When i close one eye specifically my right one,my left eye vision gets blurry and pupil moves involuntary and all i could see is things moving from left to right...and also with my right eye closed i could also feel it moving or something like a rhythmic beats kinda like heartbeat.

What are yall's dating lives like? Is there hope for us?

Only two years ago did I begin to think that my eye condition is possibly 90% responsible for me not getting any attention from women.

Yall can see my appearance in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/IncelTears/comments/1srk102/am_i_allowed_to_call_myself_a_truecel/

I have never had anyone comment on it unprompted in person, and I do not feel socially behind in platonic friendships. But relationships? No experience whatsoever with that. Outside of the dating world, however, I feel no discrimination.

Edit: I believe women already find 80 percent of men unattractive, and this condition cant possibly make things any easier for us.

I got surgery for my Exotropia 5 days ago. While I’m happy I did it, I’m still sad. Healing is taking a bit of a toll on me. My eyes being red and over correct is making me a little less confident. I know it will all go away in a few weeks, but for some reason it’s still bothering me. I’m also still having double vision that the doctor told me would go away in 4-5 days. My eyes also decreased in size. They used to be big and pretty, now they’re smaller. I’m worried they won’t go back to their large size after healing. I haven’t been able to get out of the house much and I’m just feeling down and isolated. Has anyone else ever felt like this before?

I have mild exotropia strabismus but I feel like it’s still noticeable, even if as far I know it’s only cosmetic and doesn’t affect my eyesight. It just annoys me in photos and I wonder if it’s one of the reasons people say I don’t look them in the eyes (but I’m also a bit socially awkward).

Has anyone here had Botox injections to correct strabismus and would like to share their experience? I heard it’s not too painful but I’m scared.

Does strabismus affect your self-esteem or personality?does it makes life bad or Good experience for you? Do you find it hard to live with it. ?

Do you find yourself overthinking about it?

Have you already had surgery, decided to live with it, or are you still considering an operation down the line?

If you are someone who doesn't have it but you are with someone or were who have it. What is your opinion about them ? Overall.

Personally, I have exotropia — and I've made peace with it. It doesn't really cross my mind much , and honestly, I'm doing good overall.

Would love to hear your experiences and thoughts. Everyone's welcome to share!

Quick disclaimer: This post was translated using Gemini since English is not my native language.

I've had strabismus pretty much my whole life. It appeared after a vaccine when I was a toddler; there are old photos where my eyes were still straight, but I have no memory of it. My right eye pointed up and to the left. The strabismus was so severe that when I lowered my head and looked up, a large part of my iris was covered by my upper eyelid. Fortunately, it disappeared whenever I wore glasses, and my eyes aligned perfectly. Around age 18, I underwent corrective surgery. It wasn't exactly a roaring success—it improved things a lot, but still left a 1-2 mm deviation without glasses.

Throughout all these years, I never experienced stereoscopic vision, nor was any related therapy ever suggested to me by the doctors who followed me. I always assumed I just couldn't achieve it, and to be honest, having absolutely no clue what "seeing in 3D" actually meant, it didn't even bother me. For me, strabismus was always an aesthetic issue before a functional one.

The unexpected turning point

About a month ago, I went to an amusement park with my partner (Movieland in Italy). I tagged along with her to a 4D cinema show, fully knowing that, as usual, I wouldn't see anything. It was a short film about Back to the Future. At one point, a T-Rex appeared, lunging towards the audience, and... bam. For maybe 1 or 2 seconds max, I saw it "pop out of the screen."

This completely threw me off. That evening, I talked to Gemini about it. The AI's theory was that my level of immersion was so intense in that scene that my brain genuinely perceived a threat. Driven by survival instinct, it utilized every piece of information available to get me out of that situation—including data from the right eye (which is normally completely suppressed)—allowing me to see in 3D for a split second. According to the AI, this was also proof that my issue was more "software" (how my brain interprets the signals) rather than "hardware" (the eyes themselves).

My VR training routine

So, I started researching exercises I could do, and someone recommended using a VR headset. I began doing some very basic training:

1. I opened a VR scene with an object placed very close to my eyes.
2. I kept only my healthy eye open, focusing on its perspective.
3. I opened my operated eye and closed the healthy one, looking at the perspective of the operated eye.
4. Finally, keeping the operated eye open and trying to focus on its perspective, I very slowly opened my healthy eye, but only just a tiny crack, so its vision remained completely blurred.

The goal was to send a "dirty" signal from the healthy eye to the brain, forcing it to prefer the signal from the operated eye.

