I just came across this bit in Laugh at Your Muscles by Mark J. Pellegrino, MD. Now I don’t feel quite as alone with regards to my visual confusion issues this week (they haven’t just been while driving.)
My fibromyalgia causes me to have visual difficulties in stores. If I need to find a can of olives in the grocery store and I try to scan all of the colorful cans stacked on a shelf about 10 feet high and the length of a football field, I become dizzy and overwhelmed with a sense of visual overload. I’m unable to focus and scan to try to spot that can of olives. So, instead of my eyes giving me organized information like “cans of green beans, cans of corn, cans of carrots, cans of peas, cans of olives,” they want to give me jumbled bits of information like this, “bright yellow label, cans of corn, don’t they come in frozen boxes, too? Little girl smiling, green and orange design on the can, the one can isn’t centered, what’s behind this box? Don’t forget you have to get ice cream too, my back is getting sore, did I know that guy? WHAT AM I LOOKING FOR AGAIN?”
