I have struggled with my vision my whole life, so it didn't come as a surprise to my family. Ive been blind in one eye since I was young, and my vision wasn't great, but it was stable in my good eye until last year. After a whole series of surgeries my vision in my good eye isn't gone completely but has declined precipitously. Because of the pandemic I had some time to regroup without it being weird, and honestly my eye was so uncomfortable after surgery that I didn't want to go out for that reason also. I told my family and close friends everything that was going on as it happened, because they've been involved in my retinal disease since I was born. With friends it has been a lot harder. I feel very awkward and almost like people will think I'm just trying to seek attention when I try to explain what's going on. It's hard for people you see on a regular basis to understand sudden vision loss and figure out how to relate differently without it being awkward. I did ask for prayer and I've had to stop playing the piano for church so everyone knows in general, but it's explaining the details that's hard. I haven't wanted to use a cane around friends. I need to explain to everyone that I can't see anyone's faces anymore, but it's hard to bring it up and awkward to make a big general announcement. So yeah, family and close friends have been fine, it's acquaintances that are the biggest problem for me.

Honestly though, the biggest thing I've learned this year is that other people just want to be decent and don't want things to be awkward any more than I do. Once they do understand it's such a relief. And starting on the road to reintegrating into my social circles with my visual impairment makes me feel much better also. Like I'm moving on. It won't stay awkward forever.

I lost my sight last year too. Apart from a couple friends who helped me get around to my doctors appointments, none of our family or friends knew. This was because everything happened within a matter of weeks and we didn’t know the cause. For example, the reasons ranged from cataracts to a brain tumor to a genetic disease. Each one could be explained differently and each person might take it in their own way. We were mostly concerned about our parents. Could we tell them it was treatable? How devastated would they be to find out it was genetic? What if there was major surgery involved? We didn’t want them to have a heart attack, quite literally.

The evening after I was determined to be at least legally blind we planned out what to do. We would call each of our parents and then our siblings. We decided to stay general with our explanation and try to approach it with a hopeful tone. Something along the lines of, “Hi mom and dad, I’ve got something important to tell you. I’m losing my sight. At this time we don’t know the cause but I’m working with doctors to figure it out.” Of course, there was shock and immediate theories on what it could be. My mom would always get upset with me staring at the computer and of course that came up as a possible reason, haha. I also had to explain how I couldn’t drive or work anymore. This brought up questions about financials, caring for my kids, and the burden it would put on my wife. Somewhere along the lines I cried and they did too. Even with our best laid plans it turned into a messy affair. They wanted to visit immediately but we told them not to because of the pandemic.

From there we told about a half dozen of our closest friends. The line usually started out, “Hey, I didn’t want to surprise you the next time we saw each other but I’m going through a serious health problem. I’m losing my sight.” I think the waterworks started immediately with them because I didn’t need to be as guarded. I think those conversations were more about comforting whereas my family was about triaging the immediate concerns for us. With my friends we could just jump right into the details, if that makes sense.

The rest of our friends and acquaintances kind of found out by way of mouth or the next time I saw them. With that group I really had to learn about how to say “thank you” or “I appreciate your concern” when they apologized for what was happening. You don’t want to break down yourself or have too many awkward pauses. Not that I’m overly concerned about what they think but a lot of times they were just left speechless. It continues to happen as I come across people I know. I accept their sympathy and try to move the conversation along. There are a lot of canned responses like, “I’m taking it day by day” or “I hope it gets better too”.

I don’t think there are any easy ways to do it but that’s ok. Maybe practice just a little. Emotions can sneak up on you in the middle of explaining. Wish you the best!

I haven’t been through this personally as I’ve been blind from birth, but I think it’s firstly very important to have a grieving process and grieve for your sight loss.

There will need to come a point though where you decide whether you’re able to move past that and continue to function and have great life experiences.

Not going to kid you around being blind can be very difficult, but your life doesn’t have to stop and it doesn’t mean you’re incapable of having magical momentous experiences just because you can’t see.

There is no reason why you also can’t go back to work in some form, though unfortunately businesssis being arseholes and societal expectations do make this more difficult for a blind person than a sighted person.

Having a visual impairment of any kind shouldn’t stop you being a great partner or parent, as long as you’re motivated and get the right support. When you talk to organisations and service providers make sure that if your goal is to be as independent as possible you let them know that.

Also being independent does not mean that you can never ask for help.
Learning how and when to ask for help is also a skill.

Look you’re going blind, not dying of cancer or some other horrible disease. I’ve been where you are and maybe you feel embarrassed about it. I know I did even though there was no reason to feel that way. You just need to tell them and don’t sweat it they probably will be a learning curve because they will forget about your vision problems from time to time, but be patient with them. There’s gonna be an adjustment time for you as well. Just keep reminding your friends you’re going blind and you’re not helpless. Have any questions you can always message me and I will try to help if Possible