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[Journeyman]

I know it's not really mental health, but it is similar as in it is brain related I think.

Backstory:

Anybody familiar with this?  Seven years ago I first heard about this after failing a eye exam when getting my commercial license.  First eye exam I've ever failed.  I had held a driver's license for several years and passed the test at the local DMV office every renewal cycle.  This was a different test I've never been given before or since.  I had to make an quick appointment with my eye doctor who performed surgery on my eyes when I was two and again when I was four.  He hadn't seen me since, and walking into this appointment, I was 23.  I explained on the phone what happened and the examiners diagnosis of "no depth perception."  I walked in to the room, he handed a nurse a large laminated book with only a few pages.  He promptly pointed several tests he wanted done (I couldn't see what he was pointing to) with the results he already seemed to know would happen.  Turns out he was dead right, even had the letter saying my depth perception was fine and I suffered from "monocular vision" and bi-optic machines were useless to test subjects like me for depth perception.  He even asked her if i walked into objects in the room to make the point my depth perception was fine.

Cliffnotes & question:

So, I have monocular vision, apparently have for all my life and suffered none at all and I wouldn't know if I hadn't failed one vision test for the DMV.

Any others here with it? 
Am I missing on some visual aspect of life? 
Can anybody tell me about it?  I didn't get an explanation from the eye doctor, just "you can only see with one eye at a time"

Thanks!
JM

[TootUncommon]

Yep I sure am familiar with it.  Mine was diagnosed many many years ago.  I have never had any depth perception and learned to compensate for it.  I do panic every time my driver's license renewal required an eye test.  Funny isn't it that you can have a condition for many years and not think anything of it, and suddenly it has a name.  He is right - you only see with one eye at a time.  Both eyes do not focus together.  I find that if I alternate eyes while looking at something, the object "jumps".  Try it - look at an object with your left eye with the right closed, then open the right and close the left (like railroad crossing lights lol).  With me, the object I am looking at does not remain at the same level.  Guess I have lived with it for so long I don't even notice it much anymore.  If I look thru binoculars, I only use one eye.  Cannot focus with both eyes together.  Hence - monocular vision versus binocular vision. 

[Journeyman]

I do get the whole object shift when I change eyes.  Colors are also more intense in my right eye compared with my left one.

JM

[TootUncommon]

I don't have the color difference, but I have all the other stuff.  Wonder why they never found that before.  You just automatically start to compensate.  I seldom use my right eye - the left is the dominant eye.  I find it almost impossible to look at something with both eyes at the same time. 

[Journeyman]

I don't have the color difference, but I have all the other stuff.  Wonder why they never found that before.  You just automatically start to compensate.  I seldom use my right eye - the left is the dominant eye.  I find it almost impossible to look at something with both eyes at the same time. 

I've left dominant as well.  I was born with crossed eyes, but the surgeries at 2 and 4 years old corrected that.  My right eye is also a lazy eye.  It just drifts off whatever direction sometimes.

JM

[TootUncommon]

How weird - my right eye is a lazy eye too and was crossed but they said I was never a candidate for the corrective surgery.   They did all kinds of weird hocus pocus to try to fix it, but in the end it was me who had to work to stop it from heading to the corner lol.  Even now when I am tired, my right eye will head up into the upper corner.

[Journeyman]

How weird - my right eye is a lazy eye too and was crossed but they said I was never a candidate for the corrective surgery.   They did all kinds of weird hocus pocus to try to fix it, but in the end it was me who had to work to stop it from heading to the corner lol.  Even now when I am tired, my right eye will head up into the upper corner.

Yea, same boat.  My eye doctor tried to correct it with different strength lenses in glasses.  It didn't work.  Six months of headaches and I said I've had enough.  I just didn't worry about it.  So far, I'm no worse for wear ~

JM

[Kitten7]

As a child, I had an eye patch for a lazy eye. Now, when thaking photo's, I cannot look through the camera with one eye for very long. I become unable to keep my left eye shut. I have tried taking photo's with my left eye and that works for a little while. Is this what you are talking about ?

[TootUncommon]

Do you normally use both eyes at the same time Kitten?  If you look through binoculars, do you look out of both eyes?  If yes, then you have binocular vision.  JM and I cannot do that.  We can only use one eye at a time...even if both eyes are open.  Do I sound like Edith Bunker?   

[Kitten7]

Edith Bunker ? Nope! Not at all.... It makes sense now. What I experience is the opposite of you and JM, right?

[Journeyman]

Right on Kitten.  I'm perfectly at home looking through a telescope or camera or whatever all day long because that's how my eyes work, just one at a time.

JM

[SkedAddled]

Sounds as if those of you with monocular vision are much like
my mother. She has horrible depth perception after dark, and her
driving, whether night or day, makes me exceptionally anxious
if I am a passenger in her car, due to her use of sudden braking
action close to obstacles or other cars.

Is this anything close to what you've all mentioned?



I'll only offer that I seem to have full binocular vision.
I can see the stereo pictures I've posted, I was always able
to see the 'Magic Eye' pictures with a bit of small effort,
and I've never had any difficulty with judging distances
after dark. I'm not trying to be superior to anyone here;
it's just how my eyes have been.

[TootUncommon]

My depth perception sucks.  But it has been that way so long I don't even think about compensating for it - its natural now for me.  I will pass up a parking spot and you could get a car into with no problem - but I can't tell how close I am to the other cars.  I don't do the slam on the brake thing tho lol.  I can tell how far behind the other car I am.  It does make life interesting tho!

[Kitten7]

My depth perception sucks too. I cannot tell which lane traffic is coming from the back of me is in. I never can find the pic in those Magic Eye pictures.

[Journeyman]

I don't experience problems with depth perception until you put on goggles that require each eye to process images simultaneously to create virtual depth perception.  Otherwise, I don't have any trouble.  I ride a motorcycle too, and it doesn't cause me any problems there.  I don't run up on vehicles and stuff like that ~

JM