"Computer Vision Syndrome" (Creepypasta)

hey it's been a while I know I haven't had a presence here for some time now just things have changed for me and I think some of you might want to hear about it right now it's 3:12 a.m. and I can hardly type because I'm afraid it'll make too much noise I'm afraid to do anything eat sleep I can't even leave this spot to get to the bathroom none of the stains in the carpet will matter a few days from now you'll have to forgive me if this post feels tercer disjointed I can't focus at this point I'm practically blind and almost certainly insane but I still feel like this is something I need to do I know if I'd found this story on the forum when I first showed up things would have gone a lot differently for me I might not be here now paralyzed with fear in this computer chair soaking in my own piss they might never found me this is all pretty cryptic I know it's just not something I can explain in a couple of sentences you'll understand everything by the time you're done reading at least everything I understand which may not actually be much among other things I'm about to lay out a set of instructions that if followed could really really you up so step 0 if you have anything at all to look forward to in this life stop reading this isn't for you for me the descent began as a steady downward spiral into mediocrity probably a process most people my age are familiar with you put off adulthood for a while by attending college until finally you realize the center can't hold and you have to choose a career path if you plan on being a productive member of society this is when the real work begins you stop putting off study until the night before you forget you ever had a social life you acquire a real bona fide work ethic or if you're like me you drop out before the pressure piles on and you commit to a life of mmos and cereal because you can't be bothered to fix actual meals granted most people aren't like me they still have to get out and work a job to keep bread on the table I don't I was lucky enough to have a mother who left me at an early age and an estranged father who shows his love by not answering my calls but by keeping my joint bank account full needless to say I never had to work never had to get out at all really so for half a year after I left school my life consisted of three things league of legends Netflix and orderin sushi Nealon I remember leaving the house was to get the mail every other month what a dream right that is until you discover that the human body isn't really built to sit hunched in a computer chair staring at a light source for weeks on end it takes a while for it to set in but when that revelation finally hits it really knocks you on your ass I remember pretty clearly the night it first occurred to me that something might be off I was waiting for a game of League of Legends to start sort of zoned out staring at the junk on my desk for some reason my eyes came to rest on the styrofoam cups that they delivered my lo mein in they were collapsed into a stack about five or six cups tall I think I was contemplating how to go about finding a maid to get rid of all the trash piled around the apartment when I noticed something strange about the cups a faint outline offsetting the cups by an almost imperceptible distance I blinked a few times and waited for my vision to refocus it was just blurry from all the time in the dark obviously that's what I tried to tell myself as I rubbed at my eyes as I dripped water into them from the tap and then finally as I crawled into bed I tried to believe that my eyes were just tired from the hours of grinding that they'd be better in the morning of course you already know that that isn't how things went if it had been that simple you wouldn't be reading this my vision was no better the next day nor the next week nor the week after and it was steadily getting worse each day I watched the outline of the foam cups drift further from the stack slowly transforming into a ghostly double it was the same for everything of contrast I looked at the white plate of the light switch black text on bright backgrounds the glint of light on the metal arms of my computer chair they all acquired their own ghostly twins which hovered just above them and just to the left light sources were even worse casting thin radiant webs out toward their doubles before long the green LED light on my computer tower was surrounded by a dim halo I quickly became obsessed with my worsening vision testing it by closing one eye on than the other moving my head back and forth spreading my eyelids with my fingertips anything to understand what had changed a lot of the hours I've been devoting to games turned into anxious scrolling through medical websites I didn't actually break down and schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist until until I came across an article on WebMD titled early symptoms of multiple sclerosis the first on the list blurred or doubled vision I won't waste your time with all the medical stuff suffice to say it did more harm than good I spent a couple of months pestering my general practitioner and visiting every eye doctor I could get to after about a dozen different failures to diagnose anything in particular the anxiety got so bad that I started to develop new symptoms altogether fatigue head pain paranoia during the day I tried to drown out my condition with video games during the night I sat awake watching the shadows unsure whether they were actually moving or if my fucked-up eyes were just getting the best of me it's a strange thing to be so acutely aware of your own body it's easy to take your senses for granted but the moment you experienced the slightest change your whole world shifts it's an inward shift your body becomes a prison separating you from the outside world and your life as a series of scratches in the prison wall counting the day since you were whole and so it fell to me anyway the little sleep I got was precious to me it was my escape I often wished I wouldn't wake up but after weeks of slogging through that misery I managed to find for myself a dim little beacon of hope a condition that seemed to fit my symptoms to a tee and that according to the articles I could find few medical professionals take seriously computer vision syndrome or CBS essentially you focus on the screen too hard for too long and all kinds of things start to happen to your vision having a name that you can attach to your