PART 6: EMPATHY. 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. While the physical benefits that I've seen from all of the work I've done have

been amazing. One of the biggest places I've seen growth is from an emotional and like an inside

mental change that I've seen in myself. And one of those areas is empathy. And what I mean is that

before this happened, I didn't really understand a lot of the struggles that people experience

that I'd never really gone through anything of a physical struggle like my vision

or you hear about people having all these different problems and I honestly I just didn understand it or anxiety and different sensory problems that people have and I just I wasn like I thought they were making it up

I just didn't even think about it. I wasn't really open and like looking for people

who might be struggling with those sort of things, and so I didn't notice it very often

And now that I've been through this experience, and I've experienced a lot of those things

where I have a lot of days where my vision is not as much anymore

but especially like when I was in the thick of it where I would be really nauseous or dizzy and

sometimes I'd have like sensory overload problems where I was feeling attacked by my environment

visually it was really challenging I felt like I had the symptoms of maybe an autistic person

some of those symptoms where they would rock and different things like that I felt

a like a pull to do those things um I I experienced you know having the stigma of an eye turn

where I didn't know that it was as bad as it was until I started but I started really noticing when

people would like look over their shoulder when I was talking to them and that sort of thing and

It was just hard. And so now I have this like way larger ability

and openness and just awareness around other people going through these types of struggles

I see somebody with an eye turn and I immediately just like

it like in the night before Christmas the night yeah that what it called right The Grinch one but the Grinch how the Grinch stole Christmas that what it called And it says the Grinch heart grew three sizes that day

I really do feel that way. Like I see somebody with strabismus in an eye turn and I literally just like feel so

much love and empathy for that person. And before I didn't even notice that person

and the amazing thing about it is you know it maybe isn't any different for the other people but

I get to feel that I get to feel that love for another person which is really cool like you know

I don't know if this is all like woo woo or whatever but it really is like this is one of

my favorite things is that I just have this instant love for this like it's like one to three percent

of the pot I mean okay I should love everybody but like this connection to all of these people

and what they're going through. And when I hear their struggles, I am so much more empathetic because I've been through it

I also have experienced some anxiety throughout the process. I think part of it is related to my brain

and trying to overcome these visual symptoms, but I'd never dealt with that before

until I kind of was in vision therapy. And again, it's like so much more empathy

for people who deal with anxiety and the sensory problems. and I just, I feel like I'm a lot less judgmental

or just not even judgmental but like not aware of other people and just kind of self and I feel like I a lot more aware of the struggles other people have and I love it It not like it makes me sad like oh everyone in the world is suffering It just is like this like

you can feel this love for other people. So that is a transformation for me. So much bigger than

the fact that you know I can see when I drive a four-wheeler but like this is like every single

day of my life I can really understand the struggles that other people go through

and maybe help them a little bit. That's my goal. I hope I can help other people

So there you go. There is another transformation that is possible if you decide to jump on the vision therapy train

and learn to overcome this and really face those hard parts because honestly

if you just leave your vision the way it is, it's not like um you can't still grow and learn and and like become a better person but

by working on like the hardest thing right it like changes you it like makes you into this like

better version of yourself so even if it's not service that you choose to work on this like hard

thing and overcome choose something because it will change you and it's so phenomenal so if you

want to know more about my story you can go over to strabismusolutions.com and I

have all the details about vision therapy and surgery and all the things

so see you over there have a good one