Low Vision and Depression

Dear Dr. Jacobi,
My wife has vision loss due to diabetes and macular degeneration.  My problem is that she has lost interest in most everything and doesn’t feel comfortable leaving the house.  She keeps saying, “I can’t see…I can’t do anything”.  Her retinal specialist keeps telling her that “there’s nothing more we can do”.  I feel like I am losing my wife of 42-years.  Help!

Your wife is suffering from clinical depression induced by vision loss.   She is not alone.  Thirty-three percent of low vision patients will experience significant depression.  Depression saps physical and spiritual energies in addition to the mental effects.  Secondarily, much like your wife, many of these patients develop agoraphobia-the fear of leaving their homes.  The best way I have found to help these patients, is to teach them how to use the vision they have and provide them with special devices so they can function.

Restoration of function through the proper, advanced low vision devices is the key!  When a patient has the real hope of getting help it can restore life.  In the exam room “hands free” devices are experienced by the patient.  When the patient sees the faces of their loved ones - tears of joy follow and the patient seems to sit a bit more erect.  The patient senses she has now regained power in her life.  In the clinic, we determine what is needed for the patient to do the activities that have been abandoned and the patient is thrilled!

We also train the patients to regain confidence with mobility which may include driving.  This can result in longevity due to an uplift in spirits and decrease in falls.  Many of my patients immediately regain interest in socializing.  I always tell my low vision patients that the way to punish people in prison is solitary confinement that is, isolation. They needlessly suffer self-induced isolation due to their loss of vision.

When the Retinal Specialist says “there is nothing more we can do” – what they actually mean is that there is nothing more that the Retinal Specialist can do to “resurrect” the tissue.  It doesn’t mean that the right low vision devices can’t dramatically improve the quality of their life.

If you have been told that there is nothing that can help your wife, that can be very depressing. But by providing your wife with the appropriate low vision devices there is hope that your wife of 42-years can do the things she loves. 

Please bring your wife to the clinic so we can help her enjoy life again.