"I take it one day at a time"

Hadley

I take it one day at a time

Vanessa: In my early stages of vision loss, I would just feel so defeated at times where I felt hopeless.

Marc: This is Hadley’s Insights and Sound Bites, where people facing vision loss share what has helped them cope and adjust.

Vanessa: My name is Vanessa Pruit and I live in Kennewick, Washington, Eastern Washington.

I have peripheral vision, but I have scarring in my center vision, so macular degeneration atrophy, is actually what it's called. And I just found that out in August of 2019.

Well, for me, because when I felt like I couldn't accomplish something, I would let, especially in my early stages of losing vision or vision loss, I would just feel so defeated at times where I felt hopeless, and I went through that for years, and that makes you feel low and depressed. And so, after a while I was like, you have to self-talk yourself out of things because even though the world doesn't really understand, I do.

So, I had to self-talk myself into saying, "I'm better than being defeated, I'm better than just sitting here and feeling sorry for myself because of the change from when I had vision until now." And it's not an easy thing for me to do, but I just take it one day at a time. And I do believe that because of that I'm able to face another day.

Marc: You never know who might need to hear your story. If you’d like to share with us, just leave us a message on our Insights & Sound Bites voicemail. By calling, 847-512-4867. Or, you can use your smartphone or computer and email us a recording to [email protected].