Being diagnosed with glaucoma can be scary, after all, it is vision we are talking about. But knowing that you are not alone is important and that steps can be taken to slow or prevent the progression, especially if it has been detected in the early stages.

It may become challenging, especially when it comes to hand-eye-coordination activities like driving or playing any kind of sport. As the loss of contrast sensitivity, problems with glare and light sensitivity are some of the effects that may be caused by glaucoma and effect your daily activities.

Here are a few tips that one can do on their own and also with the help of others to live a better life with glaucoma

Medications

Eyedrops will become your new friends. One may need to take different kinds of eyedrops throughout the day, which will help in the management of glaucoma. Here, maintaining a schedule to take the proper dosage at the proper time would be very useful.

Making use of the alarms or apps that create alerts on your mobile phones, watches or any portable digital device would be the most efficient.

Accidents and Falls

Since glaucoma causes vision loss or leads to a weaker vision, some patients are at a higher risk of falling and prone to accidents. Therefore, it is imperative for one to mark boundaries in their home and workplace, or places they visit often. Attention should be paid to doorways, drawers, edges of the table or counters. These can be painted in bright colors so that they can be seen or identified.

In some case of glaucoma, the side or the peripheral vision gets affected. For this, a method called Scanning can be used. This method consists of one carefully looking around the surroundings and taking in the details by moving their head from left to right, top to bottom, to try to cover as much area as possible.

Healthy Lifestyle

Exercise helps with the overall health of your body. They have proven to be beneficial. But that does not mean you can do any form of exercises. Exercises like yoga, where there may involve some poses that require your head to be below your heart or lifting of heavy weights are also researched and proven to increase the pressure of the eye which only worsens glaucoma.

Support Team

Losing vision can be scary. It might be emotionally and mentally challenging. Therefore, it is important to seek help from family and friends and be a part of a support group, whereby one may not feel alone.