illnesses it's hard to describe the feeling it makes the whole thing less like some overwhelming force in your life and more like something you can fight I'm looking for me the fight against CBS is a pretty simple one you just have to condition your eyes and give them the proper rest that's all there is to it they call it the 20-20-20 rule for every 20 minutes looking at the screen spend 20 seconds focusing your eyes on something 20 feet away simple enough again though too simple this wouldn't be worth writing if that was where it ended would it 20 20 20 let's say for congruity sake that I did this for about 20 days in that entire time the only difference I saw was that now when I flicked my eyes too quickly in any direction dark strands drifted like shadows across my vision I might have made another appointment with the doctor if if I hadn't already spent so much time reading about this stuff they were floaters little strands of college and moving around in my eyes everyone has them but most people's eyes focus in such a way that they're more or less invisible I knew they were harmless but for some reason they horrified me in my developing mania they felt like an omen of some kind not a sign that I would spend the rest of my life looking out from behind these broken kaleidoscope eyes it might sound a little melodramatic when you think about all the terrible stuff people go through but I could never boast a particularly strong willpower that little flame of hope my discovery of CBS had ignited it was beginning to dim and really I just wanted to die the floaters had a way of exacerbating the paranoia and the anxiety I kept catching glimpses of things in my peripherals that weren't actually there my brain interpreted them as human shapes but I knew better still that knowledge didn't make it any easier for me to sleep at night exhausted and mostly consigned to my fate I did what people in my situation do I began to shout my woes into the void of the internet that was how I found this forum tucked away in some yuku com domain board for people suffering with CVS it's been a while since the last time I checked in here but some of the veterans me remember my first post it was a wall of text not unlike this one describing him probably too much detail the minutiae of my condition and if you remember that post you might also remember one of the members who responded to it blind bat 20/20 I don't know if she has much of a reputation around here but she certainly made an impression on me all she said on the threat itself was that she knew what I was going through and that she might be able to offer a solution she told me to shoot her a p.m. if I was interested and within the hour we were talking on her private IRC channel it was called the Watchers chat everyone there seemed to be just as receptive as she was I'd feed them pieces of my story and they'd all tell me about their similar experiences and how they were on the road to recovery I remember one user in particular someone by the name of transdermal who said that he almost never thought about his vision at all anymore soon he said he'd be all better you can't imagine the effect this news had on me I took my fingers off the keyboard him again dramatic I wept for a while after that I spent almost all my time talking to blind bat learning about the Chad and what they were all doing to fix their eyes they called the process depersonalization it wasn't something any one of them had come up with but rather a method that had just sort of been passed down by the members of the Chad over the last half decade or so none of the original members were around anymore but they didn't need to be blind bad and the others really seemed to have a handle on things she guided me through it taking me a little further each day it felt like a series of physical therapy sessions if a little more non-orthodox step one find something to focus on they called this a locust it's not going to be a YouTube video or a game it has to be something that doesn't stir any thoughts or feelings in you whatsoever but something you can still look at for hours on end harder than it sounds for me it ended up being a looping gif of the baby from Eraserhead wrapped in bandages and gasping for air weird choice probably it might reflect something about my psyche but it doesn't really mean anything to me and I find it visually interesting so it works well enough step 2 prepare yourself this one she spent a lot of time drilling into me you really have to be able to concentrate fully on your locust keep the lights off cover the windows and if you have to plug your ears wear earmuffs over the ear plugs wrap yourself in blankets tape blinders to the sides of your head to keep your peripherals from distracting you anything you have to do to remain fully centered on the computer screen you can't afford to break your concentration step 3 focus you remember that 20-20-20 rule I mentioned this is basically that adjusted for depersonalization everyday for 20 days you spend an additional 20 minutes each day concentrating on your locus from no more than 20 inches away 20 minutes the first day 40 the second an hour the third and so on remember cracking a smile when she first told me about it it's pretty much the polar opposite of the original rule according to her if you follow these steps you slowly condition your mind not to notice your body and it's a way of escaping yourself pence depersonalization I thought it sounded a little like hippie at the time and I guess typing it now I still sort of do and I didn't stop me from following her info like an excited puppy though I'd like to think that anyone in my position would have done the same but again I've never been possessed of a particularly strong force of will I was so tired of the life I've been living and everyone in the chat had gotten me so riled up for what was to come despite its weirdness it seemed like the reasonable thing to do the only thing to do before we could actually start on the full twenty days blind bat insisted that I practice she said things would get much worse before they got better and if I quit halfway through she'd never forgive me I really think she meant it so I pinned my quilt to the window frame to block out the Sun found my earbuds and every day I wrapped myself up in a sheet peeking out through a hole at the computer screen to watch the same black and white clip of that deformed creature play out ad nauseam I was surprised by how difficult