my eyes will dart all over the place trying to fight for dominance.
Or when I am reading! Ugh! I love reading, but I hate it, too.
It's PHYSICALLY EXHAUSTING and UNCOMFORTABLE!
I really never say anything about it because I didn't know this was even a thing.
I just thought I was a distractable person.
More fuel for the dizziness fire, I suppose.
