Hi u/MamaWilla, I really hope your daughter is getting professional help from a licensed physician. I am sorry, but I don't think we can be of much help to her.

You need more than an AskReddit post; a few sentences from a blind stranger and not an appropriate fix for this. Your daughter's plan to willingly blind herself is really serious.

There's a difference between believing that vision impaired folks are 100% as valuable as others vs. believing that blindness is desirable. I find the idea of somebody artificially recreating my experience to be troubling and bizarre.

I'm actually a bit surprised to hear that your daughter is transgender, because many trans folks find the existence of a "transable" identity to be harmful to transgender folks. It's like a mockery of their trans identity, and it allows society at large to lump them into similarly problematic categories, with which I do not agree.

TLDR; Shit is serious. If she is at risk of destroying her own vision, she needs to seek professional help immediately.

I strongly doubt that just speaking to a blind person will deter her. She would have known about the discrimination transgender people experience, yet she transitioned anyway.



What are the laws regarding involuntary admission into a psychiatric facility in your state for something like suicide? You should call psychiatrists to find out what you can do to stop her from blinding herself if she won't seek treatment herself?

This is way above Reddit's paygrade. You should get her committed for an evaluation. If she blinds herself, nothing else will happen, it won't resolve anything, that's why it's called a mental illness.

Blinding herself won't solve her problems. I hope you can get her some help.

Legally blind student mental health clinician here. Unfortunately, this is not something that a simple conversation with a blind from Reddit is going to be able to solve. Can something like that be a component of treatment? Absolutely, but first there needs to be a treatment plan in place. Laws vary by state, but where I’m from this would constitute being a “danger to oneself or others,” which would result in hospitalization. At a bare minimum, you need to find her a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. If she actively intends to blind herself (active being intent + plan + means + timeframe within the next 24 - 48 hours), then she would need to be seen in the ER.

With all of that being said, I admire and thank you for the lengths you’re trying to go to help your daughter. Personally, I have faced hellacious amounts of discrimination, all of it 100% legal, and have yet to be able to get a full-time job in my home state at 28 due to all of the discriminatory laws in place. Please let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to guide you.

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You definitely need professional help for something like this. Asking on Reddit wouldn't be able to provide enough support.

I agree with everyone in this thread. I don't have much to add, but I am trans as well myself. If this is anything like that, having her talk to a blind person won't help. It's an awful situation to be in, and I'm sorry about that, but this is way out of anyone's league here. I hope you and your daughter can find the right professional help.

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