it was to sit so still and so quiet for such a long period of time and first I couldn't even pass half an hour before I needed to take a break she was right even after all the time I'd spent sitting in front of a computer I wasn't ready for this it was different from anything else I'd ever tried to do it just felt like nothing waiting for time to pass as my eyes dried out thank God there were no rules against blinking eventually with the support of the chat I began to acclimate one of the other members described it in a way that changed my entire perspective have you ever stared at one of those flat ugly industry-standard carpets with all the different specks of color on it searching for invisible patterns after a while the dots all start to scroll around like television static it's just an illusion but it sort of animates the carpet I learned to look at the gif in a similar way finding invisible shapes in the negative space memorizing the places where the shadows and highlights go patchy the more time I spent practicing this way the worst my symptoms became the halo encircling the green LED on my computer tower became a gauzy disc which hid the entire thing from view the doubled image is split into triples and then into quadruples the floaters in my periphery became so pronounced I constantly felt as if I was seeing figures huddled against the walls of my room inching around in time with the quiet creeks of the settling building the only thing unaffected was the perpetual white glow of the computer monitor I tried not to mind I didn't want to break stride with my practice I wanted my body and my mind to be fixed so badly eventually I broke down and told blind bad about it she said there was nothing to be worried about laid out a few more instructions for me to follow something to the effect of if you see something out of the corner of your eye no matter what don't look at it in fact avoid looking at windows ceilings and walls altogether spent as much time looking at the computer screen as possible that's the best way and if you hear a sound you don't recognize whatever you do don't investigate you can't let the paranoia distract you in retrospect these new rules ought to have terrified me but I found them strangely comforting this was all just part of it normal if I could ignore it I'd be over the hump and on to my twenty days soon enough over the following weeks I often tried to get in touch with the other members of the chat that was surprised to find the place mostly empty I guess the crowd had been thinning out for a while I'd noticed I just never thought it was anything to be concerned about I'm the dozen or so who had been there when I first joined by the time I felt ready to start the process there were only six of us left soon it was just me and blind bat alone together in the Watchers chat when I asked where everyone else had gone to she said they had started already and then she announced quite suddenly that she was planning to begin her twenty days as well and that she thought I was ready to do mine I was at least I thought I was that was what I told her but I was also still afraid something about going through it on my own without anyone to talk to if I messed up I don't know if there was actually anything to be afraid of I wasn't sure what it was just one of those irrational things I guess I prepared myself to do it anyway dragged the economy-sized bundle of cereal boxes from the apartment pantry into the bedroom stacked the packages of water bottles beside it and felt like I was getting ready to hibernate and then once everything was in order I just sat in the dark scouring the internet aimlessly I never actually got around to doing the deed instead I waited out the duration of blind bats 20 days practicing like a diligent little student while my instructor was away 30 minutes a day staring at that black-and-white gif trying to forget that I exist to forget the darkness around me the feeling of subtle movements just beyond my line of sight of being watched 20 days past 20 became 30 halfway through the following month I still hadn't heard back from her and my anxiety was beginning to overwhelm me I didn't sleep anymore could hardly will myself to leave my room the only comfort I could find was in the hypnotic animation of my locust if she never came back I knew I'd be stuck this way for the rest of my life the thought hung over me like a funeral pall in the end and I gave in to my desperation and went looking for her by searching for her username on Google I was able to find her deviantART account and from there I followed a link it was to her Facebook page I think that was when I discovered that she was a girl the thought hadn't even occurred to me until then Anna Ridley she was pretty long red hair unkempt in the most pleasant way easy smile freckles familiar dark rings under her eyes and she was dead who ever been posting for her must not have been too concerned about privacy her profile picture was framed with a flowered rest in peace' border her most recent status was a wall of text full of all the usual post-mortem reflections surprisingly it also went on to describe how she was found sitting upright in her computer chair rail thin eyes fixed on a looping image of autumn leaves blowing across the pavement they guessed she'd gone a number of days without eating or drinking but they weren't actually sure how it happened I couldn't breathe right I felt the world closing in around me as I searched for any possible discrepancy any hope that I'd ended up on the wrong Facebook page or that this was some kind of avant-garde art thing or maybe that guy against all odds managed to fall asleep and I was caught up in a terrible dream it took me most of the day to reconcile what I was seeing on her page with reality for a long time after that I just sat in the Watchers chat waiting for her to log back in waiting for anyone really it remained as empty as it had been for the last month few people know what it's like to feel totally alone most people have at least one person they can reach out to a friend a relative and acquaintance of some kind ultimately if worse comes to worst you can just call up the police and tell them you're dying they'll send someone to do something but I'd spent so long in the dark let my life become so much about my sickness that I was afraid to reach out it's like when you're little and you don't want your feet to slip out from under the covers because you know that something