THE TRAMA PHASE OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

. The trauma phase for the person who is born visually impaired deals with the fact they do not realize they are different from other children until they are confronted by sighted children or adults who may comment about their blindness. This may make the child feel inadequate, or as if there is something wrong with them. It may also cause them a great deal of fear and hurt. The trauma phase for someone who becomes visually impaired. Each visually impaired person reacts differently to their blindness. Some have a lot of trouble accepting the fact that they are going blind. Some may have a lot of shock, disbelief, or denial. Some individuals who become visually impaired at first may seem to be ok with knowing they will lose their sight at some point, but then the fear of the unknown sets in and the person may fall completely apart later. The person that is going blind has to make adjustments in the way they do things. These adjustments are sometimes difficult for the person who is going blind.

LOW SELF-ESTEEM AND BEING VISUALLY IMPAIRED

There are many more factors that have led to low self-esteem in my life. First, when I was first diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa I was devastated. I knew my life was going to change and I was not sure that I was going to be able to deal with that change. I was twenty six years old when I was diagnosed with RP. I am fifty three now and my whole life has changed. I am not very happy with the way I have adjusted to being visually impaired. Learning how to cope has been very difficult. I miss driving my car and getting to places I need to go. It is not easy asking someone else to help me when I have always been able to do the things I needed to do on my own. Second, I have been diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression. It is hard for me to get out and do the things I need to get done even when someone is with me. It is difficult for me to finish tasks that I start for the lack of motivation. I feel like I am not good enough and that I am just taking up space. My self-esteem is really low at those times when I am feeling that way. Third, was the death of my mother it was devastating. I not only lost my mother but I lost a role model. My mother was very good at helping me learn to deal with my visual impairment. I loved my mother a great deal and I miss her very much. She was a strong woman. I wish I was a lot more like my mother. I know she had her struggles but she some how made it through. I really hope to learn to manage my life like she was able to manage hers. I think one factor that has contributed to high self-esteem and low self-esteem is the way I see my self in any given situation.

THE SENSES

One of my favorite Helen Keller quotations from her book, To Love this Life Quotations by Helen Keller, is The Senses. “We differ, blind and the seeing, not in the nature of our handicap, but in the understanding and idealism we put into the art of living. It is only when we put imagination and feeling behind the senses that they attain their full value. “(Helen Keller, 1922) I believe that the senses of hearing, touch, smell and taste are very important to a person who is visually impaired. It validates who we really are and what we become.