Young Writers Society

Has anyone with glasses got rid of them naturally?Also has anyone got them as late as 14,15 or 16?

Can you explain more?

I got my first pair of glasses when I was about eight. They were for reading, since I tend to be far sighted. I out grew needing them when I was ten, and just recently (at sixteen) I got them back again.

I'm not exactly sure of ways to get rid of glasses. I found when I was younger giving my eyes a rest from all the reading I had to do (I got sick and had to take a lot of time off school. Over a year) but once I got back into reading I had to get them again. I've heard of exersizes you can do for your eyes, but I haven't actually seen people get rid of their glasses with them.

You really got Reading specs?Generally youngsters have distance specs.You have some chance of loosing them.

I thought that most people who responded would have them for seeing far.

I got a small distance number a year ago and thank myself for not listening for the optician's advice to wear them all the time.

ButterFlyInk, I am trying to find out more people who have specs non-genetically and as late as fifteen.The specs being those for long sight and number not exceeding -1 hopefully.

Here is what I do to keep my number constant(not reccomended for others):
Continually stare at an object until my eyes start watering a lot.

With this practise I can get full vision for a short time.This will not work for anyone with a number beyond -1.

I got glasses last year when I was fifteen but I haven't heard of some one losing the need for them unless it's laser sergury.

I've had glasses since I was eight. I've never heard of someone not needing glasses after they already had them. I was under the impression that most people's eyes get worse over time instead of better.

From what I've heard from the eye doctor:
If you get glasses at a young age (I got mine when I was about nine years old and I'm nearsighted), your eye prescription will jump around quite a bit during puberty. After that, it won't change quite as much. So, as long as the person had *mild* problems with her eyes, it would be pretty reasonable for the person's eyes to get better. 20-20 vision might be a bit of a stretch, but to get to the point where the person wouldn't need glasses any longer is plausible.

I agree. I have a lot of friends who had glasses at primary school, but haven't needed them since age 16. On the other hand, I got glasses (I'm near-sighted) age 14, and my eyes have got worse since then.

what's this for, by the way?

Just to clarify, long sightedness is when the image of close objects falls behind the retina, so close objects look blurry (or looking at them can cause headaches, from the lens straining to cast the image onto the retina). People with long sightedness need reading glasses.

Short sightedness is when images of distant objects fall in front of the retina. People with short sightedness often need glasses all the time, although if it's not severe they might only use them when they want to.

People tend to either get glasses:

1. When they are young, if they have very severe/obvious sight problems.
2. When they start school, or start reading seriously (reading glasses). Depending on the severity, this might happen from the time the child starts looking at close objects, right up as they increase their reading for high school etc. Looking at a computer can be especially hard.
3. When they are old enough to express (or for other people to realise) that they can't see clearly in the distance.
4. As they age, due to the eyes becoming older (often long sightedness appears/increases with age).

So it's possible that a character could start needing glasses when they're a teenager. Nothing they have could be that severe, if they haven't realised it before then. The most plausible time for them to realise would be at the start of a new school year, or around exam time, whenever they're doing more reading than they have before (for long sightedness). In that case, the main symptom would probably be headaches rather than blurriness, as the lens can still focus but with a lot of eye strain.

For short sightedness, it might be that the character gradually realises they can't see as far as other people. Or they realised before, but only started caring now.

In short, without severe impairment it is possible for a person with glasses to refuse to wear their glasses (especially in school, if they're scared of being teased), or even for a person to not realise they need glasses for reading, if their symptom is headaches rather than problems with the image they see.

My brother got his glasses last year for reading. He was 13 then.
My dad has had glasses for ages, but recently he had to get weaker lenses because his eyesight is improving - naturally. He was getting headaches because the lenses were too strong.

I can tell you now that carrots don't help.

Antigone is so right. I got my first pair of glasses when I was thirteen. They were for far-sightedness, and I have been almost as blind as a bat ever since. If someone were take away my glasses, I couldn't walk a straight line.

I got my first glasses at eight, and since then my eye sight has only gotten worse! I've never heard of someone getting rid of glasses naturally, and I'm pretty sure it's impossible unless they're like super-human. xD Oh and people can get glasses as late as their twenties (My mom got glasses in college)

I started wearing glasses around the age of six. I think the difference between myself and the majority of people who have already posted is that I have astigmatism, so in a way I am neither near-sided nor far-sided, or you could say I am both. Essentially, it is hard for me to see upclose, and it's hard for me to see far away. Things are blurry the whole way through, which is pretty frustrating. I really have to focus to read things right in front of my face without my glasses, and if someone is standing far away from me and I don't have my gasses on, their face isn't very recognizable.

The only way I'd be able to go without glasses is 1) contacts (which I've done for a little while before) or 2) laser surgery. Unless I decide just not to use them. A friend of mine just doesn't use her glasses, so she can never recognize people from far off. I actually find this to be very stupid because it causes your eyes to become even poorer from putting strain on them and can frequently cause headaches, but hey, to each his own!

I probably started wearing glasses for short-sightedness when I was around 12 or 13...I'm almost 17 now, and it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to take them off anytime soon...