PART 9: STAIRS. The Strabismus World Transformed Through Vision Therapy and Straight Eyes

Hi, my name is Melissa

And 36 years ago, I was born with strabismus, which means that my eyes weren't pointing in the same direction

So for the first 32 years of my life, I was only using one eye and I didn't have any depth perception

Through years of vision therapy and strabismus surgery, my eyes are pretty much straight now

and I'm able to use them together to have some pretty amazing depth perception

This whole video series is all about helping you see the transformation that I've experienced

going from a 2D to a 3D world. It is so amazing and I'm excited to share it with you

Let's jump in. When you don't have depth perception, something that can be really challenging is stairs

Why? because you can't tell where one stair is and where the next one is and how far apart they are

and for some reason stairs that have gaps in between or steep stairs are even worse so like

a new home under construction those kinds of places before I went through vision therapy and

learned how to use my peripheral vision effectively and gain depth perception before I did all that I would sit down and like scoot down stairs where they were under construction There like the slats in between that you can see through For some reason like that combination of circumstances was just enough to like make me panic

I don't know why. I like, I just like would feel it. And I would, I would almost like, I remember one time walking into a home because me and my husband love when we're like driving around and we see a home under construction

We definitely love to stop and just look through and see other people's like homes under construction

I don't know why. It's just fun. And so I remember one time like walking towards the stairs and there was no stair railing or anything

They were unfinished. And I like fell. I like fell backwards. Like, but not for any reason

Like I was just walking across a flat piece of OSB, right

Like the flooring. and I went to the stairs and for some reason there was something about the depth that made

me feel like I was falling and I literally like stumbled and like fell back and I was like what

in the world was that um there are things like that that would happen and I would I always hold

really tight to the stair railing and you know no like running up and down the stairs and and it

would just like oh anxiety inside of me I don know not anxiety that not the right word just like kind of like nervousness and like my brain was like oh be on alert this is a dangerous situation um and so that was all before and during still stairs bothered me and

they're not a problem anymore i still don't love stairs that are like wide open and that you're

like looking down over the ledge and there's nothing to hang on to like i'm not like gonna

to say I love that but it's just so much more comfortable and so much easier to go up and down

the stairs I can go up easily without holding on to a handrail it's easier to see the depth between

the stairs I don't get that feeling like I'm falling anymore I think one of the biggest things

is that I know where I am in space I've talked about this a lot and this is a huge focus of the

course that I created, Mastering Peripheral. You can get that at learn.strabismissolutions.com

But in that course, I talk a lot about learning how to be inside the space that you're in and

understanding the relationship between where your body is and where everything else is

It's more than just what you can see. It's what you can feel and what you sense and how it all

fits together and so that makes a huge difference for stairs because you seeing the space between the stairs you seeing where you are in relation to the stairs it not just this like flat world you like really inside of that zone and I

telling you makes a huge difference you know each of these videos has just like something small

right and if you were just to say yes you should go spend ten thousand dollars on vision therapy

so that you can feel more comfortable going up and down the stairs it'd be kind of ridiculous and

probably not worth it but it's it's the combination it's all these small things that add up to make

such a huge difference in your life overall so vision therapy is amazing strabismus surgery

definitely helped if you want to know more about the process that i've been through to get to where

i am you can go over to strabismus solutions.com there's tons of resources there to help you get

started i even have a free quiz that you can take um to help you understand if your eyes are working

together and you can get that that is at learn.stirbismissolutions.com so if you scroll down

to the bottom I've got a few different free downloads and things that you can get that can

help you understand how your vision is working and get you started on the right foot so good luck

with your journey and let me know in the comments what things have changed for you as you've done

vision therapy and what things you would hope could change and I will see you in the next video