Ask Lemmy

Dude, have your pupillary distance checked. I got a pair of glasses from warby parker and used their "hold a business card to your nose so we can guess at that measurement". This pair was instant fucking headaches until I went into one of their brick and mortar stores and they checked things.

The focus point for my lenses was a good 5mm below where it should have been. My eyes are fucking bad and so I was basically looking through the distorted edge of high index lenses.

A quick trip back to the shop for the lenses to get redone and now I can wear them comfortably.

This is for anyone having issues with new glasses - if your prescription hasn't changed that much from your prior year, but new glasses hurt or are severely uncomfortable, get that shit checked out. That shouldn't be the case.

For you, @OP - if you've always had a script but never been able to use your glasses due to headaches/motion sickness, get a different eye doctor. Don't just go to a mall lens crafters, try to find an optometrist whose name is on the door. Tell them your symptoms. They should check your eyes for a plethora of things - maybe you've got astigmatism, or something else.

It's not normal to have a severe reaction to glasses if they're the correct match for your eyes.

I’ve worn glasses about sixteen hours a day my entire adult life. Got my first pair around 10. Acclimating took maybe four or five days of minor discomfort. The improved vision was incredible and as a child I had child durability, so I didn’t mind the discomfort. I vividly remember how strange it felt for air to hit my face with glasses on while walking or running.

Every time I get a major prescription update it takes two or three days to feel “right”. Until then I have some disorientation. I would expect an adult who hasn’t consistently worn glasses to feel that more keenly.

If I had continued eye strain after three days of constant and consistent wear, I would call the optometrist. If it lasted a week and the optometrist was blowing me off I’d consider my options. Some prescriptions are better than others. I could tell you exactly when I got my best prescription, it was life changing. I didn’t know people could see like that. I’ve never had a “bad” prescription to the best of my knowledge, every time I’ve updated it has been an improvement.

I've worn glasses my entire life and only once has trouble, when an optometrist was making my lenses incorrectly.

This sounds excessive, you should go get things checked.

I think I was 10. The bridge made my nose hurt and I think I got headaches for a few days from it or the lenses themselves. Changing frames causes some discomfort for a day or two.

Now I can wear glasses for over 24 hours straight without issue.

My vision wasn't that bad from what I recall, but now I am at a -5.50 or something. I wear contacts when I leave the house and greatly prefer them, especially the transitions contacts that tint like sunglasses in sunlight. Seriously, the transitions contacts are glorious with my light sensitivity and it makes colors really "pop".

I got my glasses in 9th grade (~15 years old). I just went to school one day and realized I couldn't read the chalkboard at the front of the class anymore. Within a week, I had an eye exam and my first set of glasses.

Personally, it took me a couple years to adjust to them. I had 20/10 vision all throughout my childhood (I can see at 20 ft what most people see at 10 ft). My vision was better than perfect. So it was very distressing to all-of-a-sudden not be able to see clearly and it took me a long time to get used to it.

Also, glasses limited my range of view. Whereas I had a wide view normally, glasses put a smaller focused frame around my field of view, so I could only focus on details mostly straight ahead. Everything that moved in the corners of my vision spooked me because I couldn't focus on it without turning my head toward it. I was very jumpy for a long time.

My vision isn't terrible. Even at 41 years old now, my prescription is pretty weak. I'm nearsighted, so I don't even need my glasses for things up close, just long-distance viewing.

And thankfully, it's been stable for a long time. It's hardly changed in the last decade and a half. As of last year, my optometrist has been telling me my eyesight could potentially get much worse, now that I'm over 40. So I've been told to report back if I notice another sudden change in my vision. But I've been good so far.

I wanted to get PRK surgery for a while and I could've opted for a free surgery through the US military while I was serving. But things kept getting in the way of my request, and I finally decided to just leave it be. Especially as I got older; I was afraid I'd only be able to enjoy being glasses-free for a few years before I'd start needing reading glasses or something.

Also, my mother spent over 40 years working for the State Services for the Blind, so I grew up around a lot of blind people and always feared losing my vision. So I was a little terrified of getting eye surgery and potentially getting a botched job.

