Discovering Vision Therapy Blog

My New Eyes - A Vision Therapy Success Story from Ben

My New Eyes - A Vision Therapy Success Story from Ben

This is an essay written by Ben Westerman, a graduate of The Vision Therapy Center. Read this and you’ll really understand what it’s like to have a functional vision problem. Please, share this with your friends.  Congratulations to Ben on an amazing achievement!


I could feel my brain pounding in my head while I looked at a blank sheet of paper trying to take notes. My eyes ached, my brain pounded. I couldn't take it anymore. Everything was blurry all at once.


Reading meant torture, anger and frustration. I couldn't see, but I didn’t know that. I thought everybody had to go through this torture, and that I just wasn’t very smart. It would take me a long time just to get the words in focus. Then it would take twice as long as everyone else to try to figure out what the words meant.


I always had to work harder than everybody else. I had to read boring books because I wasn’t at the reading level that the good books were written at. Slowly, I fell behind in school. School stopped being exciting and enjoyable.


I always wanted to play baseball, but I never could hit the ball. Catching was very difficult, too. I played basketball, but I could never shoot the ball that well.


I felt like I was an oddball. Headaches made days miserable. This used to be my life.


My parents, my teachers and my principal had limitless meetings to talk about me. My principal recommended that we have my eyes checked to see if they were working correctly. We went to our regular eye doctor, who recommended we see Dr. Knueppel, who works at The Vision Therapy Center.


I did tons of testing. In May of 2012, I started my first session. For the next year, I worked my butt off doing exercises that they gave me to improve my vision. I had to do them every day of the week. I didn’t want to do them because I thought they were boring and lame. I hoped it would work.


On April 11, 2013, the day finally came. I graduated from vision therapy.

I wear contacts to see far. I have reading glasses, too. School now is exciting and enjoyable. I can finally read amazing books and have a great conversations about them. Now, I feel like a regular person. 


My favorite subjects are science and reading. I don’t get headaches very much. Taking notes now helps me to learn better than before. I can finally study by myself without my parents' help!


Basketball is now one of my favorite sports. My shooting is better than it used to be.


In the summer of 2013, I decided to try softball. I was super nervous. I thought I would fail at this sport. I played pretty well. My team was undefeated, and my coach said I was a good hitter! I never struck out all season. 


My new eyes changed my life. I am glad that I did vision therapy. Now I can do sports, reading and be good in school. I am having an amazing time with my new eyes.

 

Download Free Vision  And Learning Guide

 

Posted by   Greg Mischio