Glasses complex: how to overcome it? Experts tell us

Glasses haven’t been associated with the image of the shy nerd for a long time, but your attitude towards them remains unchanged? Just like in your distant school years, are you ashamed to wear glasses outside the house? How to accept yourself and your image in glasses, tell the experts.

“The first glasses to correct myopia were prescribed to me at the age of 13,” says Natalia (35). – They were lightweight, neat, in a pearlescent pink frame, and they were quite pretty on their own. The best that could be found among the meager assortment of those years! But they were desperately dissonant with my swarthy, broad face, and I thought they made me look like a little old lady. And though nobody teased me about my glasses at school, I tried to put them on as seldom as possible: only for tests and Olympiads. The rest of the time I squinted and often got into ridiculous situations, when I did not recognize my acquaintances in the street (those who have bad eyesight will understand me). As the years passed, my eyesight got worse and worse, the lenses in my glasses, which I couldn’t stop wearing, got thicker and thicker, and the aversion to my image got stronger and stronger.

“In a situation like this, we experience negative emotions because the difference between expectations and reality is too great. If your alter ego – fairy princess who does not wear glasses, but in fact you have a high degree of myopia and can not do without optics, your disappointment is understandable, – says psychologist, PhD in Psychology Vita Holmogorova. – But you can find yourself a different role model. Change the outdated image of a romantic maiden to the image of a successful businesswoman, bohemian intellectual or fashion blogger. Glasses fit their style organically, and by identifying with them, you will gradually get rid of your worries.”

“I started wearing glasses early, even before school,” says Sergei (40). – For a long time I was the only bespectacled boy in my class, always sitting at the first desk, being mocked by my peers and feeling inferior because of it. As soon as I turned 20 I had laser vision correction and was happy. But about ten years later something went wrong: my vision began to deteriorate again, it was forbidden to have another surgery because of my thin cornea layer and I felt discomfort wearing contact lenses even with the biggest radius of curvature. The only option left was to wear glasses again. But my complexes came back with them. It would seem that I am an adult, it should not bother me. But I put on glasses and it is like going back to my school years, when I was unfairly called a bespectacled boy.

“Usually complexes about glasses are laid in childhood, because of mockery of peers, – explains psychologist Vita Kholmogorova. – Those who started wearing glasses at a mature age, they are not ashamed. And even the opposite, wear them with pleasure, collecting different frames, and build their image around them. If all the adult arguments in favour of glasses do not work, in order to get rid of complexes ingrained in the psyche, I advise a simple but effective method – a dialogue with your inner child. Left alone with yourself, relax, close your eyes and remember those unpleasant feelings that you are experiencing while wearing glasses: shame, fear of appearing ugly to people, awkwardness. As soon as you have actualized this range of unpleasant feelings, imagine that all these feelings are felt not by you presently, but by the child inside you. Bring the image of that child to life, and ask yourself the question: What is he/she feeling right now? What do you, an adult, feel next to him/her: sympathy, pity, a desire to protect and comfort? Then try to bring the child out of the state of suffering in your imagination. Tell him that it’s not about glasses, or braces or freckles, but that children are trying to get his attention this way. Tell him that eyeglasses won’t stop him from living his life to the fullest and pursuing his goals. Imagine how the child feels now? How do you feel right now? Every time you feel uncomfortable and embarrassed about your glasses, repeat this technique. It doesn’t work on the level of the intellect, but on the level of deep feelings. Ten repetitions are usually enough to get rid of complexes that come from childhood.

Elena Balayan, Marketing Director of the French company Essilor (Crizal brand):

“To overcome your complexes and feel confident, it is important to feel comfortable and healthy. If in the past in order to see clearly I had to be satisfied with a small selection of frames and standard not always aesthetically attractive lenses for glasses, today in optics is quite another situation: a variety of frames of different materials, suitable for any shape of face, lightweight, maximum thin lenses which do not distort the eyes and do not make glasses heavier, as it happened before. Possibilities of the modern optical industry are huge: it is possible to choose the individual decision in the form of lenses for glasses to each inquiry, a problem and a way of life. For example, those who spend a lot of time driving will fit lenses with anti-reflective coating, which will protect the driver’s eyes from being blinded by oncoming headlights. Those who work much in front of a computer will be well served by sunglasses with lenses which protect your eyes from harmful blue-violet light emitted by screens of electronic devices, so that at the end of the work day your eyes won’t get tired. People after 45 years of age who have encountered age-related farsightedness will be pleasantly surprised by the properties of progressive lenses, which make it possible to see clearly at all three distances: near, at the middle distance and far. Remember, frames are how you are seen and lenses are how you are seen. Wear glasses with quality lenses and be on trend!”

About the Company

Essilor has been manufacturing high quality eyeglass lenses and optical equipment for over 160 years. The company was founded in 1972 as a result of the merger of two major French manufacturers of eyewear optics: the Essel Master Eyewear Company, founded in 1849, and the Silor Company, founded in 1931 by optician Georges Lissac. Essilor holds 5,700 patents in the field of eyewear optics and special equipment, with 200 million euros invested in research annually.