Today, one of the leading causes of vision impairment is glaucoma, which is why people need to get regular eye exams. Although you may not see any signs of glaucoma, it can gradually impact the rest of your life. Read below to learn about five ways glaucoma can affect everyday life.
Reading
One way glaucoma can affect you is by limiting your ability to read. If you love reading books or magazines, this can be especially upsetting since glaucoma impacts your central vision and causes you to lose your ability to recognize fewer letters in a single glance. This change may result in you reading sentences more than once to get through them.
You will also have difficulty visually searching for specific information on a single page. Those with severe glaucoma can also experience slowdowns in their reading ability and may find that they are not fully comprehending what they are reading. These problems can cause glaucoma patients to read less than they did before.
Driving
Another way glaucoma can affect everyday life is how you drive a vehicle. As the condition affects you, you can lose your peripheral vision, making you unable to see things from the corner of your eye. Your vision may also become blurry, making it harder to see the road, street signs, or even pedestrians crossing the street.
Driving during a cloudy day, nighttime, sunrise, or even sunset may also become difficult. Glares from sunlight or headlights from oncoming vehicles may also make driving challenging.
Walking
Glaucoma can also affect how you walk. Having impaired vision makes your ability to walk more difficult and makes you prone to falling or bumping into objects. These impacts can make you fearful of accidents and cause you to walk slower. Glaucoma can cause you to limit your physical activity, impacting your health.
Household Chores
The condition can also make it difficult to complete daily household chores if the activities depend on your peripheral vision or contrast perception. As previously mentioned, impaired vision can result in accidents, such as falls, that may cause you to experience injuries.
State of Mind
A fifth way glaucoma can impact your everyday life is that it can impact your state of mind. If a doctor diagnoses you with glaucoma, you may find that you experience anxiety or fear of becoming blind. Make sure you go in for regular eye exams so your doctor can diagnose your glaucoma early and better protect your eyesight.
Eye doctors rely on ophthalmic supply companies, such as Automated Ophthalmics, for the products they need to check your eyes. We offer healthcare professionals a complete range of eye care products to help them take care of you.