First time wearing prescription glasses – weird…

I’m wondering if anyone can offer some words of advice or comfort, please. I went for my first eye test in far too many years last month and now have some glasses, very slight prescription (long sighted) on one eye, but I’ve been experiencing some headaches and blurred vision with prolonged screen work. The glasses are primarily to address that and have the relevant coating. From Specsavers.

They’re great in terms of clarity at anything up to 2ft away, and signs etc seem to be much clearer at a distance, but they make things/shapes look out of proportion, kind of a parallelogram effect , and are impossible to drive in – the road seems to be within touching distance and my depth perception is way off.

Will things improve the more I wear them, or do I need to be talking to Specsavers?

I often get this when I change prescription but my vision normally habituates after a few days or a week.

How long have you been wearing the glasses and do you wear them constantly?

I have glasses for close work, similar to you long sighted and worse in one eye. I absolutely cannot drive in mine, I’d be dangerous!

Are they single lens glasses, or bi/vari-focal?

I don’t really understand this comment:

“They’re great in terms of clarity at anything up to 2ft away, and signs etc seem to be much clearer at a distance”

unless they are bi/vari focals?

I have to wear glasses for close-up work – anything closer than perhaps arms length. I got my first glasses a couple of years ago and am in my mid-40s.
No way I could wear them for driving in though. Apart from the dashboard, everything else would be out of focus.

It took me bloody ages to get used to my glasses. I still don’t like them, but I think my brain has adapted to them now. It probably took a year though – I guess not helped by my reluctance to actually use them.

Yeah, how long have you been wearing them? You probably just need to give your eyes/brain time to adapt.

So you have mild hyperopia and have glasses to correct your short vision?

Why would you need to wear them driving, presume you can see everything outside the windscreen?

Can you read the dials/controls?

Just single lenses, no bi/vari focal. The optometrist was very helpful with the eye tests, but I didn’t actually decide to purchase glasses on the day as she was quite vague about when/why I should wear them if I did. The reason I’d gone for the test was because of the screen issues and occasionally noticing I was struggling to read smaller text on signs say 5m+ away.  I asked when I ought to wear glasses if I got them and she said “when you feel like you need them, whenever suits”. In the following couple of days I experienced more headaches and weird vision whilst using screens so decided to get some. I was already using the blue light reduction on my PC screen(s).

The odd thing is that they also recommended prescription sunglasses for driving which were ‘free’ – they obviously factor the cost in, so I took them up, but if the prescription is wrong for that use I feel I ought to take it up with them.

I’ve only had the glasses a week today, and not used them that much yet, but I’ve had them on all morning, and still everything square looks wider at the top?

That does not sound correct. Any good optician should give you advice on their use and offer to redo the lenses if you are having issues within the first month. So go back to them soon.

If you have been given reading or computer glasses you should not be using them at other times.

Do you have an astigmatism in either eye?

If so you will have been used to the distortion this brings and your brain is coming to terms with the ‘correct’ shapes. Give it a while and more you wear them the easier the transition should be when you are wearing the glasses

Yes – you need to go back to your optician and explain the issues you’re having!

Go back to the optician. I had similar issues after my last prescription, thought it was the same that I needed to adjust. I went back and there had been a misunderstanding on what I needed. They replaced them with the correct lenses, no issues since.

very slight prescription (long sighted) on one eye,

They’re great in terms of clarity at anything up to 2ft away,

and signs etc seem to be much clearer at a distance,

but they make things/shapes look out of proportion, kind of a parallelogram effect ,

and are impossible to drive in

Those bits don’t all seem to fit together to me.  If you are long sighted (= can see stuff far away but not close up) you probably shouldn’t need to wear them driving, but then signs would not have been unclear at distance…

My experience of Specsavers is not good.  They are a franchise model which means each branch will be different – but they obviously have massive marketing budgets and yet their glasses are cheaper than your typical small independent.  Some of that might be savings from bulk buying but… my feeling was it was all about volume of people (patients) through the machine.

Here’s my prescription:

Right: SPH 0.0 CYL -0.50 AXIS 155.0

Left: SPH +0.50 CYL -1.00 AXIS 35.0

BVD: 10.00

So that strikes me as quite a lot of astigmatism correction to get used to from having had nothing.  I would have expected (but I’m not an optician) that you only need to wear these for “reading” / close up stuff?  I’d also have expected the optician or the techician fitting them to your face would have been aware these were your first glasses and told you what to expect, what to do if you had any issues etc…

I’m biased but your first problem might be Specsavers/Vision Express.

My experiences with them have been woeful so switched to an independent, yes you pay a little more but the service, time and care is noticeably different.

I have to spend time using both old and new prescriptions when adjusting to the new one or my brain breaks… astigmatism is fun.

Always go back and talk to whoever sorted you out though… the lenses/frames might not quite be positioned right.

As others have said, go back to the optician.

I got my first ever pair three or four years ago.  I had a weird distortion going on where things ‘moved’ in my peripheral vision, not great when the glasses were for driving as I kinda need to know where things are.  They reshaped the frame to be more wrap-around rather than flat, been fine since.