I'm 43 and I just got my first pair about 4 months ago. It took me about 2 weeks to get used to them but it still throws me off a little now and then. I apparently had a number of vision issues I had just been stubbornly dealing with without realizing it lol I don't get splitting headaches every day now so I call it a win

So I didn't get nausea when I first got glasses (that I remember at least, I had some as a child for a bit for other reasons and then in my late teens got them for short-sightedness) but I have 2 pairs - one I use for computers/reading/anything close-by (which, since I don't bother changing them for my commute, is most of the time - and no I'm not in a car and I can see everything fine anyway, just distant text is hard) and one pair that fully corrects my vision that I use otherwise. When I've gone a while without using the stronger pair, I always get some nausea for a bit after putting them on, but it goes away after a few hours, and if I wear that pair for a few days, it stops happening completely. I think you'll get used to it. I also have one eye with a much stronger defict than the other, and I think that might be related since correcting that probably affects depth perception.

I first got glasses around 7 or 8 years old. I think I adapted pretty quickly, because I don't recall ever having any problems adjusting.

It wasn't untilI was about 19 or 20 that I started to get headaches and motion sickness, after my prescription took a significant update. I think just the shape of the glasses I had at the time, combined with the much stronger prescription, was causing a fish-eye sort of effect for me and was making me nauseated, so I switched to contact lenses and have been wearing those ever since. I've not worn actual glasses for about 20 years now.

I definitely recommend trying out contacts, especially for the nausea.

Started at 3. Now 48. Contacts since 13. Prescription varies, but somewhere around -7.0 to -8.0 in each eye. Contacts give more natural vision, but took a bit to get used to. I have been able to touch my eye without blinking for 20+ years. Doc is now telling me to add reading glasses to my contacts. Contacts will reduce the headaches, but will take some time to get used to. Good luck!

I had a similar situation as you. I got a prescription later in life in my late 20s after never wearing glasses before. One eye had a stronger prescription than the other.

It took me about 5 days of daily wear to fully acclimate to the prescription. Each day got better than the last, but I definitely felt like you are describing on day 1.

It isn't a fun process but it will also feel better and your eyes will feel much less strained with the prescription, so it is ultimately worth it.

since i was like 12. couldn't read the board in math class. never had any trouble like what you're describing though. i loved it immediately. hadn't know what I'd been missing. the leaves on the trees were so clean and crisp. it was amazing.

I started wearing glasses at 17. I technically didn’t need to wear them all the time, but I just did because it was immediately much more comfortable on my eyes. I have a bent nose from a break and I got a little irritation from it, but the relief on my eyes was easily worth it.

My eyes aren’t super bad, I can actually be okay without them for most of the day. Neither eye is super bad, but I have a high astigmatism factor or whatever they call it. That makes my depth perception really funky and I can’t read anything at a distance.

I can’t really remember what difficulty I had at first besides the my nose hurting and getting used to the frames being in view. It definitely never made me nauseous though. You should probably talk to your eye dr about that.

Got my first pair in my mid-30s. Took me about week/week-and-a-half of progressively putting them on for longer and longer periods. On for 30 minutes off for 30 minutes, etc etc.

I never had the experience you are describing. The closest I got was when I got a flexiframe that couldn't be adjusted by hand - because that's the whole point of those - and the nose bridge was set such that the edges of the lenses were in a different spot than I was used to. This resulted in the world swirling in a dizzying way when I moved my head because my peripheral vision was adjusting to the difference. That process took about a week, I think.

I have also found that it hurts my eyes to try to wear glasses inconsistently. For me I need to wear them all the time, or not at all. So if you are being inconsistent you may be making it difficult for your eyes to get used to focusing differently.

It might be worth talking with your optometrist though, in case something isn't quite right. (S)he can test the lenses and verify the lenses are right - they could be wrong, and that would be a problem for sure.

1-2 weeks. I've gotten one prescription for "everyday glasses" that never took. I basically suffered dizziness and nausea whenever I wore them.

I went back to the glasses place and got a weaker prescription.

Optometry is an art. They don't always get it right.

I've been wearing them since I was a kid. I know the phenomenon you're describing, though, and it comes from changing the focus of your eyes. My vision is so bad I don't focus at all when I'm not wearing lenses, so putting them on is no problem. But switching from one prescription to another gives me a headache, because my eyes try to focus wrong at first.

I've had them since third grade, but switched to contacts after high school.

I can't see a thing without them. This is not an exaggeration: hold your phone the closet you possibly can to your face until you have to close one eye to read it. That's about as far as I can see in focus without glasses.

I was around 25, it took me a month or two but I didn't have any nausea issues. I was at the point where my eyes were getting super blurry at the end of the day.

