AGORAPHOBIA AND TED TALK

Dr Debby Feinberg TED Talk -- TEDxDetroit "The Eyes Have It"

 

Vision Specialists of Michigan

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Published on Oct 14, 2015

In this TED talk in front of 2,000 attendees at the historic Fox Theater, Dr. Debby Feinberg reframes the treatment of headaches, dizziness, anxiety, ADHD, Dyslexia, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and concussion. It's not a pill. It's not another therapy or test. It's a pair of glasses.

An important message to share with parents, doctors, teachers, veterans, and athletes. There is hope and help for those who needlessly suffer.

This is the unofficial video. The official TED video will be published sometime in November 2015.

BALANCE AND HETEROPHORIA

Hi, are you aware that if one of your five senses are off you don't feel right? I am going to talk about your sense of sight.

If your sight is off your balance if off. Do you like most agoraphobics like close places? I know I did and do. In a large space I have no where to anchor my position to. Like when I am checking out of a grocery store if there is something on both sides of me I do much better. Like checking out of Walmart. Usually they have shelves with stuff on them on both sides. We like to be fenced in.

I think this cartoon says it all. Why do we liked to be fenced in? Because we have boundaries that give us guidelines as to where we are. Doesn't this sound like a eye problem? Your eyes are the most important part of your body.

Now this takes much of the stress off. Not only can we be responsible for our food but there is no waiting. With waiting comes wondering if we will get the right table and of course theirs that dizzy feeling of falling over if we have to stand in line.

Here's what the dizzy feels like. Have you ever felt like this?

Kinda like looking at this? Isn't that enough to get you to running back to your safe place?

Why put up with this? There is a better way take the test on your right and see if you qualify for a new pair of prism glasses.

Go from this to this.

And take back your life. All the best to all of you. Yolanda

ARE YOU DIZZY?

Hi everyone, Happy New Year to you all.

Let's get rid of Agoraphobia and Panic and Anxiety for good. Make sure you hang a sign n the door that says "NOT WELCOME BACK". This way he really knows we mean business. How can I be so positive about this? Well I have been there and back. The getting back was a lot quicker than I thought.
I looked into the Mayo Clinic definition of Agoraphobia and would like to share it with you and tell you why it is up side down. Mayo clinic says Agoraphobia is:

1.Fear of being alone in any situation.
2.Fear of being in crowed places.
3.Fear of losing control in public.
4.Inability to leave your home.
5.Sense of helplessness
6. Over dependence on others.

Symptoms:
1.Rapid heart Rate.
2.Excessive sweating.
3.Trouble breathing, shaking.
4.Chest pain or pressure.
5. Lightheadedness or dizziness.
6.Sudden flushing or chills.
7.Upset stomach or diarrhea.
8.Feeling a loss of control.
9.Fear of dying.

Risk factors: Having a blood relative with Agoraphobia.

Here is what is wrong with this definition. The symptoms should be at the top and the definition should be at the bottom. They did get the risk factors right. Yes, look in your family. Someone in there had or has some symptoms like yours. Symptoms aren't all the same but you can rest assured that dizziness is one of them.

My question is how could any human being have these symptoms and expect to not have the definition as given by Mayo's Clinic. These symptoms would be enough to drive any body to withdraw from society.

I visit a lot of Agoraphobic sites and they all talk about what they can't do. They say they are trying to get further out the door every day. They are taking baby steps. They have walked to the mail box and back.

I am going to try and explain it in this way. Say a person with a broken leg said I can't drive with this leg or go walking or play tennis. But every day I try to do those things I can't do. We would think this ridicules. Just get you leg put in a cast and get on with life.

This is a picture of the agoraphobic. She spends her time trying to do things she can't do because she has stopped talking about her symptoms because in the past talking about her symptoms have been useless. She has been told there is nothing wrong with her. So after her initial shock of thinking she was dying and she didn't, then it truly must be in her head. I thought that for years until I just couldn't accept that. I knew there was something wrong. I just knew it wasn't in my head. But society is quick to accept medical definitions for everything. We have to stand up for ourselves no one else will.

The good news of course is there is a help for your condition. Not pills, not exposure therapy not a psychologist. You need a EYE DOCTOR! IT'S YOUR EYES! The condition is called HETEROPHORIA. Just because the doctors don't know about it doesn't make it untrue.

Take the test on the right. Read my book. Visit VISION SPECIALISTS OF MICHIGAN. They are pioneers in this field. Read the posts on this blog. Come on get up and do this. I'm cheering for you. Your going to be OK and live a pretty normal life. Will you be able to do all you did before this happened probably not. This condition you were born with. You might have gotten it through a traumatic brain injury.  This condition is permanent but there is help in the form of prism glasses so you can lead a pretty normal life. Look at your symptoms weather you know it or not you are DIZZY, Which brings on everything else. You have been told so many time there is no reason to be dizzy that by now you have talked your self out of your most important symptom. I know I did. Until I was asked "ARE YOU DIZZY'? I said YES I am dizzy. When you bend over and pick something up do you get dizzy? It's worse if you are away from your safe place. We feel safe in the house because we know the people there love and accept us and the tension is low. Don't give up this is not hard. Just want to be well and functioning at any cost.

My very best to each of you if I can help let me know. Love, Yolanda

AGORAPHOBIC AND OUR PERCEPTION!

