Honestly, he's just got to leave the house on his own terms, and he's got to know that people around him don't mind carting him around. He also needs to actually accept what's happening to him, which sounds like he hasn't.

I have RP, and honestly the hardest thing for me is a helpless feeling of a loss of independence. When my wife is running errands and my son wants to go grab a burger for lunch, I just start getting pissed. Not sad or depressed, but angry. Angry that I'm basically a 14 year old who has to go do things on someone else's schedule when it's convenient. Guess what? That means I haven't fully accepted my blindness.

That makes forging relationships with people exhausting. It may not even be that he doesn't want to have relationships or go do things, but fear that he'll go do something fun, have a good time, and then only get to do it again if someone else decides he gets to. That's obviously not the reality, but people feel that way.

The best advice is to have him find other blind people to talk to or connect with. I wish I could travel back in time when I was like your friend, put my hand on my younger self's shoulder, and slap the living shit out of my self, and tell myself to man up and stop feeling sorry for myself. I finally snapped out of a large part of it, but later than I'd have liked.

I think I may have a different attitude than others here, because I suffer from blindness and mental illness, and I firmly believe that I'm only as productive as I am now because I had people in my life to kick me in the ass and tell me to grow up on both counts. That helped me face it. Don't get me wrong, support is important. But holding someone's have and telling them it will be okay only carries them so far.

Based on what you're saying in your post, he's lying to himself if he thinks he's accepted it. He has RP. I can promise him it won't get better, and it doesn't get easier. But I firmly believe how you tackle blindness is a defining point in your life, and not just embracing it is counter productive. He needs to learn that blindness is a defining characteristic of who he is, and while it doesn't make him intrinsically special, how he deals with it will.

He needs to understand that he has people around him that care about his well being, but those same people have to challenge him. They have to push him through by showing support, but not tolerating self pity.

Again, probably not the most popular opinion out there, but I firmly believe in this situation you need both a carrot and a stick.

My partner has been losing his vision since his early 30s. His optic nerve is slowly disintegrating and absolutely nothing can be done about it. He has an identification cane because he can still get around within reason in the daylight but it makes it easier for other people to either offer assistance or get out of his way if need be. Almost guarantees that the bus driver will stop for him to even if the bus is crowded.

I think you got the best advice already, talk to him, don’t sugarcoat things, make sure he knows that you and his friends are there for him but that he needs to reach out when he wants help

If there is an organization where you live that helps offers assistance to blind and low vision people it would be worthwhile encouraging him to reach out and get in touch with them because they can offer him training and tools that will make his life a lot easier. There are a lot of small things that can be done around the house to make daily tasks easier for somebody with a limited or no vision

Go out together. Its always helpful to have a friend who can let you know the area you're in and who is around.

Also, see if he has met any other blind people. Many of us are super cool and fun to hang out with, just like him. Look to see if there is a local chapter of the NFB around and go to a meeting with him. If you like the chapter, join it. If you don't like it, join it, run for office and make it better.

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The NFB training centers seem to be good for this in particular, but YMMV.

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