Hey, I know it seems hard, but this can also be a good thing. This can help get you access to services you need. I'm sorry new lenses won't be an option for 20/20, but you'll be alright. I hope you can come to terms with this.

Finality is scary. Its not a what-if anymore. Its real and thats really scary.

When you're ready, there's a wealth of information and a community of people to reach out to.

In the meantime, you're allowed to mourn and feel whatever feelings you're experiencing.
It sounds like you have been learning to self advocate and support yourself and thats awesome! It takes strength and bravery to begin learning about accessibility devices and settings.

Baby steps and be kind to yourself!

Blindness gets a bad rap but it’s really not so terrible. Now that you know what’s going on, you can get a lot of services that will make things easier for you moving forward. It is a paradigm shift and it’s okay to feel like you’ve lost something at first; this changes what you know for sure you can do and that’s not what you expected you were going to do in life. Take some time to let the shock fade and then embrace this.

A lot of the responses here are trying to mitigate the sight loss. As bad as sight loss is, I don't think that's the question being asked here. The question being asked here is why being thrown into this category stings.

I don't want to be thought of as a blind person either. I'd much rather be Jan. Or "hey, you, the short girl with the dark hair." Anything but be identified as the disability. I don't feel like a proper blind person. I still feel like a normal person, whatever that means, who just happens to have found herself in this situation. And I'm twenty years in. If it helps, this is normal stuff. I don't think anyone really feels like a disabled person. Some specific bit of language doesn't change the way you feel about yourself.

What might change how you feel about yourself is people's reaction to you. Anyone who has been for any reason unusual, even people who are in a wheelchair for a few weeks with a broken leg, know how weird people can be. But hitting some threshold for sight loss won't change people's reaction to you. Even if your sight got a lot worse, it probably won't change people's reaction much. I can't claim to be a great life example for anyone, but I am what most people think of when they think of a blind person. I am blind as hell. Even so people constantly tell me I don't look it, which I love for the same reasons I suspect you would. Once, when I worked for a big company, an internal survey asked (among other things) how many disabled people worked in the department. Several of the people I worked with who knew me well put "none." I was just as blind then and they knew it, but they just didn't think of me that way, even though I often accepted help, had people read stuff for me, or took someone's arm when we went out for lunch. Some people would complain about being forgotten. I thought it was the best day of my post sight loss life. I felt like I'd won at life that day. That's the sort of thing that makes a practical difference.

So I get why the label stings, but this is why we don't like labels, because they often don't reflect any practical reality.

Did they figure out the cause? Understanding what is going on with your eyes might bring you some solice. At least that worked for me quite well.

You are quite right your eye sight is still the same as it was before learning about it, and that itself can be a comforting thought. Basically, you can continue your life as you have been before the diagnosis. In that regard, nothing has really changed.

Other thing is that now that you know what is affecting you, you are now better equipped to deal with difficulties you are facing. Before learning what was affecting you, you didn't know what kind of help you might need. Now that you have better understaning of your case, you also know what kind of help you might neet.

And if you start lurking /r/blind or meet other blind/legally blind people, you will soon find out that being blind is not actually that bad. You are in for a big suprise how autonomous people can be despite having no eyesight and how little people actually need eyes in their daily lives. It's actually quite amazing.

It sucks, because it is a definitive line that basically says "You can't do something", instead of a maybe. And you will eventually get over it, but you need some time. People can still be productive without driving.

Some doors have been shut to you now, but not all doors. As you come to terms with who you are, you'll discover there are still doors out there you can go through. It may not be easy, but there is training out there as well.

I hope things get better for you.

You don’t need sight to hear beautiful music. You don’t need sight to laugh at great jokes. You don’t need sight to listen to a brilliant story. You don’t need sight to hug someone you love. You can still see the best in people. You can still see a solution to a problem.

