My Blind Experience

Posted by u/GloomyCoconut273 13 days ago I need some positivity 🙏 22f with RP. Definitely terrified. Went to my first meeting at the local blind society. They spoke about the high unemployment rate, lack of Independence, and about thanking our caretakers (I may have had to leave the room to burts into tears in the bathroom at this point). Some people tell me that there is life after I lose my vision but the meeting didn't make me feel like it was one worth living. But I have also heard from other people that there are positives and maybe I can still be independent, employed, and only need help occasionally. So is there some warmth at the end of this tunnel? Edited: My atrocious spelling. level 1 OldManOnFire · 13 days ago Blind Lives Matter Hi Coconut, You're going to be okay. I promise. I have RP just like you. Well, probably not just like you. Whatever kind of RP I have doesn't match any other in the existing genetic database. My ophthalmologist thinks I might ...

Ever since I started going blind my mind has tried filling in the blanks for me. It's called Charles Bonnet Syndrome. I "see" things that aren't there but my mind knows they should be. Sometime last month the Charles Bonnet Syndrome stopped. Now I feel more blind than before. If you've ever looked through a telescope you know it can be disorienting. You see objects in abstract, without the context of their surroundings. You might see a bird on a tree branch in the forest but you have no clue which tree the bird is in. As soon as you lower the scope you lose the bird in the forest and if you try to find it through the scope again you don't know where to look. My tunnel vision is like that. I keep a picture of my wife on the wall in our bedroom so I can see her when she's not here.   The picture is centered between the corner and the window, far enough from each of them that I don't see the window or the corner when I look at the picture. I constantly th...

Wednesday a 19 year old girl reached out to me on Reddit. She had read some of my posts on r/Blind and asked me for advice. Her brother had been in an accident and lost both his eyes. She wanted to know how to support him when he came home from the hospital. I did the best I could. Linked her to a few of these blog posts, explained what I knew about the grieving process, and offered my phone number in case her brother wanted to call. But her brother didn't want to call. He didn't want to talk to a therapist, didn't want to try walking with a white cane, wouldn't eat or drink. He told his sister he didn't want to live like this. He was released from the hospital Friday. Saturday he asked his sister how the windows in the room worked. She innocently explained it to him. After she left the room he opened one and jumped. His name was Matthew. He was 22 years old. It's two o'clock in the morning and I can't sleep. That poor girl has to live the...

We're moving next spring, probably either to Knoxville, TN or Roanoke, VA. For me, this move can't come soon enough. To move and then go blind is a hundred times easier than to go blind then move. My wife and I walk along the San Antonio river quite often. We usually do between three and five mile walks along different parts of the river. Over the years we've walked both sides of the river from a mile south of the dam on Military Drive to a few miles north of The Pearl Brewery, a stretch of about 20 miles. I've walked and jogged it enough times when I could see that I know right where I am anywhere in the river. I know where the foot bridges and low hanging tree branches and abandoned factories are. The smallest of visual cues is all I need to clue me in to where I am and what's around me. I find that comforting. I can't get lost on the river walk anymore than I can get lost in my own house. Both Roanoke and Knoxville are in the Appalachian mountains. There are ...