Imagine playing the hardest video game ever made. You've never played the game before. The tutorials for the game are in a different language. You have to create the controller with your mind.
That should give you a rough idea of what you're dealing with when doing vision therapy as an adult. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of vision therapy is knowing whether you're actually doing it effectively.
In the past month or so I've become increasingly confident that I am in fact doing vision therapy. I have gotten to the point where I am doing a particular thing in an exercise and I can say with reasonable confidence 'this is helping me gain stereo vision. I will notice the effects of what I am doing in this moment later on.'. I have become intimate with my visual system, and fluent in vision therapy. I have finally built my controller, and I am now able to really play the game. And goddamn, it feels good.
It reminds me of something that Susan Barry said in a Vivid Vision Spotlights podcast. She was talking about how important it is in vision therapy for the student to have a sense of ownership of the process, to actively see changes which result from the exercises he is doing, and to experience the control he has over the outcome. Beyond all of the awesomeness involving stereo vision, she was talking about how empowering it is to be able to radically change your experience of life via hard work and diligence via vision therapy. I already liked Susan Barry a lot, but after listening to those podcasts... man, she's just great. Super awesome person.
I don't yet have stereo vision. But I am now at a point at which I can see the connection between my exercises and the changes in my vision so vividly. It is already very rewarding. The changes are happening so quickly. My grasp on how to do vision therapy has improved so much. It's a very exciting time for me.
Alright, I'm going to do a separate entry for what's actually going on.
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