Why is it that when I’m wearing my contact lenses I can't see closeup, but I can without them?
You are naturally nearsighted, but when wearing contacts, they remove your near vision and improve your distance vision. You can only get one or the other, unless you wear progressive or bifocal contact lenses.
Alternatively, you may also consider monovision contact lenses, where the dominant eye focuses at distance and the non-dominant eye focuses at intermediate or near.
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