Has anyone else heard of or tried vision therapy?

I have had vrt for 8ish months and although my balance had improved my visual dizziness sympoms still persisted so I was sent to a vision therapist. He did a variety of tests and my found that my eyes were a bit sluggish in working together and working efficiently in a few areas. This is suspected to be all caused by the inner ear problem.

I have been doing vision therapy for about 1.5 months and have definately noticed an improvement. Not back to normal but definately much better - I even went to a nightclub and managed to enjoy myself! (although there were some weird feelings) My vision symptoms settled heaps.

However I have since tried some advanced vrt exercises without being told to and have knocked everything right out of whack. I told my vision therapist this and he siad that is normal and NOT to try any exercises I havent been instructed to as it could be detrimental and slow down compensation if I push it too far. So feeling rather dodgy and sluggish today!

But I thought I would mention vision therapy to you guys. If anyone has alot of visual dizziness symptoms and hasnt seen a complete improvement with vrt. It might be worth a try!

Hi Star,

I'm really interested in the VRT you were doing. Visual stuff is what I have left to mop up too. It still sets me off if I move my eyes into certain positions. What were the exercises you did to make the differences?

Thanks.....Scott

Star,

I would also be interested in the vision exercises you have been given, I too still get the visual stuff - my ENT said this is often the last to go and the most stubborn.

Thanks

Lizzy x

Me too- I am beginnign to think my problem is visual dizziness more so than at the start now. I am doing my VRT daily inc VOR exercises - so can you overdo these? Bit confused by that. Also, what is vision therapy?!!!

Thanks.

Hi guys -

Vision therapy is similar to vrt but it is visual exercises designed to strengthen the visual system. The visual exercises are alot more advanced then the visual exercises in vrt.

I have had a variety of different visual exercises but the key is that I use a patch while doing the exercises and therefore only exercise one eye at a time.

The best thing is to find a opthamologist who specialises in vestibular problems and visual therapy (my vrt person referred me to the vision therapy guy) and they design the visual exercises after testing for visual weaknesses. For example my eyes are very sluggish with depth of field. So I have had a variety of exercises for that. I see him every 2 weeks and he tests for improvements and changes the exercises entirely.

In order for the exercises to work you need to be tested first for any visual weakness as a result of the vestibular problem.

Hope that helps!!

Hi Star,

Thanks! Think I will do just that....I know there's one in Sydney who is a great optho but not sure he deals with vestibular problems as well. Will check it out.

Scott