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This is something people don't seem to realize. Often you hear people talk about how difficult it is to be born blind. Yet everyone I've ever spoken to that ha

This is something people don't seem to realize. Often you hear people talk about how difficult it is to be born blind. Yet everyone I've ever spoken to that happened to has a simple answer: "not difficult at all. It isn't there". One put it like "I'm also not a tiger and can't jump 8 meters high. It's similar". Very strange how adaptable humans are sometimes.

ska 3y ago
I think born with a condition such as that is always (mentally) easier than losing some capability, especially if you are grown. If you are born without sight, it only exists as an abstract concept for you.
kypro 3y ago
My best friend as a kid was blind and being a kid his acceptance of this used to bug the hell out of me. I often found myself in conversations trying to convince him he doesn't want to be blind. But I remember asking him when we were teens and he me gave a really good answer about how he's learnt to interact with the world as a blind person so for him to be able to see it would a huge hinderance to him at this point – perhaps as much as me being blind. He'd would need to read and write again. He would need to learn how to use a computer again. He might not like how his girlfriend looks. He would need reorganise his life and activities around the fact he can now see. Would he still be interested in doing the same things if he could see? Might he want to play video games instead of piano in his spare time if he could? I think in a lot of cases it's not even just not knowing what you're missing, but it's also not worth hassle. If you're content as is then why change things?
- throwaway2037 3y ago
  This is such a great post. Thank you to share this personal story. > My best friend as a kid was blind How did you meet him? Were you in the same class at school? Or a neighborhood friend?
ekaryotic 3y ago
As a schizophrenia sufferer I discovered a curious statistic about the illness, there are no patients with schizophrenia who have been blind since birth. That fact is mind blowing to me, it seems to imply that blindness from birth creates a sort of immunity to mental illness.
- whelp_24 3y ago
  I think it implies that schizophrenia has something to with the visual system or something correlated to it.
kelnos 3y ago
I do wonder how much of that "not difficult at all" is just not knowing the difference. It would be interesting to see the difference in attitude between people born blind, and those who lost their sight later in life (old enough to have some solid sighted experiences and memories). Just as sighted people take for granted a lot of things about their sight, I'm not surprised some blind people take many things for granted about their lack of sight -- even when they are negative, frustrating things. While accessibility has come a long way, it still seems like it would be objectively more difficult to navigate the world blind than sighted. > One put it like "I'm also not a tiger and can't jump 8 meters high. It's similar". This makes a lot of sense, even if it's an imperfect analogy. Sometimes, if you have no experience with something, you won't mind not being able to do it, even if you know that a lot of other people can. But if you look at it the other way: imagine a tiger with mobility issues that can't jump at all. Likely their life will be pretty limited, compared to most tigers. I'm glad it seems there are (at least in your experience) a lot of people who are blind but don't consider it that big a hindrance. Ultimately what matters in life is that people are happy, and I imagine feeling like your life is constantly difficult due to something like blindness would reduce your happiness.

ska 3y ago

I think born with a condition such as that is always (mentally) easier than losing some capability, especially if you are grown. If you are born without sight, it only exists as an abstract concept for you.

kypro 3y ago

My best friend as a kid was blind and being a kid his acceptance of this used to bug the hell out of me. I often found myself in conversations trying to convince him he doesn't want to be blind. But I remember asking him when we were teens and he me gave a really good answer about how he's learnt to interact with the world as a blind person so for him to be able to see it would a huge hinderance to him at this point – perhaps as much as me being blind. He'd would need to read and write again. He would need to learn how to use a computer again. He might not like how his girlfriend looks. He would need reorganise his life and activities around the fact he can now see. Would he still be interested in doing the same things if he could see? Might he want to play video games instead of piano in his spare time if he could? I think in a lot of cases it's not even just not knowing what you're missing, but it's also not worth hassle. If you're content as is then why change things?

throwaway2037 3y ago
This is such a great post. Thank you to share this personal story. > My best friend as a kid was blind How did you meet him? Were you in the same class at school? Or a neighborhood friend?

ekaryotic 3y ago

As a schizophrenia sufferer I discovered a curious statistic about the illness, there are no patients with schizophrenia who have been blind since birth. That fact is mind blowing to me, it seems to imply that blindness from birth creates a sort of immunity to mental illness.

whelp_24 3y ago
I think it implies that schizophrenia has something to with the visual system or something correlated to it.

kelnos 3y ago

I do wonder how much of that "not difficult at all" is just not knowing the difference. It would be interesting to see the difference in attitude between people born blind, and those who lost their sight later in life (old enough to have some solid sighted experiences and memories). Just as sighted people take for granted a lot of things about their sight, I'm not surprised some blind people take many things for granted about their lack of sight -- even when they are negative, frustrating things. While accessibility has come a long way, it still seems like it would be objectively more difficult to navigate the world blind than sighted. > One put it like "I'm also not a tiger and can't jump 8 meters high. It's similar". This makes a lot of sense, even if it's an imperfect analogy. Sometimes, if you have no experience with something, you won't mind not being able to do it, even if you know that a lot of other people can. But if you look at it the other way: imagine a tiger with mobility issues that can't jump at all. Likely their life will be pretty limited, compared to most tigers. I'm glad it seems there are (at least in your experience) a lot of people who are blind but don't consider it that big a hindrance. Ultimately what matters in life is that people are happy, and I imagine feeling like your life is constantly difficult due to something like blindness would reduce your happiness.