#all of the ophthalmologists and orthoptics people I've seen have been pretty anti-vision therapy

[allthoseotherworlds]

Ugh, vision therapy makes me so angry.

For those who are not familiar, vision therapy is basically the idea that you can do eye exercises to fix certain conditions, mostly eye related ones.

Some of the more obviously scammy vision therapy stuff comes up in situations where it's pretty clearly never going to fix the thing it says it will fix- for example, eye exercises will never make you less nearsighted because nearsightedness is caused by the shape of your eyeball.

But I mostly see it come up in strabismus communities, and it's especially frustrating for me there.

(Strabismus is misaligned eyes - one eye pointing forward and one pointing in or out, for example. It can cause double vision, vision loss in one eye, and/or lack of depth perception)

The thing that makes it so frustrating in strabismus spaces is that there is some evidence that some vision therapy can help with some specific types of strabismus, as far as I can tell. But I haven't found evidence that it can help with other types of strabismus, such as the one that I have, and some people have reported that it makes things worse for them.

It's also expensive and not generally covered by insurance, or not covered very well.

When I first sought help for my strabismus, the optometrist I saw did try to get me to do vision therapy, which I declined because it was expensive, time consuming, and I didn't think there was enough evidence that it would help in my specific situation. She also prescribed me bifocals that did absolutely nothing, but acted very friendly and understanding and knowledgeable.

I eventually did get help that was actually effective - prism lenses and then eventually surgery, which is helping so far but there's always the risk I'll need prism again in the future because we don't really know why strabismus happens in some cases.

But I feel so bad when I see people saying things like how they're paying $1,000 a month for more than 2 years for their kid to do vision therapy and it isn't working.

They're under significant financial strain because they want to do the right thing and provide appropriate medical care for their kid, and it's being offered by people in regular optometry places that give you your normal eye exams, so it seems trustworthy.

But at the end of the day it's $1,000 a month for something that, as far as I can tell as a lay person, seems pretty controversial among experts and even if it might be helpful I think people probably should have more context than they're getting about that.

It just seems frustratingly easy to take advantage of people when it comes to medical conditions that don't have clearly understood causes and where all of the methods of treatment are at least a little bit risky and uncertain. Particularly when the current gold standard is surgery, which people are understandably wary of.

I'm not judging or frustrated by anyone who chooses to do vision therapy - like I said, it can be helpful for some specific situations. But I am frustrated at people trying to sell it as a one-size-fits-all solution without providing any appropriate context and while charging people exorbitant amounts of money for it.

(Disclaimer that I'm not a medical professional and this is not medical advice. I'm just a person with strabismus who has looked things up on the internet and spoken to multiple doctors about this stuff)