I wore glasses when I was a kid, maybe ages 7-10, but stopped wearing them because I kept losing or breaking them and I guess my parents decided that if the 10 year old says he can see fine the optometry results don't matter that much. Started wearing them again when I was 19 and have been wearing them ever since. The only "getting used to" was everything being so much more clear and vivid, and a tiny bit of eye strain.

If you're having these issues you should definitely insist on seeing someone

Give it time. I started wearing glasses at 6. Contacts at 9 until I was ~22-23. Glasses again for the last twenty years. My prescription is heavy (-7.75 and -8.25.) It's weird switching from contacts to glasses and vice versa. Looks like a fishbowl at first. Depth perception is off. Your eyes will adjust. That said, make sure you have a good eye doctor. Don't start with internet companies. Go to a legit doc and then take your prescription and get backup glasses but be skeptical of the alignment and fit. If you don't trust the prescription, get a second opinion. Take care of your eyes.

My eyes have always been horrible, since I was in first or second grade. I was a voracious reader, always the best in the class, and far ahead of my age group. At the same time that I was devouring reading material, I remember having splitting headaches for some reason, but they stopped when I got glasses.

I wore glasses every minute of my waking life until I was about 30, and my girlfriend, now my wife, convinced me to get contacts, and I've worn them for decades.

Now I'm old, and just recently went to the eye doc to get a cataract taken care of, and he told me that my entire bad eyesight can be chalked up to the fact that my eyes are much bigger than normal, and that causes nearsightedness in people with normal sized skulls. He said I have the eyeballs of a 7 foot 2 inch man!

It figures, I got one thing on my body that enormous, and it's my eyeballs.

My eyes have always been horrible, since I was in first or second grade. I was a voracious reader, always the best in the class, and far ahead of my age group. At the same time that I was devouring reading material, I remember having splitting headaches for some reason, but they stopped when I got glasses.

I wore glasses every minute of my waking life until I was about 30, and my girlfriend, now my wife, convinced me to get contacts, and I've worn them for decades.

Now I'm old, and just recently went to the eye doc to get a cataract taken care of, and he told me that my entire bad eyesight can be chalked up to the fact that my eyes are much bigger than normal, and that causes nearsightedness in people with normal sized skulls. He said I have the eyeballs of a 7 foot 2 inch man!

It figures, I got one thing on my body that enormous, and it's my eyeballs.

I started needing glasses when I was 13. I couldn't see the writing on the chalkboard any more. My eyes have slowly gotten worse since then and nowadays I need them all the time. It's still an adjustment every time I get a new pair, but you get used to it real quick

55m here.

I'm farsighted and started to need glasses for close up around the age of 36. Never really had to get use to them per se as I always had non-prescription sunglasses anyway.

I became a full time glasses wearer around the age of 40. At the age of 45 I became a progressive lens wearer and those took me about 2 full weeks to get use to. So it's been about 10 years that I've worn progressives and my script has changed 4 times. It takes me a couple of days to get used to a new script.

I'm also legally blind in my right eye. It sees just well enough that it tracks with my left eye. One optometrist insisted on giving me 1/2 strength script for my right eye and I went along with it. It took me weeks to get used to it as I'm not used to having binocular vision of any kind, not to mention the near Coke bottle look to the lens. 3D movies are almost and absolute no go for me, because they make me ill. My current glasses have a script on the right lens, but it's not nearly as strong.

I don't remember how long it took the first time, because I was a child and I didn't wore it the whole day. But now, when I change my glasses, it can take few days if it's for myopia (trouble with evaluating distances, a little nauseous), and a little more for astigmatism. Change for astigmatism make me nauseous and weird, the world seems strange and not shape like it should, lights are weird... Even when I have a lighter prescription.

So, I found progressive bifocals to be the best thing. Look through the top of the lense most of the time and the bottom for reading and looking at things up close. With good lenses the middle actually works for middle distance. It took about a week to get used to them. I didn't think my eyes were "that bad" either, till I got checked, and boy was I wrong.

I think I started wearing glasses when I was about eight, which was 38 years ago.

As I recall, it took me maybe a week or two to get used to wearing them (being able to see clearly is awesome!). But there’s a lot of bullshit pain in the ass maintenance that comes with wearing glasses, and it took me a couple years to understand and get used to that.

As I got older, and neither contact lenses, nor Lasik were viable options for me, I got used to being a just a person who wears glasses. So I pick ones that look good on me, and I don’t really think about it beyond that. And neither should you.

This isn’t the 1950s. There’s no longer stigma around wearing glasses.