The World Through the Eyes of a Person Diagnosed With Stargardt's Disease
As most of the degeneration of photoreceptor cells occurs in the macula of the eye, often times, a large blurry spot or black hole will form in the center of the person's vision, causing central vision loss:
This will also usually lead to distorted, blurry vision and difficulty seeing certain colors as well:
Stargardt's disease does cause have any characteristic behaviors. However, most people who are diagnosed with Stargardt's disease will experience depression, many times which can become severe, as a result of losing their vision suddenly, usually around the time they are coming into high school. These kids are thinking about and are planning their futures, making new friends, and learning many new things when suddenly they begin rapidly losing their vision and can no longer see much of the world around them. This will usually dramatically change what their ideas of the future were like and make them much more dependent on family, friends, and visual aids to get through school and everyday life. This can cause many people with Stargardt's disease to feel hopeless, unhappy, guilty, and sometimes unmotivated to do much of anything now that they must relearn new ways of doing everything, including reading and writing. With this new crushing weight upon them, many kids who are diagnosed will experience a drop in their grades as it becomes much harder to keep up in school when they need to use a visual aid to help them see everything and will be constantly reminded in school by being around other students and being forced to discuss their futures how their own idea of the future was taken away from them when they were diagnosed.
Although this depression will be something that will be a big struggle at first, and for some people, will be something they continue to struggle throughout their lives, almost everyone who is diagnosed with Stargardt's disease will find some way to bring meaning back to their lives and still and get everything they can out of life and enjoy it to the fullest. Many people will try to learn as much as they can about the disease once they are diagnosed.
Although this depression will be something that will be a big struggle at first, and for some people, will be something they continue to struggle throughout their lives, almost everyone who is diagnosed with Stargardt's disease will find some way to bring meaning back to their lives and still and get everything they can out of life and enjoy it to the fullest. Many people will try to learn as much as they can about the disease once they are diagnosed.
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