Finding out that you're legally blind this late in life must be terrifying. I've been legally blind for my entire life, so I can't relate to your situation. However, as many have said before me, I know you'll get past this soon enough. Just remember grief is a huge part of the journey towards acceptance, so take as much time to grieve as needed.

If you'd like to talk to someone, feel free to send me a pm.

Stay strong.

Before you heard the numbers, you may have had a feeling of "my sight's not great, but oh well". Now there's a codified diagnosis. It's looking at you with this perceived finality. There's no more "I'll worry about it later". Changes will start happening if they haven't already.

It sounds dire, and it's normal to be scared. Embrace it. Fear begets change. There's going to be a lot of it. This is also normal. You can adapt. You \*will\* adapt. There will be people who won't know what to do and they will brush you off. You'll have to choose whether to help them learn alongside you or accept that change can be a good thing. It's going to hurt at first, but you will thank yourself in the long term. You will learn who your close friends and loved ones really are. Your sight won't change how they see you.

This is where I want to make sure: there's help for the emotional/societal adaptations you'll need to take and there's help for the navigational/re-integration changes that many VI people learn. You are going to need both, but answer for yourself which you need more at this moment. Lean into that then pivot where you must. You're not alone. You're not just a diagnosis. You still get to be you; it's just a slightly different you. Embrace it.

you are ucky the internet is good. life online is still good

This literally feels like something I would write. Freedom is something very important to me, and of course, I can’t have it. I wasn’t raised knowing I was legally blind, so I was raised thinking I could do whatever. Of course, I can’t, and of course it would happen to me. I’m floating in the same boat as you, so I really have nothing encouraging to say... sorry. I guess it’s just that you’re not alone

But you’re lucky. I never got to live thinking I just needed better glasses. My freedom was taken from me before I even knew I had it, or before I had the chance to enjoy it, or remember it. I honestly envy that

Cry all you need to. Scream, sob, punch your pillows, sit there quietly, whatever. You've found out hard news. Losing your vision and being told it's a certainty is not easy. It's a normal and natural reaction to experience everything you're feeling. _However_, it *_will_* get easier. You'll learn to adapt to your skills and limits.

Message me if you want. I feel like you might be in Canada? I am too, and I found out I'm "legally blind" when I was 19, six years ago. I can't say I know what it feels like for you, cuz everyone is different, but I know what it was like for me to get similar news.

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I know that sometimes finding other people that can relate to talk to can be a big help. If you're not ready to dive into the blindness community and find support groups and programs and whatnot, some people on youtube that I've found are great are Daniel from Life After Sight Loss, Molly Burke is a very popular blind youtuber (and she's about your age too, and there's a lesser known youtuber named Fashioneyesta who I've also found is really great (I used her hair styling videos to teach my daughter how to curl her own hair without burning herself! ... well, not much at least. She's 12 and blind, there's bound to be some accidents)

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Your reactions are totally normal. I hope you can find the support you need! This sub is amazing, people are so good here.

Give yourself some time to feel that sense of loss and mourn it. I believe that's completely normal. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that this hit you so brutally, but it will get better. You can still have a life, pursue a career and hobbies that you feel passionate about, find someone who loves you as much as you love them. I won't lie, yes, sometimes there are frustrations that crop up, but it's generally minor and in the moment. Overall, this isn't that bad. Now that you have a diagnosis, you can get hooked up with your vocational rehabilitation or other office and they'll get you some things to make your life a little easier. You'll be OK, you really will, just give it time. You'll have to be more of an advocate for yourself and your needs now, because people don't know what you need and what you have rights to in regards to school and post-secondary education and the job market.

I completely understand. I actually grew up and didn't realize I was legally blind until I went to get my license and badly failed the vision test. Went to the eye doctor and discover I was legally blind even after corrections. It was a quite a shock.

If you need someone to talk to, feel free to pm me

As q person who's been legally blind their whole life let me tell you something. It sucks, I get that! But it isn't all that bad, K? You'll get over it soon enough I promise.