Ways To Live Positively with a Visual Impairment

Greeting Readers!

Tomorrow, Thursday 8th of October 2020, marks World Sight Day. So to mark the occasion I wanted to write on the matter of how I live positively with a visual impairment. I’m a huge advocate of disability positivity and living your best life. But I’m also an advocate of mental health awareness and being kind to yourself. So today I wanted to share some of the ways that I have been able to live positively with my visual impairment over the years.

Embrace any help (and remember that we all need help at times)

When you live with a visual impairment it can be very difficult asking for help or accepting that you need help for certain things. I know this better than anyone. When I was younger I was loathed to ask for help. Because I thought it made me seem incapable. But it didn’t.

As I’ve gotten older, I realise something. Life is hard enough as it is and living with a disability can make certain tasks harder. Thats why help is in place for people like me to be able to do a task like a fully sighted person.

Accepting help isn’t taking away your autonomy, its giving it back to you.

Don’t see accepting help as a negative thing. See it as a method of making life easier and giving you more time to do the things that matter to you.

But also remember this, everyone needs help at some time in their life disabled or not. We all need help for different reasons when we get sick, when our phones break, when we move house. There are so many things that happen in life and not all of them are within of our control. In those times you just have to hold your hands up and say “I need help.”

We’re all only human!

Do what you want (and not what society expects)

When one lives with a disability it can become very consuming to live life “in spite” of something. Society puts us into this box of not being able to do certain things or living an existence which should make certain things impossible. This rhetoric often means many of us can feel obliged to go against the grain and live an existence that proves these societal conceptions wrong. I get it, I’ve been there. I’m still there in fact!

Theres nothing wrong with wanting to break down barriers and replace them with shiny new bridges of understanding. Its only natural to want to set the record straight and change people’s attitudes.

However there does come a point where you have to question how much of our life should be lived around altering perceptions. Live life on your own terms and do the things that genuinely make you happy. If you change someone’s mind at the same time thats a big positive. But don’t let yourself become injured by the very sword that you wield.

Put yourself first and leave everything else second.

Talk to people with similar lived experiences

One thing I’ve learned over the last decade is that in order to have a healthy outlook towards your disability you need to speak to others who understand you.

Through my younger and even teenage years I wasn’t around many people with similar conditions to me. It became very isolating and it made me feel very estranged to be the only disabled person in amongst so many non-disabled people.

But when I got older and started to talk to others who understood my experiences and the things I was talking about it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t feel as if I’d just stepped off of Spaceship and I felt for once in my life “normal”.

But not only that, talking to people with visual impairments really helped me to find lots of great hacks and resources to help me live better with my disability. I found out about so many charities, Apps and support networks that I’d never even heard of before. All of which paved the way for me to lead a more independent life.

Never underestimate what talking and I mean really talking about your experiences can do. Talking is a great help when you are dealing with low mood and particularly if you have a visual impairment.

So start the conversation.

Try not to let negative comments weigh you down

I feel like somewhat of a hypocrite by discussing this next point. As for many years I have really taken negative comments to heart and allowed them to have a hold on me. But you know what thats natural. It’s very hard when someone is saying hurtful things to not allow them to affect you.

But I’ve got better over the years and yes somedays I might get upset by a negative comment I see. But I don’t stay upset for very long.

People have said things about me in the past, both online and in real life. I’ve deal with bullies, I’ve dealt with trolls and I will probably have to deal with them again. But I’ve created a mental shield that protects me for the most part and although sometimes comments might filter in. Its less frequent than it was.

So the next time someone causes me of not really being disabled or lying about my blindness because I use a phone, I’ll choose to ignore those comments.

The world isn’t always a kind place to people who are perceived to be “different” by generic standards. But, just remember all the good things in your life, all the people who matter to you and everything thats going for you. When you sit and really ask yourself, “does this person and their comments have any place in my life?” the answer will be “no.”

Focus on the doors your disability has opened (and not the ones it has closed)

When you have a disability it can sometimes feel like there’s a lot of emphasis on the things you “cannot do” instead of the things you can.

My Mum often tells me about the time I was first given my diagnosis. She was sat in the consultants office with my Dad. The doctor was reeling off a long list of the tings I probably “wouldn’t do” and it left my mum feeling very confused. Needless to say many of the things on the list I did end up doing all bar a few…like driving a car for obvious reasons.

But please, don’t fall into a rabbit hole of “cannots” and don’t allow yourself to become weighted down with them. Yes there may be things you cannot do due to being visually impaired, its okay to acknowledge them. But, instead of focusing all of your energy on those things, divert that into the things you can do or could do.

One thing I’ve learned through the numerous counselling sessions I have is that there is absolutely no point in worrying about the things you can’t control. Worry is our minds way of preparing us for the future. So worry about building yourself a future full of things you can do.

Or focus on doing the things you cannot do in a different way.

Think of all the doors that are still open to you and not the ones that have closed.

Allow yourself to experience the lows without judging yourself

Lastly and perhaps most importantly…allow yourself to feel what you need to feel. Don’t ignore or try to suppress your feelings. Living with a disability can be an emotional rollercoaster at times and its healthy to experience the ups as well as the downs. There are days where I feel are if my disability has absolutely no baring, when I’ve had a good day with work or done something fun with friends.

But there are other days when life with a disability can be more emotionally taxing. There are days when things don’t go to plan, days when I’m sick and have to cancel plans, days when travel assistance doesn’t turn up to assist me and I end up being late to an appointment. There are days when my guide dog and I are turned away from a shop and I’m left with the emotional aftermath.

What I’m trying to say is that its okay to feel whatever you are feeling, your feelings are valid and let nobody tell you otherwise.

That concludes todays blog post, I really hope you enjoyed it and found it helpful.

Let me know down in the comments ways that you live positively in life with a disability. Or if you aren’t disabled let me know how you’ve been staying positive in these difficult times.