So, for the past 30ish years I've been slowly but steadily losing my vision. My condition is so that the process from going to visual impairment to blindness takes a very long time. Every 2-3 years I would struggle with new eye problems and a decrease in my vision, followed by a plateau where the situation would stabilize for some time. I've come to find out that this way of going blind is worse than almost any other way. It's so incredibly draining. I feel like these constant health problems have sucked out all the joy, happiness and motivation out of me. Especially the last few years have been extremely tough and now I feel as though I've been driving a hundred miles on one single, last drop of gasoline.

Anyway, just the other day I once again received very bad news from my doctor, after my situation had been stable for about a year. The deal is now this: if I don't do anything, I'm 100% gonna go blind. If I choose to try the surgery that my doctor suggested, there's still a 60%-70% that it will fail and I'll go blind because my eye is so messed up. It's a choice between pest and cholera.

I am incredibly scared. If I say "blind" in this question, I mean fully blind... as in, hardly any light perception. Basically what sighted people imagine blind to be like. Although my vision is very low at this point, the difference would still be astronomical. I still see colors, I see shapes, I see light etc. I see the blue expanse of the sky and the green of the trees when I walk through a forest. I still roughly see my wife... not her specific facial features but her arms, her legs, her head etc.

It is unimaginable for me what it would... or will be like to be in complete darkness. I know that's technically not a correct way to describe blindness but you guys understand what I mean. There are so many things in daily life that I still use my vision for, even though it's very limited. For example I've learned to walk with a white cane and I'm proud because I've become very good at it but the truth is there are still some visual cues I get and they're very crucial. I've tried walking with closed eyes a couple of times and I've gotten completely lost... plus I walk like a horribly drunk man. Same goes for eating. I've tried eating with closed eyes and it was a total disaster. I went back to being a toddler.

I'm asking this question specifically to people who - like myself - have gone blind as adults. I'm less interested in the other stories because if you were born blind or you went blind as a child, getting used to it was far, far easier (which is not to say it was "easy"). Children and teenagers are good at adapting to new situations. I'm in my early 30s and I can tell that I'm already struggling significantly with this.

I'm incredibly scared of all the practical tasks in everyday life. I will have to go through so much training and I'm scared of that too. I mean, even just learning braille will probably take me years. Where do I even begin? But I'm also scared of the emotional part. Seeing the things that I still see gives a tremendous amount of comfort. For example I've always loved colorful things... tie-dye shirts, rainbow-carpets... stuff like that. It's a very simple pleasure that has always given me a lot of calm and joy... kind of like a purring cat on one's lap. I also love the lush green of forests and the golden yellow of corn fields, even if I can't see any details. I can't imagine losing this. And yet, it's probably going to come. How can I find a way to deal with this? If you have gone fully blind as an adult, were you ever able to overcome this?