I am a young female who is loosing her eyesight, but I completely relate. One thing that has been helping is watching video of people who are blind living their lives. They mention the struggles but often provide solutions. For me, I relate to Molly Burke since we are around the same age.

However, for your friend, I would suggest $1. He is a laid back man whose blind since birth, in his late 50s. He talks/shows himself traveling by himself, lighting a cigarette, working, experiencing a theme park, reviews movies, etc. It is very comforting to him to living his best life not being limited by his blindness but not pretending it doesn't come with it's challenges.

I'm so sorry to hear your SO is feeling that way. I completely understand. I have multiple disabilities, so it isn't just my vision, but I feel that way so often. My disabilities are due to my mother being injured during her pregnancy, so I don't have experience with losing anything, I have always had my disabilities. However, i fully understand the feeling of being less 'capable.' Having proper accommodations and supportive people around me has changed my life. When I was young, we didn't have much knowledge about accommodations becauae I live in a tiny small town with little info on disabilities. I remember having to hold my brother's hand as a young teenager just to cross the street, and given I was at that age of wanting to 'be an adult already', it was the most embarassing experience. Even just simple things like getting a cane and teaching my family and friends sighted guide have helped me immensely. I also think It's important not to call attention to it. I know that probably sounds like silly advice, but my loved ones forget this a lot. This isn't related to sight, but I have CP in my hands only and for example, I'll have trouble cutting my food or shaking and making a mess on the table. People often thinks they are helping by telling me because they figure I can't see, so I must not notice the problem. I do notice. I'm quiet about it because I don't want everyone around us in a restaurant to know. It's embarassing to me. My brother has loudly told me I was making a mess and to hover over my plate better and my mother has done things like cutting my food for me when I'm struggling. These are all very kind gestures, but it's very, very embarassing for me as a 24 year old! i would much rather they instead be patient with me. I can do it, it just takes longer than it would for them. I have told them that before, but a lot of people don't understand why It's embarassing. 'It's not your fault, you shouldn't have to feel ashamed', and I know that, but it doesn't stop me from feeling sad about it anyways.

If it helps, I'm a five foot tall, hundred pound woman and I feel like that.

Nobody wants to feel dependent or that other people will see you doing something stereotypically blind. I've abandoned countless drinks on bars and restaurant tables just because I forgot where I put it, and didn't want to be seen feeling around for it. I've got a whole repertoire of ways to feel for something so it doesn't look like I am.

Probably I should get over that, but your guy is not alone. I can't tell you an easy way to make it go away, if you don't want to pass this on I would understand totally, but he is not alone.

The worst thing is when sighted people have little to no confidence in you. Depending on your general outlook, it probably will affect you. I'm like fuck you, watch and be proven wrong, but other people might be more meek. Even I will become negatively affected if they keep on with it.

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What's worse is if you don't manage to do something and they're like yep, told you so. No, get outta here with that nonsense. What kind of thing is that, you're almost glad someone can't do something?

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Also, if you don't do it the way they think it should be done, but you manage anyway. Outside of your professional life, what's it matter. If something needs done, why should you care the root I take to get there, I still got it done. I just have to do things a bit differently.

Sometimes the way some sighted people treat me can feel degrading but I was born this way so am kind of used to it.

i just losing my eyesight and nobody can give me the slightest hint what could be wrong, i just lose it and cant do s*hit about it, the worst thing is that i cant deal with it, also my partner left me in that phase of my life, im on the edge of getting insanity, i would trade neraly everything, so that my eyesight would work perfectly again till my death

im intereted in people wich are able to overcome this weakness and can live a "barly normal" life

sigh
i try to find an answer because i cant think of that my sh*tty cells just malfunctioning

This might not be aplicable for all, but I love it when people celebrate my small victories with me, like me going some place I've never been before independently.

I'm not blind, but my younger brother has been blind for 13 months now. He felt the same way your guy does, and it was really hard to get him through it. I didn't know about this community when all of this first happened, but now that I do I find there is a lot of useful information out there.

I don't know if he has thought about this, or if you have, but have you looked into a school for the blind in your area? My younger brother just finished his 2 week evaluation and he's already getting around better with his cane.

They'll teach him how to be blind, is I guess the best way to put it. The school my brother is at teaches him how to get around with his cane, has a service dog training option, life skills like cleaning, cooking, laundry, mobility, reading Braille, etc. If there is anything like that around, you should look into it. It's hard to get used to at first, but trust me even a little bit helps. My brother has gained a lot of independence back in just 2 weeks time.

I hope everything goes well and that your guy will be able to shake these negative feelings.

I've never experienced anything like that, and I've been disabled my entire life as I never had more than 10% of visual acuity, but for some reason people tended to rely on me way too much in my opinion, so I ended up distancing myself from my family. When I went totally blind I was very quick to accept my condition and not really mind the loss of autonomy or the way people think about me, and have in fact learned to take advantage of those who think I'm not capable.

The only thing that really bothers me about blindness is having lost the ability to interact with computers the way everyone else does, because I'm as geek as it gets and this has always been my world. If someone made an interface that could pipe the contents of the display right into my visual cortex I would be the happiest blind person in the world even if I wasn't allowed to do anything else with it.

I found mentors through the National Federation of the Blind. I've gotten educational, career, and personal assistance from many people in the NFB. For me, having a community of friends who have gone through similar experiences is important.

Is your guy learning how to use software or phones?