Tag: light sensitivity

Understanding Autism and ADHD through a New Lens

Hi, After working with my sensitivity with the light spectrum for 6 years, I have just been diagnosed with autism. To a lesser degree I also experience ADHD. What I was calling spectral sensitivity is in fact the same as autism and ADHD.

What can we learn from my journey?

  1. Autism and ADHD are rooted in our response to the light spectrum.
  2. Autism occurs when our brains are over-responsive to light in the violet range.
  3. ADHD occurs when our brains are under-responsive to light in the blue range.

As the balance of the light spectrum changes across the day and across the seasons, so does our experience of autism and ADHD.

Let me explain . . .

When I am more in an autistic place, I feel more spaced and have to embrace the big picture of life and not take so much attention to the detail. I feel creative and intuitive but just a bit lost.

When I am in more of an ADHD place, I feel spaced in a different way and as if I am being driven by a motor. I have to embrace attention to detail. I like working with data and become very analytical.     

What has this to do with the light spectrum?

One of the gifts of my autism is that I see the colours in the light spectrum. I look out of the window and I might say ‘The light is a bit violet today’ or ‘The cloud seems to have swallowed the blue’ or ‘I can’t really see enough red in the green of the grass’.

How Can This Help Me?

When we don’t understand our relationship with the light, we can be trying to push our energy into the wrong direction. My son is stronger ADHD and often analytical but when the light swings from low blue to high violet and he becomes more autistic, he is completely lost and depressed and anxious. He doesn’t know that if he just lets go to his creativity and intuition at that point, that he could feel so much happier.

Understanding our relationship with the light spectrum helps us to understand how and why we are feeling a certain way in any moment. Become a light watcher. Knowledge is power!

You Can’t Feel Homeliness if you Feel Separation

This is the first autumn that I ever really felt the feeling of homeliness. This is the first autumn that I have had glasses to treat my phorias.

October is usually a very tricky month for me. I usually feels ad odds with myself and with the world. But this year I found my phoria. My eyes are going Up and IN. I have have this on one eye or both. And the UP and IN phoria I find is one of the hardest to bear. You feel shut in and confused and cross with the world.

Wearing glasses with prism that bend the light so that what I am looking at meets my gaze, feels like nothing short of a miracle. I feel cosy and very centred.

Autumn used to mean struggling with the change of colours of leaves and the drop in the light. I didn’t like the pumpkins of halloween, the fireworks of bonfire night or even the decorations of Christmas. I just couldn’t process all the colour and pattern.

This year I am loving the leaves, I am enjoying craft, I am singing little songs to myself, playing games with my family and cycling. I am loving life. And looking ahead, I am full of hope that I will find the right glasses as autumn turns to winter. And I will experience more new things – things I have never done before, feelings I have never had before, like the true feeling of homeliness.

Lightwatcher Diary – The Red Light of September

Hi, sorry I haven’t posted a diary for a while. I have had a blocked ear. If you have been following my previous diary entries, you will notice that I often spoke about my phorias. However today I didn’t. They have been a lot less significant to me since July. As you will hear, I am much more interested in my interpretation through my ears, than what is coming in through my eyes right now!

Phoria Sensitivity and More about the Significance of Knowing You Belong

Today, I went to a music festival with my husband and 14 year old son. We had agreed to go and have a look around, play a piece of music on our whistles and keyboard, have a pub lunch and come home.

When we arrived at the sea front where there were a few buskers dotted around up the prom, my son looked forlorn. In fact he had looked forlorn for the entire walk from the car through a beautiful park. When I asked him what was wrong, he said “I don’t belong here”. He went on to say that this was because he had no purpose. I pointed out that only 5% of people there had instruments and the rest of the people were just the general public. I told him that being him in that place was enough. His mood lightened a little but he was clearly not convinced.

We went back to the park, where my son opened up more, saying that there was no purpose for his existence. It was heart breaking to hear and yet I understood exactly what was behind those words. It was the feeling that I had as a child, a feeling I have had as an adult, of being displaced and detached from everything and everyone around you.

I convinced my son of all of his qualities, all his gifts and all the purpose that he has in his life. Then I addressed the feelings. I know that at the root of the feelings are undetected eye phorias. I know this because today I was wearing a pair of glasses prescribed by myself with just the right strength and direction of prism in to make me feel OK.

And I felt beyond OK. I was calm in the face of all the difficulties, having to give several wellbeing lectures along the way with people around me, and when we got to the pub and they had run out of gammon and chicken (my goto meals) I just refused anything else and ate the sourdough sandwich in my bag. The point is that I wasn’t angry with anyone or anything, because I felt that I belonged. I had a right to be there and a right to have my needs. I understand now why in the past I have got angry and upset if things didn’t run smoothly. It was all because I didn’t feel I belonged.

If you or someone you know are struggling with depression or negative feelings, it could be as simple as a feeling that you/they don’t belong. And the answer could be simple too. You just need to find your so far undetected eye phorias and then you/they will see the world through a whole new lens.

Phorias and Not Feeling Part of Anything

About Phorias

Help with Your Vision FAQ’s

Phoria Sensitivity and Not Feeling Part of Anything

Phoria sensitivity occurs when you are sensitive to your eye-gaze. Your gaze may not be comfortable at the point where you are choosing to look, so it moves somewhere else!

