Ever heard the term ,,visual fatigue"? It's something that follows us individuals with CVI all day, every day. Let me explain, by putting up an example of a normal work/school day for me. Firstly I want to stress that even though those days are extremely fatiguing they are also the best days for me since they involve me singing and spending time with my friends :) So, no negativity here whatsoever! :) I'm pretty sure I couldn't function without them!
I usually spend almost the whole day there, when I'm at school. I go out in late morning and take a bus for about 30 minutes. ( here, paying attention to the stops and going out at the right one can be a trigger for fatigue, sometimes). It's not that long since I learned to take a bus overall. When I get to school I start with a 50 min class with the awesome accompanist. Trying to visually follow and read my sheet music is always confusing and even painful physically as I might end up having a migraine or being nauseous. Because of all this I might get irritated at myself for not being able to do as well as I want to. For this, I might record my vocals or the accompaniment to be able to learn faster. After this I get a little break to have some water - i usually bring a bottle of water along with me, to stay hydrated during the day.
Next, I do an hour long vocal training class with the best teacher in the world :) Here again, the following of the notes has a big impact - and is even worse than in the first lesson, since I've used up a large part of my energy portion. Since I got the diagnosis of CVI I have figured that when I have to concentrate very well on something I have to shut my vision completely off. That means that when concentrating I get almost completely blind. I also have abnormal eye movements ( nystagmus), and when this happens, my eyes move more rapidly, which means that my muscles get even more tired.
After the vocal lesson I get a break to eat, and then I go to opera class for three hours. These are never the same, but can be the biggest triggers since I have to do so many things at the same time. These classes work with one show a year which we will end up preforming. The last two years I've been one of the lead roles in those shows, so there is a lot to do ( and I love it :) ) First, again, follow the sheet music and be able to adjust. Next express the music in an appropriate way. Then act well and be believeable, remember your next dialogue line , remember where to stand on stage, listen to the others do their parts, remember the dance moves etc. etc. By this point I might get dizzy, achy, physically sick or, almost always - blind. Finally, adding the feeling of uselessness, wrongdoing and frustaration due to those things - when I get home finally in the evening I black out until next morning. The day after, I sometimes get a severe migraine attack due to all this, and isn't able to do much at all.
So, what is visual fatigue? It can be a lot of things, but when we talk about it in relation to CVI it is when an individual overuses their vision - most often unintentionally, resulting in extreme fatigue, dizziness, aches and pains.
But what is the difference between visual fatigue and severe fatigue after a stressful day for a non - CVI individual? :
Imagine yourself in the gym for an hour or so. You might run on the treadmill, lift weights, jumprope, bike, squats, step machine.., etc. Now, imagine how you feel after doing each task. You might feel pain, ache, sweat, or even be out of breath. Although it probably depends on what tasks you do.
Okay. Now imagine that you would have to put that amount of energy ( as you do in the gym) to every single thing that you have to look at and process during the day. For people with CVI it depends on where and how severe their brain damage is how well they can see and process different things. For one, it might trigger fatigue to process numbers, another one letters - among other things. For me the biggest triggers are processing sheet music, numbers, clutter and 3d ( my 3d vision is almost not there). So, it is as if you'd use as much energy as when lifting a wheight or running on the tredmill when looking at a simple thing like a watch to tell time or following a page of sheet music :) Use the same energy when doing squats - as you do when going down stairs. See where im going?
This is the same situation as I was in as a little kid in school - always dreaded math class ( fatigued while processing numbers and graph paper clutter) and hated break time ( lots of kids running around shouting and bullying me).
In my opinion, to be able to combat the visual fatigue you have to try to find out what are your biggest triggers - looking at what fatigues you most ? It may vary according to each individual. For me what helps the most is
* Get as much sleep the night before a stressful day as possible
* Stay hydrated
* Eat and drink regularly
* If needed,I pull myself away from the situation for a couple of minutes - ( exit the room , go splash water in my face, step outside and breath deeply)
* Tell people around you when you get fatigued so they can take over for a short period of time
*Note : the visual fatigue situation do not only go with school or work time - this can happen at any time - even at home, when trying to relax!
To round off this blog post I want to show you this picture. It shows three brain scans, one of a person with normal vision ( left) - one of a person with ocular visual impairment ( center) and one of a person with CVI ( right). The areas in color on each of them represent brain activitiy while processing something visually. See how little activity there is when it comes to the CVI person? Just to leave you with a thought. Also, when a CVI person is visually fatigued, this brain activity becomes even less.
Until next time - thank you so much for reading!
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