will grab you I didn't want to come out of the dark and I could only see one way forward and the person who was supposed to guide me there was gone if I could sleep I think I would have crawled into bed and just stayed there but the shadows were growing longer all the time and my vision was getting worse often I swear I could hear the sounds of shoulders brushing against walls floorboards creaking under imaginary feet all I could do to keep from devolve into a trembling paranoid mess was to stay wrapped in my sheet earbuds plugged into my ears and gazing at my locusts and that was how I started my 20 days it was difficult at first not the concentration I'd had enough practice to be good at that by then more so the image of blind bat in my head sitting lifeless in front of her computer I didn't want that no one wants that I wasted a lot of time worrying about how it might have happened and how I could avoid it I eventually decided I'd just have to be vigilant about my eating habits and make sure I stayed hydrated something did happen oh no I I wasn't ready to believe my circumstances could get much worse twenty minutes the first day forty minutes the second an hour by the third and keep going until you're spending upwards of five hours a day entranced by the image you've chosen it works better than you can imagine as the seconds tick by you sort of enter the image you lose your body in your memories you become the pixels the scan lines you forget the way your eyes start to sting and your dry cotton mouth you forget the world you even learn to forget the silhouettes and your peripherals the subtle sounds of movement by the fourteenth day I was almost gone the things that have mattered to me a little over a week ago it melted away into the comforting glow of the screen my failing vision my paranoia my steadily increasing fatigue they became an itch at the back of my mind too insignificant even to scratch in less than a week I knew I'd be done with this nightmare freedom was only six days of careful concentration away I was nearly finished with my five hours for the day something pulled me out of my trance it happened slowly a creeping awareness that something had changed in my environment air currents probably paranoia I was used to filtering these things out but there was something more this time something tangible a new sound I repeated blind bats instructions in my head like a mantra if you see something out of the corner of your eye no matter what don't look at it don't look at windows ceilings or walls if you hear a sound you don't recognize whatever you do don't investigate for a while and that helped only for a while though the sound was so persistent yet subtly distracting that soon I was focused more on ignoring it than my locusts I didn't feel concentrated I felt trapped halfway between myself and the screen and the sensation was sickening all the anxiety and dread I'd spent so much time pushing away came flooding back I could feel the cold air on my skin the emptiness in my gut my eyes hurt lips were drying cracked for the first time beyond the barrier of the sheet and earbuds in the repeating image of the deformed baby on the screen I noticed how impossibly present my floaters had become they'd coalesced just out of sight forming shapes that I couldn't quite see but that I somehow knew were coherent and they were making sounds actual sounds in a moment of weakness instead of trying to regain my composure and concentrate on my locusts I let myself react I broke the rules with quivering hands I pulled my earbuds out I could feel my feet stirring gently against the fibers of the carpet and quiet labored breathing my vision and mind have been playing tricks on me for so long what reason that I have to be genuinely concerned fully expecting to see nothing I glanced over my shoulder into the darkness a dozen pairs of eyes glared back at me pinpricks reflecting in the monitors light they were set into the faces of gaunt emaciated figures all pressed against the walls crouching in the corners clinging to the ceiling one of them stood in the doorway torso arched as if it could barely support its own weight head lulled to one side on it's useless neck a few wisps of dried out red hair trailed down from its scalp I froze twisted in my chair I knew already that it couldn't be a trick of the eyes it was too specific to real still I tested them anyway the same way I had all that time ago when I first noticed the double image of the foam cups I tried to blink the figures and they're standing eyes away but they wouldn't go they simply continued to stare their dark eyes pinning me in place watching watching it's been this way for three days now I can't leave this chair I can't eat I'm afraid to even move I've considered calling for help I don't see the point I'm pretty convinced that this is my life now seems like I've done too much damage with this whole depersonalization thing to go back in I just don't want to go on this way I won't pretend to know what they want but I think I have an idea when I'm done typing this I'm going to put the earbuds back in my ears wrap the sheeter on my body and spend a lot of time watching my locusts I guess that's all I just wanted to share you know it seems like the thing to do in case anyone else stumbles across this rabbit hole in this thinking of going down it and hey if you're that someone and you decide to go through with it even after reading this maybe I'll pay you a visit sometime who knows delenn I'll try not to disturb you hey thanks for listening hopefully this story hasn't put you off ever looking at a computer screen again because it was actually a collab between King spook and us over on our channel tail foundry if you're into storytelling in fiction feel free to come check us out we really like to break fiction down and then use what we find to write our own stories which is actually where this one came from but if you came for the spooks be sure to stick around the dude who runs this channel King spook seriously messed up hoping never finds his way out of that straightjacket and hope his videos never stop messing with our minds see you later and good luck sleeping [Music]

Channel: KingSpook

Views: 137,597

Rating: 4.8550625 out of 5

Keywords: Computer Vision Syndrome, Computer Vision Syndrome Creepypasta, cvs, corner of eye creepypasta, computer creepypasta

Id: Pd0G0XBGk1w

Length: 32min 38sec (1958 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 03 2016