Eyes keep getting worse?

[Scaredandworried]

I'm 16 and I keep needing to get stronger glasses every year or two so and its freaking me out, and after around 2 years of a new prescription I need to go back to get  a new one because its not as good as it used to be. Why is this and when will it stop?

[Evap]

I'm 21 and still getting new glasses every 2 years. Blame your parents. That's what I do.

[mollyfin]

Totally normal.  They'll probably eventually even out and stay the same for a long time, or your vision will change more slowly.  I got new glasses constantly until I was about your age, then it slowed so I only needed a new prescription every few years.  You're still growing. 

[sixpack]

until you reach adulthood and stop growing, you should expect some changes in your prescription.

I know my son had a new script for glasses for a few years.  He hasn't been to the eye doc in a bit and should likely go. When we go, I'll expect his prescription will change.

I even had the eye doc tell me that while growing to expect to need the prescription changed yearly.

[JunoX]

If you have degenerative myopia, like me, your prescription will change on a yearly basis and won't stabilize until you are in your mid twenties or reach your thirties. After that it hardly changes but then in your fifties it can begin to change again. Mines started when I was three years old. I am extremely near sighted even though now that I nave severe astigmatism too, I am not anywhere sighted. I am legally blind without my glasses. I can't see far or near anymore.

If your a candidate for contact lenses, I recommend you get them. They can help control the progression of myopia. I never got them because I was a candidate for them back in the early 1980's and contacts where kind of new at that time so I didn't trust them. I regret it. My eyes would have been much better now if I had taken that advice. Now I am no longer a candidate for anything, including surgery. I have to wear five pound glasses forever and I always get the "thin" lens.

[Scaredandworried]

If you have degenerative myopia, like me, your prescription will change on a yearly basis and won't stabilize until you are in your mid twenties or reach your thirties. After that it hardly changes but then in your fifties it can begin to change again. Mines started when I was three years old. I am extremely near sighted even though now that I nave severe astigmatism too, I am not anywhere sighted. I am legally blind without my glasses. I can't see far or near anymore.

If your a candidate for contact lenses, I recommend you get them. They can help control the progression of myopia. I never got them because I was a candidate for them back in the early 1980's and contacts where kind of new at that time so I didn't trust them. I regret it. My eyes would have been much better now if I had taken that advice. Now I am no longer a candidate for anything, including surgery. I have to wear five pound glasses forever and I always get the "thin" lens.

That's really scary, how do I know if I have it or not? My eye doctor didn't say anything like that to me.

[Scaredandworried]

I'd also like to say I got my first pair of glasses at around 13 or 14, if that makes any difference.

[kazoo]

You are fine.  You don't have a degenerative disease.  I have had glasses since I was 9, and believe me, the prescription got stronger every year for a long time.  I think it got fairly stable in my early 20's, but even then it would change a little here and there.

As others have said, it stayed pretty stable in adulthood, but then I had to get progressive lenses at age 46 because reading got harder.  You know, the old 'hold the paper farther from your face because it is blurry up close' thing that hits practically everyone in their 40's.  It's a middle age thing.  Obviously you don't have to worry about that yet :)

I have nearsightedness and astigmatism.  In spite of this, my doctor says my eyes are fine and perfectly healthy.

Please bring your concerns up to your eye doctor.  I am sure he/she will tell you that what you are experiencing is totally normal.  I bet your eyesight isn't even all that bad, if you didn't need glasses until you were 13.