How do you think you'd deal with sudden blindness?

Hopefully the way my mom did.
She was what they call legally blind and had very limited vision.
She was a strong woman who handled adversity with dignity and grace.I hope I will be the same.

Not very well… but I’d adapt and overcome no question.

I’m sure to view it as a gift in time.

Hm, I’d have to see at the time.
No-one… really?
I would probably take my own life to be brutally honest. What’s the point in living if you can’t see the beauty in the world?

I’d istal aa voic-3-tetx sogwware om my p c

Cybernetic sonar implant.

It would be a great reason to take my dog with me everywhere I go. He’s pretty clever and so lovable.

I’d panic as to how to do my job. Several other people rely on part of my income for their security, that would be my first panic and then how to take care of my basic needs without feeling like an infant as I attempted to learn braile and give over control and privacy. I’d cry a lot from frustration and have a ton of panic attacks.

I’d be very depressed.

It would depend if it was a gradual thing or sudden. Obviosly to become suddenly blind would be very anxiety producing.

I had a friend about 10 years ago, a riding partner that lived down the road from me, who was gradually losing her sight from some sort of macular (sp?) degeneration. She went from mild issues to almost completely blind, between about the age of 39 to 45.

Her husband built her a huge arena for riding her horses with a cable to assist her in getting to and from by holding onto it from the house down to the arena. I would help her catch her horses and tack up and we would ride together.

She had been very independent and trailerd her horses out on wilderness trail rides by herself for years.

Of course, as her vision loss progressed, driving was the first to go.

Sadly, her marriage deteriorated too, and she had to give up her beloved 3 horses and move into an assisted living situation. But..she was a real trooper, learned to read braile, learned to use a cane, but, it was very sad to see her have to give up her passion for horses and riding.

We have lost touch the last number of years, but I still think of her from time to time.

Her ex husband kept her horses at their ranch for years afterwards, and it always made me sad to drive by and see her Arabian mare ” Harmony” standing with the other horses alone in their pasture.

She and that horse had an amazing bond.

First I’d have to figure out a new way to make a living. I work at a computer screen all day and working via a screen reader probably would be reallllly inefficient.

Probably I would concentrate on phone work, roping in new clients for my current employer, and turning that kind of work into a freelance business.

Second, learning to get around would be interesting. I live in a city, so actually that wouldn’t be too tough. I would miss bicycling, though.

You ALL have such healthy attitudes that I feel I am the only one here with a real problem. I certainly WOULDN’T accept something like that, I’d rather put an end to it all!

I would find it incredibly difficult. I was diagnosed with glaucoma a few years ago when I visited an optometrist. He basically said “I think you have glaucoma. You could lose your sight. You MUST go and see this Dr right now. Not later. Now!” I was freaked out! It did give me pause to consider how I would cope with losing my sight (I didn’t but the scare caused me to think about it). It would change my whole life. I read for a living. I write for a living. I wouldn’t see my children or their future children. I wouldn’t see the clouds or flowers any more or colours. I am a very visual person. It would be an awful thing for me.

I know I would find ways to adapt, and I am at least lucky that now we have technology that means I can listen to books, and there are programs so I could have websites and the like read to me, but I would lose so much. My husband would have to dress me!!!! And do my make-up!!! Scary thought.

I would deal with it very badly @_ zen_

I should say I am so, so thankful that I live in a country where I could access fabulous doctors who could resolve my problem and have. I truly am grateful to them and for where I live.

@ZEPHYRA I would like to say I would find a way to deal with it, but I don’t think I’m truly cut out for that. It would exacerbate the problems I already have with depression and anxiety. I would dwell on the things I would never be able to see or do.

Going blind is one of my biggest fears, besides worms attacking my eyes. But seriously, if that happened to me out of nowhere, the only way I can imagine I’d deal with it would be suicide. But I like to think that if it did happen, I’d do a little better than that. Just that, I can’t really imagine how else I’d react. :/ It’s a really scary thing.

I once ate in a dark restaurant. We stayed in the complete dark for two hours. The meal tasted much better than usual. Our tactile sense is underrated.

@mattbrowne I don’t think two hours of darkness equates to a lifetime of blindness. In time our other senses might become more developed, but that would take time and if you have spent most of your life as a sighted person, I think that transition would be very, very hard.

Sudden blindness? I would freak out. About 4 years ago I woke up, had my morning coffee and started watching the morning news when I went completely blind in my right eye for about 10 minutes. I freaked. I went to the emergency room, had a CT scan, and they didn’t find anything. I was told it was an migraine with aura and taken off my birth control pills.

It would be scary. I don’t think I would handle it well at first, that’s for sure.

@Bellatrix – Of course not. I just shared an experience I once had to point out that blind people can enjoy life too. And that in some respect they even have a small advantage. All in all, becoming blind is a terrible tragedy and it takes a long time to adapt. But I resent the idea of describing blindness only in terms of scare, horror, depression, freaking out, and so forth.

I once had a blind woman in my team who was working as a computer programmer. Yes, there were challenges and limitations. But in general she seemed to be a happy person capable of enjoying life too. And in the IT world there are so many unhappy, depressed people with perfect sight.

@jaytkay Your comment about giving up cycling reminded me of this story. While living in the Chicago area, a group of us decided to participate in a bike-a-thon for some charity. One of our friends brought along a friend who was blind. I don’t recall if it was a case of being completely blind, but if not, it was close to it. The guy had his own bike and just gave us guidelines for helping him out. He did well, until we were crossing a street and going up on a sidewalk with a cement post in the center. The poor guy ran straight into it and tumbled over the handlebars. He got right back on and finished the ride.

He ran a therapy massage business from his home, and as far as I know, was fairly self-sufficient in his single lifestyle. While that day was the only time I interacted with him all those years ago, it was an honor. He provided a lasting impression of how strong we can be when living with any type of disability.

Should I suddenly find myself in a situation where I can no longer see, it would be a huge adjustment. It would be for any of us. I hope that all of us could soldier through it by learning to adapt.

@mattbrowne I absolutely agree people with vision impairment (at the whole range of levels) can live full and happy lives. I know plenty of people who do myself and who never use their lack of sight as an excuse for opting out of anything. I think coping with losing your sight after being a sighted person would be a very hard transition to make though and I personally have to say, I don’t think I could cope well with it.