Can Your Eyesight Lead to a Focusing Problem?

• Accommodative Dysfunction
• Presbyopia
• If You Think You Have a Focusing Problem

The eyes are equipped to handle rapid changes in distance with ease, and many people will never notice the accommodations that take place in their vision as their eyes rapidly focus back and forth. This allows people to see things clearly at all distances. However, a great many other individuals will, for a multitude of reasons, have problems focusing. This can cause issues, especially for children who have problems focusing back and forth between close and far distances. Rather than being caused by poor eyesight, however, this is a disorder in and of itself called an accommodative dysfunction. An accommodative dysfunction is a problem in the eye that prevents an individual from being able to focus as they should.

Accommodative Dysfunction

An accommodative dysfunction is a disorder unrelated to aging, and can often be found in children. Those who have this problem often have difficulties sustaining focus on nearby objects. Because of this, they can have many ongoing issues. Some of the problems an individual can face because of an accommodative dysfunction include:

• Blurred Vision
• Reduced Productivity
• Bad Posture
• Difficulty Maintaining Clear Vision
• Difficulty Shifting Focus Between Distances
• Fatigue
• Moving Print

Additionally, migraines, red eyes, or blurry vision can also be symptoms of this problem. It is important to seek help for this issue quickly, whether in children or in adults, because this is an issue that can and will worsen over time.

Accommodative dysfunctions are caused when the ciliary muscles in the eye cannot contract properly or quickly enough to allow the lens of the eye to change shape as it should to see images or objects clearly. There are many things that can cause accommodative dysfunctions. First and foremost, there can be genetic predispositions, especially when children have these disorders. However, they can also be caused by poor overall health, as a side effect of medications, after a concussion or other head trauma, or because of eye stress from prolonged work on a task. Accommodative dysfunctions can also come about because of extreme long sightedness, so in some cases, they may in fact be the result of poor vision, though this is not always the case.

Treatment for accommodative dysfunction may include glasses as well as therapy, which could include exercises to help train focusing of the vision. It’s important to remember to work with a specialist who understands how to provide the right type of training for your eyes and who can give them the care that they need, especially when there are extreme focusing problems present.

Presbyopia

Another common focusing problem, presbyopia is a common loss of focusing ability that arises in many individuals due to aging. Most people will start to notice some problems with focusing sometime after the age of forty, though some may experience it earlier and some later, typically depending on their general eye health. People will start to notice problems with presbyopia beginning with issues reading small text.

Presbyopia occurs because the eyes’ lens begins to stiffen as people age, and this is perfectly normal, though it can be a nuisance. Even those who have never had a problem with their reading vision before will typically begin to suffer from problems focusing on small text as they grow older. The most common sign that an individual is suffering from presbyopia is that they begin to need to hold objects further away from them to read text clearly, especially with smaller print. Common problems associated with presbyopia include headaches, eye strain, and general visual fatigue.

Treating presbyopia typically requires reading glasses or contact lenses or, if the individual prefers, vision surgery. These are all common options to help correct the problem and can help a person quickly get back to their normal life of reading, driving, and performing other everyday tasks.

If You Think You Have a Focusing Problem

Those individuals who think their eye problem may be an issue with focusing rather than with their vision should go to their eye doctor and speak with them about their concerns. Only an eye doctor can perform the necessary vision tests to determine whether there is a problem with an individual’s vision that needs to be taken care of or assess whether there is truly an issue, such as accommodative dysfunction or presbyopia, that can be corrected through means such as reading glasses or contact lenses.

An individual’s eyesight does not necessarily impact their ability to focus. However, those who have problems focusing may have issues with their eyesight, and it is important to pay attention to potential problems and resolve them as quickly as possible to prevent further issues such as eye strain, headache, and the general issues associated with poor eyesight. Problems with focusing can occur regardless of one’s age, but older individuals should be especially vigilant if they believe they are having a problem focusing and see their eye doctor.