At first, absolutely nothing happened. For the first few days, the signal would just instantly snap back to the fixed perspective of my healthy eye the second I tried to open it. However, by the second day, I realized I could do something totally new for me: switch from one perspective to the other, even without fusion. I don't know how I do it, but I do. I learned to "choose" which eye's perspective my brain should see. Unlocking the right eye, however, didn't give me stereoscopic vision yet—just my classic 2D vision from a different angle.

When it finally clicked

I kept grinding away at the exercises. Eventually, I started seeing double when I opened both eyes while trying to keep the perspective of the operated eye locked. The images were split and moved almost in jerky steps. I pushed through, and one step at a time, they crept closer until they fused. I still didn't have the perception of "seeing in 3D," but something was definitely different: all surfaces looked way more detailed, as if I had upgraded from a FullHD monitor to a 4K monitor (and this wasn't just inside the headset, but in real life too).

Until, about a week into my journey, shapes in virtual reality started looking fuller, more present. It's impossible to explain—it would be like trying to explain what the color red looks like to someone who has never seen it—but I felt and "saw" that everything was much more tangible.

The definitive test came while looking at a face in VR:

The nose looked strangely close, almost out of place, as if it were invading my personal space. I could clearly see both earlobes in high definition. I closed my right eye → the perspective shifted and I only saw the left earlobe. I opened both eyes → two earlobes again. I closed the left eye → I only saw the right earlobe.

In that exact moment, I realized I was seeing in stereoscopy. I took off the headset, and even the world around me looked different. I did the finger test, and for the first time in my life, my finger shifted to the right too. That had never happened before.

Where I am today

Unfortunately, the first time lasted only about 10 minutes, but it gave me the motivation to keep going. All of this happened in just 7 days, doing VR sessions for about an hour a day!

A month later, I now lock into stereoscopic vision immediately in virtual reality; I always see in 3D there, which obviously makes me want to practice even more. As for real life, my 3D is still weak and inconsistent. I notice it depends heavily on lighting conditions—with high contrast and close objects, it's much easier; in low-contrast scenes, dim light, or with distant objects, I struggle.

My next step will definitely be to get guided by a specialist. My stereoscopic vision is by no means perfect, but it's a result I never imagined I'd reach in a single month. It's just incredible.

So, even if you feel "old" like me, don't discourage yourself: there is hope! 😄

POST EDITED: because of a missing part

I can straighten my eyes by relaxing them, but it’s blurry, so I can’t keep them like that if I want to function. Do you feel like this is a messed up thing to do? For say a dating profile, social media pic, or work picture. Just curious on this communities thoughts.

Hi everyone,

I recently created a new subreddit called r/Exotropia for people dealing with alternating exotropia and related eye alignment conditions.

The goal is to create a focused space where people can:

share personal experiences ask questions about symptoms or diagnosis discuss treatments, surgery, and recovery support each other in day-to-day challenges

It’s still very new, so I’m slowly building up posts and structure, but I want it to become a helpful and supportive community over time.

If anyone has feedback or suggestions for improving it, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading. and please join my subreddit so i can get it to grow some and help more people.

I have exotropia. I can straighten my eyes by focusing on one point with both eyes but then my vision becomes blurry (not double just very bad vision). Has anyone had this and did surgery help?

For background: I already had two surgeries. One as a baby and one later as a teen (now I'm 32).

I'm seeing an orthoptist but am curious if anyone here had similar experiences and how they dealt with it. I will also see an ophthalmologist next week and might ask for prism glass prescriptions so they would mimic the surgery first before going under the knife again.

I’ve (M73) had mild strabismus for decades, with prismatic correction added to my eyeglasses about four years ago. Things have been getting worse—or at least more noticeable—following cataract surgery last year, so I’m having strabismus surgery (OD) tomorrow. The surgeon kept explaining that the chances of loss of vision are only 1:50000; I added that a chatty anaesthologist friend of mine likes to include the odds of, say, loss of life from general OR problems….

But I digress.

Anyway, I’m having surgery tomorrow. I’ll tell you how it goes.

Hey guys, posted yesterday that i was having my surgery today and here to say it went super well! It’s not too painful more just achy and the stitches feel a bit pokey. Surgeon was super happy with how it went

Also anaesthesia was so easy, last thing i remember was them asking how many drinks it usually takes to make me tipsy and that was it 🤣

If you’re nervous this is your sign not to be coming from a super anxious person :)

So i have exotropia since i was 2yo ~ 3yo, i am now 18yo. I have noticed that my head tilts to one side, i put more bodyweight into my right leg, which caused it to hurt a bit and made me walk weird. Are these things related to strabismus? One thing I am sure of is my bad posture caused by always looking down.

Any other domino effects of Exotropia?