How about reaching out to the National Federation of the Blind? OR, better yet, call the Louisiana Center for the Blind. They have a 6 month training program for people who have just lost their sight, or who have been blind since birth. They teach you EVERYTHING, and you live in their apartment, and it's FREE. Your state will pay for it. You just need to call them and inquire. My six months there changed my life!! We even got a stipend when I was there.


Here is their phone number: $1 Pam Dubell is the director, and she was just one of my mentors there. She's been blind since birth. Most of the mentors and teachers are blind, or visually impaired.

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They have a sister center in Colorado, and I believe the third one is in or near Boston. You will have the best time of your life, and you will not regret it.

I never had sight in my left eye but had decent sight in my right eye;until the morning I woke up and could barely see a thing. I lost most of my sight over a period of five days due to retinal detachment when I was fourteen years old. The doctors and surgeons I saw said that while my retina was around 95% detached and there was some cornea damage, the odds of surgery getting me back to normal were pretty good.

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Well, that didn't work out. After a major surgery and weeks upon weeks of pain, all I was left with was a bit of light perception;that was it. Two surgeries later and they pretty much gave up as they said that every time they tried to fix it, it was making the retina more fragile and it was a diminishing returns kind of thing.

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So here's me between the summer of 7th and 8th grade, being told that it's highly likely I'll never have any useable vision again for the rest of my life. I was not prepared for this. I didn't know braille, I had no independent living instruction, no clue about using a white cane, and also hadn't used a computer with a screen reader.

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Up until this point I read print, although sometimes it had to be large print, I could ride my bike during the day or go hiking etc, I drew, played video games, watched movies, all the normal stuff. All of that ended virtually overnight.

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To say I felt lost and depressed is an understatement! I'm not going to bs anybody about it;it was hard and it continued being hard for a long time. Not only was I starting out from square one with pretty much every aspect of my life, I was also still expected to do my schoolwork. On top of that, when I finally returned to school, 99% of the people who knew me acted like I was a stranger because I wasn't "me" anymore, I was "that blind kid". (Small town so it was quite the novelty I suppose.)

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Now, while all that royally sucked, things slowly started getting a bit better as I relearned how to do things. My county had some people that would do home visits so I started getting mobility lessons, Braille instruction, independent living skills instruction, (folding laundry, cooking basics, organizational skills, adaptive technology etc), stuff like that. I also started getting books on tape from the library of Congress, had touch typing lessons, and started learning how to use my Mac with a screen reader.

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I think blind or visually impaired people today certainly have it better where technology is concerned! There were no digital books, smart phones, tablets, accessible gps, OCR, affordable talking appliances, talking smart speakers, or anything like that for me as this was in the mid to late '90s. I didn't even have access to the Internet until I got to college.

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Even with all that great stuff available now, losing your sight is still rough. I know it feels awful somedays and you just can't deal. Frustration, depression, anger, confusion, isolation... Those sort of feelings are valid and don't let anybody tell you that you shouldn't have those feelings.

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One thing that always bothered me was that no matter who I was dealing with, surgeons, doctors, staff at school, even family members to a certain extent, I was rarely if ever asked about how I'm doing mentally. that is such an important aspect of losing your sight and maybe because that's not an easy or simple thing, perhaps people just find it easier to avoid it? I don't know.

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In any case, educating yourself, staying engaged with interests and activities as much as you can, and communicating with other visually impaired/blind people can really help! there are a bunch of groups on Facebook for one thing, there is reddit of course, and, there are many e-mail groups pertaining to many blindness related topics. The ACB, AFB, and NFB have a lot of resources as well and it's worth it to look into all three as they all offer different things that you'll most likely find useful!

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At the end of the day, while it's an awful thing to go through, it's not the end of the world unless you let it be the end of the world. I dug myself out of the emotional hole I was in bit by bit and I went on to get a BA degree, have my own place, live in a few different states, have a few different jobs on top of being self employed, played in a couple of bands, loved many women, had a guide dog, and now I have two children. Some days aren't easy and some things really aggravate me, like the fact I can't drive, but, if you use all the tools you have available, things can work out pretty well.

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Keep us all up to date and feel free to come back with any questions or concerns.

I'd recommend finding a good therapist who has experience with grief counseling.

You are literally grieving emotionally and its going to be difficult to deal with on your own. Luckily, there are a lot of mental health professionals who have dedicated their lives to understanding the grieving process and studying treatment methods.

Where are you based? There are many organisations that offer, peer support, counselling, daily skills or O&M training that will build confidence that will in turn help you to emotionally cope better

Damn. Idk why I'm here but this made me think for a bit. I'd probably listen to more music and read more.
I know when I feel emotionally down I tend to do more exercise.

I don't know, but I do wish you the best.