What Causes Color Blindness?

Some people in the world aren’t able to see many colors. The condition is called color blindness, but what exactly causes it?

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THIS WOMAN SEES 100 TIMES MORE COLORS THAN THE AVERAGE PERSON
“When Concetta Antico looks at a leaf, she sees much more than just green. ‘Around the edge I’ll see orange or red or purple in the shadow; you might see dark green but I’ll see violet, turquoise, blue,’ she said. ‘It’s like a mosaic of color.’”

New Outlook on Colorblindness
“For people who are colorblind, life involves little workarounds and big compromises alike.”

A Cure for Colorblindess
“I stood in the center of Times Square. Fiery orange flames and velvet purple sunsets five stories tall promised that I could stay Forever 21. Along with Vegas and Versailles, few spots in the world depend so heavily on the seductive power of colors. If I was going to see full color for the first time in my life, this was the spot to do it. I am colorblind, but in the last few years new sunglasses have promised to open me up to the world of color.”

Caucasian Boys Show Highest Prevalence of Color Blindness Among Preschoolers
“The first major study of color blindness in a multi-ethnic group of preschoolers has uncovered that Caucasian male children have the highest prevalence among four major ethnicities, with 1 in 20 testing color blind.”

Color vision problems become more common with age, study shows
“Abnormal color vision increases significantly with aging -— affecting one-half or more of people in the oldest age groups, reports a study.”
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[RYLTVINKIE]

My mom is horrified of letting me get my license because she asked "How can you tell the difference between the red and green lights" I then responded (completely seriously) "Don't worry mom I know the green lights on top and the red is on bottom" I now will never forget that green is on the bottom. lol

[deadfire]

I think every color blind person can relate to this:

Me:I'm colorblind
Friend:*Points at random object*WHAT COLOR IS THIS?

[benjaminhorne]

The one thing I hate about being Colourblind is the people asking the colour question.

[Koffent]

I am red green colorblind. So was my mother. We all knew my mom was colorblind so being the youngest I always got stuck helping her pick out her clothing. Looking back I can only imagine how ludicrous my mother actually looked to other people.

I was around 22 when I went to the eye doctor for the first time and took that bubble test. The lady kept asking me about numbers throwing in an _"are you sure?"_ here and there.. me thinking "what kind of stupid test is this?" I mean some had no numbers at all and I swear one had a boat. I had never seen or heard of this test before that moment. She gets to the end and just as I'm about to ask what was that for she said _"well you're colorblind."_ I remember saying " wait.. what?! I can't be colorblind. I see color." She then began explaining that some of the colors I see mainly shades of red appear to be the same color even though they aren't. It blew my mind. I kept asking friends and family "are these the same color? & what color is this?" To my surprise there was a lot I thought were the same color that weren't. I remember telling my boss at the time "So apparently I'm colorblind." To which he immediately responded with _"Well that explains a lot. I just thought you were stupid. You always mess up certain sections of the store."_

I was not only baffled that I was colorblind but also baffled not one single person realized or mentioned that I may have been colorblind until I was 22 years old. I even went to a specialized art high school.

Nowadays it's a lot of "where's my grey shirt?" _"What grey shirt?"_ "The one with the dear looking head on it." _"You mean the peach shirt?"_ "Are you kidding me that shirts peach? Why the hell has no body told me this?" _"I thought you knew."_

[Evan]

"What is it like being colorblind?"
What color is this and that?
What color is the sky? Blue.
You're not color blind!

[Xeonix]

My favorite thing to do when I give someone new a ride is tell them I'm actually colour blind then quickly floor it toward a red light XD

[IamDuncan]

I'm colorblind and I am very good at hiding it. I got very used to looking at the shades of colors and memorizing what shade is what color. When I tell new people I meet that I am they mostly never believe me. My entire high school career was people asking the, "what color is that" question over and over again and getting it right 100% of the time. I'm sure no one, but my family and close friends actually believe me.

[acroyear]

Now that you bring it up, I don't have anything green in this room right now.
...I ...think...

[MrSnowLoneWolf]

Hmm, my personal experience with color blindness... "So you never knew you were color blind? How could you not tell?" I've been asked that question numerous times and the answer is, drum roll please, I wake up everyday with the same eyes since birth. No one ever preformed a color deficit test on me till I turned 18 so I just saw the world how I saw the world and I thought it was normal.

[ronzac]

I can see colours but sometimes it's so hard for me to differentiate blue and purple, red and green, pink and grey, green and brown, and even light green and yellow.

But when it comes to drawing or editing photos with filters for Instagram, i can do better than my friends.

[darkninja]

Well I have Protanopia colorblindness. For those of you who don't know, that is when you have troubles seeing certain shades of reed and green, or differentiating colors with reds and green in them, like seeing the difference between violet and indigo, or sometimes orange and dark yellow.

My experiences with colorblindness span as far back as I can remember. In elemntary school I was always asking if some colors were red, green, or brown. I would also call Jeans purple, because purples and blues looked very similar for the longest time, until I learned that they were actually blue. I learned if I looked close enough and let my eyes focus I can see that they're blue. Even when I can't tell a color, I have learned tricks. Christmas things are often reds, greens, and whites. Except on easter, those red and green eggs were hard to find. But yeah that's my experience with colorblindness in a nutshell.

[TheBotanikern]

I'm colorblind (red, green) and one thing I always wanted to experience is how red looks like for "normal people".. I guess it's more intense in some way? When people ask me how it's like to be colorblind, I describe it as colors melting together. The sad part is that I'll never get to experience how beautiful colors truly are.
Enjoy colors people, for those who can't!

[BadaBingPictures]

Generally it doesn't effect all that much (aside from obtaining specific career choices 😞), only when put in a position to categorise or describing a particular colour.

Shades of green, red and brown I have most trouble with. They have to be plain and bright for me to differentiate.

Those battery chargers with that little red LED which turns green when charged. THEY LOOK THE SAME!!!

[LyraniaLothar]

I always thought it had something to do with the brain but the problem are the eyes themselves. I can imagine in the future a treatment to the eye or an outright eye change to help color blind people, I heard that yes you can put your eyes back in place as I’ve heard of people in car crashes have their eyes pop out, they can just be put in place albeit with some damage, but hey better than being blind.

[GuyWithAnAmazingHat]

Tetrachromats are the world's first superpowered mutants, soon there will be X-men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

[stevenlewisking]

I'm gonna theorize that color blindness is some form of dyslexia.Considering that it's always on a constant of you know, it's just that 1 color switching, so I'd just like to see it as always reading backwards.So probably some form other or something and it's a visual thing.

[AlonsoCarballo]

when Looking straight at her the gray/ blue background starts to blend until it's almost completely gray. does that happen to anyone else?

[AndrewProTV]

I'm color blind... I can never find my black friends :(

[KielnastraMusic]

Being colourblind isn't overly challenging (for me at least). I mainly have problems telling greens and reds apart as well as dark blue and purple. When I am gaming I always have to have colourblind mode turned on as sometimes a deep orange looks red and I accidentally end up shooting friendlies. However.. The most annoying thing? Those people who don't understand what being colourblind is and hold up a certain colour pen and say "What colours this?" And I end up saying the correct colour and their response is "See! You're not colourblind!"

[lilyo]

I worked in a cloakroom with my brother, who is colourblind. He kept categorising things in the wrong places because he saw the blue, purple and brown tags as all being the same colour..