Vertical heterophoria (VH) is a serious binocular vision condition that can cause a range of debilitating symptoms if it is not properly treated. VH can drastically reduce your overall quality of life, making everyday activities like walking down the street or driving a car stressful or even downright dangerous. In today’s post, we discuss the four scariest symptoms of VH and explain how our groundbreaking treatment can bring you lasting relief.
Women with Severe Headache Suffering from Motion Sickness
1. Frequent Falls
VH can disrupt your vestibular system, which gives you your sense of balance. This is why patients with VH are more susceptible to falling. Activities that a person with healthy binocular vision does without effort – like stepping from the grass onto the driveway – could cause a person with VH to lose balance and fall, potentially resulting in injury.
2. Dizziness While Driving
The worst time to experience a dizzy spell is when you’re driving a car, and for patients with VH, this is a real risk. Commonplace events while driving – like going around a bend or seeing cars zip past you on the highway – can cause debilitating dizziness in people with VH. They may feel like the car is moving backward even though they are clearly driving forward. This can cause them to become confused and disoriented, making driving extremely dangerous. If you experience any of these symptoms, it’s critical that you undergo a binocular vision evaluation, and we advise staying off the road until you receive effective treatment for your condition.
3. Painful Migraines
One of the most painful symptoms patients with VH experience is severe migraines. These can last anywhere from several minutes to several hours, and they can make it impossible to work or even hold a conversation. The pain may be located in the forehead, temples, back of head, neck, eyes or sinuses.
4. Anxiety Attacks
People with VH are often overcome with anxiety when spending time in large, crowded spaces. This is due to being bombarded by visual stimuli, which are difficult for a person with VH to process correctly. In addition, just living with this condition can cause generalized anxiety. A person with VH may be constantly worried about when the next dizzy spell or migraine will occur, making daily life stressful and difficult.
5. Words Jumping on the Page
VH can cause the images in one’s visual field appear to jump or squirm on the page, almost like a hallucination. This symptom may not seem as scary as the others, but it can be extremely disturbing for the person experiencing it, especially if it hasn’t happened before.
At the Neuro Visual Center of New York, we have many years of experience diagnosing and successfully treating patients with VH. Our treatment involves the use of cutting-edge aligning prismatic lenses, which correct the underlying misalignment in the eyes that causes VH. Our treatment has literally changed the lives of our patients and could do so for you, too. To learn more, call us today at (516) 224-4888.
