Does anyone here use them? I'm seriously looking into trying to convince my parents that it'd be worth the expenses and not sure how. I've not gone to see them yet - called today to ask how much an appointment would be and try to set up an appointment (and I'm not sure if my speech was at all understandable)

My visual sensitivity is getting worse. I have no issues with reading (really if my reading speed or comprehension went up with these I'd find it absurd because I'm already that extreme here.) but my visual sensitivity part is bad and I have the physical symptoms that they talk about. I'm to the point of having problems sleeping from pain because of developing headaches from my visual sensitivity. I've tested my vision and its fine, and this happens even when I'm not reading anything. I also need to sleep late because extra sleep is the only way to get rid of the headaches. If I explained this part to my parents they'd want me to go to the eye doctor and I know its all visual sensitivity stuff. All my other sensitivities are increased too. It's just that visual is one of them that causes headaches.

I'm so sorry you've been suffering so much! Irlen lenses are definitely not just for reading problems. There are lots of people who use them specifically to get rid of the kinds of physical symptoms you're describing. Headaches and migraines from visual sensitivity can definitely be helped for people who have Irlen syndrome. You should join the Irlen Institute Facebook page and let your parents read some of the comments on there from other Irlen sufferers (https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Ir...5097189922). It sounds to me like you could definitely benefit from looking into Irlen lenses. The problems associated with Irlen Syndrome are related to the brain, not the eye, so the problem is not picked up by regular eye doctors and will not be corrected by regular eye glasses. As far as expense goes, my experience was that it ended up being less expensive that most of the other solutions I had already tried. The first appointment is pretty inexpensive, and they can tell you right away whether color is going to help you, so you won't waste any money on getting lenses if it's not going to help. I really appreciated that. The other thing is that usually Irlen is hereditary, so it's highly likely that one of your parents actually has light sensitivity too. IF you can get them onto the Irlen website to take a self-test, they might be much more likely to understand what you're going through. Good luck!

(09-14-2012, 05:11 PM)Tuttleturtle Wrote: Does anyone here use them? I'm seriously looking into trying to convince my parents that it'd be worth the expenses and not sure how. I've not gone to see them yet - called today to ask how much an appointment would be and try to set up an appointment (and I'm not sure if my speech was at all understandable)

My visual sensitivity is getting worse. I have no issues with reading (really if my reading speed or comprehension went up with these I'd find it absurd because I'm already that extreme here.) but my visual sensitivity part is bad and I have the physical symptoms that they talk about. I'm to the point of having problems sleeping from pain because of developing headaches from my visual sensitivity. I've tested my vision and its fine, and this happens even when I'm not reading anything. I also need to sleep late because extra sleep is the only way to get rid of the headaches. If I explained this part to my parents they'd want me to go to the eye doctor and I know its all visual sensitivity stuff. All my other sensitivities are increased too. It's just that visual is one of them that causes headaches.

I already know that using blue tinted safety glasses helps more than clear safety glasses and that sunglasses twitch me out and make me feel crazy. I quite expect color to help me. It'd be surprising if it didn't.

The problem is cost, and logistics. I don't work, so money is a big deal. If it can be covered by insurance, then it's easy. Otherwise, I need to convince my parents that its worth it, while my dad has anxiety about money.

I have axon optics glasses for migraines and they help me with flourescent lights. Very calming. Had anyone tried this for spd?