I have lived with undetected phorias for most of my life and only just discovered them. I felt there was something wrong but couldn’t work out what it was. I have been seen as a hands off, nervous person who stands on the outside of situations and doesn’t get involved. In fact at some point during my journey, I realised that I had a big issue with involvement. As a result I did everything I could to be more involved with my life and other people. But this way of living had huge limitations for me. The more involved I got with my life, the more exhausted I became. And I ended up choosing the health of my nervous system over more involvement.

I have missed so many opportunities to be part of community and at the moment I am feeling sad about this. I wouldn’t say I am from a super close family but most members have stayed in touch and met up for special occasions. Most of the time I wasn’t there. I haven’t stayed in touch with friends or family friends.

I didn’t know why I was like this. I see myself as a friendly person and an open book. But I just didn’t have the energy needed to be part of something. My phorias made me feel that I was always being divided from myself. My vision, sound, temperature, food textures, touch, smell, taste, all felt like they had parts missing. How could I be part of something, feeling like a divided person?

Now I get it! GOOD VISUAL FOCUS is the answer. GOOD BINOCULAR VISION is the key. Now I have these things, for the first time, I feel that I could be part of something!

About Phorias

Help with Your Vision FAQ’s

100 + Pairs of Glasses but my Struggle with Light and Sound Sensitivity and Dizziness is OVER

Yes, I do have 100+ pairs of glasses (most of those with one or two direction of prism) but that doesn’t mean that you will need all those pairs. I am on the unusual end of unusual!! I have found myself to have 40 phorias. (misdirected eye gaze.) That is 40 different combinations of eye gaze between my two eyes. The most phorias anyone can have are 81!

I am a musician and have always found it easy to remember notes, scales, chords and tunes. In the same way I can remember all of my phorias, and quickly work them out from all 8 directions of gaze in each eye, and choose the right pair of glasses.

And when I choose the right pair of glasses . . . it is AMAZING! I feel so much more centred and calm and so much more resilient when it comes to my sensitivities. Essentially I can LIVE my LIFE whereas previously I was merely surviving.

For anyone with sensitivities that stop them living life to the full, I strongly suggest you check out your phorias. You may just find the answer you have been searching for.

About Phorias

Help with Your Vision FAQ’s

A Massive Answer to So Many Health Conditions – Eye Phoria Sensitivity

Hi, Please listen to my audio diary today.

Please follow me and you will hear the up and downs of my energy patterns through the year and how I have learnt to thrive, no matter the weather, no matter the light! You will find all my previous entries on my ‘Lightwatcher Diary’ page.

If you understand your state, then you can understand your needs. If you understand your needs, then you can fully live your life.

Jennie

About Phorias

Help with Your Vision FAQ’s

Can Anyone Work with their Eye Phorias?

Yes, as much as anyone can ride a bicycle, knit a jumper or bake a cake, anyone can work with their phorias. It is not like going to the see the optician or optometrist, though, where things are done for you and results are presented to you. It is a skill that takes a level of self awareness and needs to be learnt over time. The skill of working with your phorias requires you to be curious about your relationship with your eyes.

The only people who start this adventure are those who feel there is something not right about their eyes, having tried everything the health professionals have to offer. You might suffer with unresolved light sensitivity, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, depression or anxiety . . . just to name a few symptoms that could be bothering you. You might feel a deep sensitivity that is all consuming and severely hampers you from living a full life.

I have written this blog for people like you – not for those who are happy with their eyes – but for those whose eyes are saying “Surely something could be better.”

Please take a look at these tests and see if that person is you:

Light Gaze Test

Spot Test

Reading Test

Prism Test

Help with Your Vision FAQ’s

Processing Food Textures and Undetected Eye Phorias

For the last two days I have only wanted ham sandwiches for lunch. The second of the two days I managed the texture of crisps. On the first day the crisps tasted ‘soft’ and on the second they tasted, well . . .crisp!

Then today I suddenly wanted texture again and had chicken curry, rice and courgettes.

What Changed?

On days one and two I knew I had an UP phoria but I had no glasses with DOWN prism to treat it. Now on day three I have an OUT phoria and have some IN glasses to treat it. When I put these glasses on, I was suddenly very clear thinking and I didn’t feel dizzy and disorientated any more. I thought about what I would like for lunch and to my relief I didn’t have to choose ham sandwiches!

What happens when I treat my phorias with prism?

A phoria can cause the image to go off centre on the part of the retina that is related to acuity and good colour perception. Just being a tiny amount off centre can cause issues with these things. Everything you see just feels ‘off’. Colour doesn’t make sense. There is slight distortion of depth perception, meaning that we don’t feel centred. This makes it difficult to have a good relationship with our physical world. It is literally an effort to pick up the knife and fork and engage with the food. A curry will look a ‘funny’ red and courgette, a ‘funny’ green, and rice just bland. Nothing draws us in to want to eat.

When I wear my glasses to treat my phoria, the image goes back on the centre of my retina. I feel centred and able to engage with the physical word. Colour appears fine and food appears appetising. I can’t wait to pick up my knife and fork and enjoy my lunch!

About Phorias

Help with Your Vision FAQ’s

Micro-Prism Glasses – You Can’t have Too Many if they are the Help You Need

Hi, Please listen to my audio diary today.

Please follow me and you will hear the up and downs of my energy patterns through the year and how I have learnt to thrive, no matter the weather, no matter the light! You will find all my previous entries on my ‘Lightwatcher Diary’ page.

If you understand your state, then you can understand your needs. If you understand your needs, then you can fully live your life.

Jennie

About Phorias

Help with Your Vision FAQ’s

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