Hi all, just wanted to share some thoughts with you. As I was walking this morning I started thinking of my weekend and the things I learned from it. My husband and I took a two hour drive back to our childhood town. We actually stayed at my childhood house. My sister owns it now and has had it remodeled since we lived there, but the only thing that is different is the kitchen area the rest is pretty much the same as when we all lived there. I have always found the house to be spooky. I love it in the daytime but at night not so much. But then again if you read my post about being alone at night you know why. Any way I spent most of the weekend talking to my sister.
 There was just her my husband and I there. She lost her husband over 20 years ago. We go down there to get tavern fried chicken which you can't get anywhere but there. After we came back from our chicken run we talked. She has lived alone ever since her husband died. She has two house, the one we were at and the one where all her children grew up in  about an hour and a half away.
 I asked her what she did all day in the winter. In the summer she runs back and forth between the two houses. She said she goes shopping. She said that when she gets bored she jumps in the car and goes to Menards, or Home Goods etc.. Then I asked do you sleep with the lights on at night? She said "Never", " I can see a red light when I go to bed and I think it comes from the phone and it drives me nuts but I can't shut it off." So yours truly being the baby that I am was in a panic just listening to this.
Which brings me back to my walk this morning and this conversation. I realize that my sister has the life that works for her. I wish I could get up in the morning and say now where can I go today. I wish I could stay alone at night and not be terrified but this isn't the case. I have always been afraid of the dark I don't think that fear is going anywhere and after 40 years of agoraphobia my behavior isn't one of being out of the house but is one of being in the house. Even though I don't have many symptoms of agoraphobia anymore it is not in my DNA any more,either to get up and just go. It used to be, I loved just going any where I wanted when I wanted. Agoraphobia changed all that. Even after my symptoms left with my prism glasses I don't feel comfortable just heading out. I always wished I could do the things my sister does without thinking about them but my life is different than hers. I lead a very full life but us human beings always want what we can't have. I spend a lot of my day trading the stock market and the Forex market. I also like to paint with acrylics. Reading is something I love to do it takes me everywhere, my sister doesn't like any of that.  I am happy that she has found a way to be happy in her life and now I am making a mental note to accept my life as it is and be happy in it. Life is how you look at it not what you do in it.

Thanks for listening, love you all, Yolanda 

STARTING FROM THE BEGINNING AGAIN

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.
I would like to talk to you about gong out of your comfort zone trying very hard to do the thing you fear. You get further  and further from your safe zone you are very proud of yourself. And then you have a really bad panic attack and you are back at square one. So now you get back up with more resolve to not let this set back get the best of you and try from square one. I hear this all the time on support groups I frequent. I just want to cry because I know it shouldn't be this way and no one should have to live this way. The sad truth is there is no reason to live this way there is help for this problem. I have been blogging about this help for almost 2 years.  You need to have yours eyes looked at for HETEROPHOTIA. You need a knowable eye doctor. This is a new field all doctors don't know how to deal with this problem. Quit regressing and blaming yourself for your condition. It is not your fault. Click on the test to the right and see what your score is. It is not you it is your eyes.
Just Believe. Love you all.

FEAR OF THE DARK

Hi all, in my last post one of the things I talked about was fear of being alone and fear of the dark. In my case if I am alone after midnight in my house I am a basket case. I call it my Cinderella syndrome. Well last weekend my husband was out of town and I was alone for two nights. I could have went but I didn't have a lot to do where he was going and it would have been boring, so I decided to see if I could overcome my fear of being alone. I do fine during the day it is at night that all hell breaks loose. True to form it was time to go to bed I had most of the lights on. I would sleep for an hour and be up that went on all night until I could see light coming through the window. Then I slept almost two hours. The next night I decided to sleep on the couch and leave the TV on. I figured you don't really need to be in bed to sleep. There really isn't anybody there saying "why aren't you in bed".  I use a sleep apnea  machine so I dragged that out with me. I didn't realize the food network is on all night. I listened to Guy Fieri  go from dinners, drive ins and dive's all night. I will say that sleeping on the couch was a lot better than the bed. So all in all I lived through my experience. Would I do it again? I don't think so. I really think it would have gotten easier the longer I had to do it but lets face it why get all strung out if you don't have to. I don't know if being alone and fear of the dark are special to agoraphobics in general or not. I do know it is definitely a mental condition. Agoraphobic on the other hand is not. Take the test on the right and see if you can get rid of at least one thing in your life.

Love you all, Yolanda

DON'T GIVE UP

Hello everybody, it has been a while since I posted so I just want to say hi and encourage you to not give up. I have put a lot of information on this blog over the course of a year and a half. Hopefully it has helped some of you and maybe it has encouraged some. We need the world to know the answer is simple. Nobody should ever have to suffer from this debilitating disability, especially since it is so easy to overcome. In my own life now that I have overcome agoraphobia with my wonderful glasses my next job is to overcome fear. I know a lot of people have this in some way or other. In my case it is fear of being alone at night. From the hours of 12 midnight to 6 in the morning. I am not especially fond of going places alone but it is doable but nights are awful. Maybe I could call it the cinderella syndrome. I am in the process of working through it. I know this is a mental condition from my youth. I even know when I became fearful. I guess it could also be called a fear of the dark, even though it doesn't bother me until late night. Getting rid of Agoraphobia was easier than this. Maybe because that was something physical but this fear is definately mental. I didn't know I had something to talk to you about today. Maybe some of you also have this. If you have an opinion I would love to hear it.
As usual your problem is your eyes take the test buy my book. The best to all of you always, Love, Yolanda