Disability – Page 3 – Well Eye Never

Caring For Mum – Part 2 – Mental Health

Yesterday I started to open up about how things have become more difficult for my elderly mother, and by extension for myself as her carer, since she went blind last year. That first post was about her physical health and sleep, including the fact that she’s having falls regularly.

So now I want to talk about the changes to her mental health, which I’m finding the most upsetting thing to witness, because it’s distressing for her and I feel powerless to fix it. We have reached out for support, as I’ll explain during this post, but until any help arrives I just have to be as patient and supportive as I can for her.

She naturally has quite a lot of anxiety and some panic attacks as a result of her blindness and recent accidents, which is difficult enough for her to deal with, and consequently she’s become very emotionally dependent on me. But her brain has also been messing with her by making her think there are multiple versions of me in the house, or getting her confused in other ways, which we hadn’t anticipated.

There are plenty of times when she’s relaxed and clear-headed as well, fortunately, but every day there are at least one or two instances where she’s not thinking straight, usually due to tiredness or stress in some way.

So I’m going to explain things as best I can here. As I said last time, I’m very open to any help or advice if you want to offer it in a comment or contact me in other ways. But in general I hope these posts help to raise some awareness of what it can be like as carer, and how unique our particular situation is.

Caring For Mum – Part 1 – Physical Health

I’m an unpaid carer for my mother and lately we’ve been struggling to cope. We need help.

It sounds like I’m introducing myself at some kind of group therapy session. But then this series of posts is a form of therapy for me really, to open up about what’s been going on lately.

After all, being a carer does make you feel anonymous, as you’re leading a secret life behind closed doors, even from your own relatives and friends to some extent. And I haven’t felt the need to write about it here before, because my mother and I have had a healthy balance to our lives with no major issues.

But developments over the last few months have proven too overwhelming for us to deal with by ourselves, because Mum hasn’t adapted well to going blind for various reasons, plus she’s having falls quite regularly. So I’m having to do a lot more for her, and it upsets me to see her struggling so often. It’s been a shock to the system for both of us, because it’s a new, confusing, emotional and somewhat frightening journey that we’re being forced to embark on. We are now starting to reach out for support, which has given us reason to be hopeful. But there’s a lot of waiting involved.

So bear with me while I ramble my way through what’s been going on to bring you into the loop, because there is quite a lot. I’ve split this up into three posts that I’ll be posting over consecutive days, to focus on Mum’s physical and mental health issues in turn, followed by the impact on me as her carer and the support I’m trying to access. Then I’ll share regular updates as to how we’re getting on, alongside the other types of post I usually do.

Mum knows I’m putting this stuff online, as it’s nothing for us to be ashamed about, it’s good to raise awareness, and it might help us to find extra support. Indeed, I’m very open to any help or advice that people are able to offer as a result of reading all of this stuff, so feel free to comment here or contact me by email or social media if you wish.

But even if you can’t help or relate to what’s going on, I hope you find this interesting. If I can use this situation and my platform to help raise awareness of what it’s like being a carer, then that alone makes this worthwhile.

June 2025 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re all doing well. Those of you who saw last month’s roundup will know that I’m going through a difficult patch at the moment because of my mother’s health. We have started to get a bit of help, in terms of medical assistance and reaching out to support services, all of which takes time, and I will explain more in due course. Suffice to say for now that going totally blind has naturally had a big impact on her mental health and sleep, and by extension has affected my wellbeing as her carer. We are ok, but certain aspects are quite difficult to deal with

As a result, I’m not making videos to go with these posts for the time being, as it’s just not practical right now and I want to make things easier for myself. It also means I’m not doing as much out and about as usual, as my caring role is dominating my time much more than it used to – and I am therefore starting to explore the support that’s available for carers.

However, I did manage to go to the theatre a couple of times with friends early in the month, which I was really grateful for, as I needed to confide in them about what’s been going on, and the shows were great escapism, especially because of the touch tours and audio description.

So I’ve got those shows to tell you about, as well as some bits and pieces I’ve been watching at home, and none of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual. So let’s get on with it, and I hope you enjoy!

Taking The PIP – Part 2

Last updated July 17, with a section at the end for a few new developments.

For disabled people here in the UK it’s been a very anxious time lately, because of all the proposed cuts to disability benefits in the Universal Credit & Personal Independence Payment Bill, and the misinformation that’s been spread to try and justify them (e.g. falsely claiming that PIP is an out of work benefit or is easy to get, which isn’t remotely true).

I wrote about the plans back in April after the Green Paper was released, and the government have been determined to push it through as quickly as possible since then because of all the backlash – which they knew full well it would generate from the outset but just didn’t care.

Yet despite having a sizeable majority of MPs, it’s not been as easy as they’d hoped, and there have been significant developments recently. If you follow me on Bluesky or X you’ll have seen me sharing several posts by others to raise awareness of what’s been going on, and I thought I’d do a quick update here to give my reaction to the latest events.

May 2025 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re all doing well. For me this has been a very difficult month to be honest, as my mother’s had a decline in her mental health due to issues relating to her blindness and sleep, and naturally that’s had a big impact on me too as her son and carer. We’re in the process of having appointments to try and get her some help though, and I’ll keep you posted.

Suffice to say, I haven’t been able to go out and do as much as I’d planned this month. I did meet a close friend for a good catchup, and I did manage to have a few walks, but there’s nothing for me to write about on that front. So this post is purely going to be about the entertainment I’ve been enjoying at home, which has been a good distraction for me.

My situation also means that I’m going to stop making videos to go with these Favourites posts for the time being, as I don’t have the time, privacy or mindset to film and edit them at the moment. Writing’s much easier, so I’m going to focus my efforts on that for now. I’m sorry to those who enjoy watching or listening to me ramble on, but I will get back to making videos when I feel ready. That might be in one or two months, or it could well be longer, I just don’t know yet. I’ll try and make little vlogs here and there though, just to quickly share how I’m doing.

So with all that said, let’s get on to nicer things with the TV shows and DVDs I want to talk about, none of which is sponsored as usual, and I hope you enjoy!

Visually Impaired Blogging Research Articles

Since I started blogging many years ago, I’ve been invited to take part in research projects about sight loss with a few people, and it’s always nice when I get to see how my contributions have been used.

Recently, therefore, I was contacted by Ibrahim Emara, an Assistant Professor of journalism at Tanta University in Egypt. He’s the first visually impaired person in Egypt to teach and do research in journalism, and his research has focused on the use of mass media among the visually impaired.

Ibrahim interviewed me back in July 2021, among many other bloggers, and while that was quite a while ago, I’ve been flattered to learn that the chat we had has helped to influence four of his articles. I’m only directly quoted in the first one of course, which was the core study he was conducting, but it’s fascinating to see the other three that have spun off from it as well. He’s very kindly sent me full copies of them so that I can write a bit about them here.

April 2025 Favourites

Hey there, hope you had a wonderful Easter and a lovely April in general. This has been my busiest month for a while, as there’s lots to mention in terms of outings, including social events, a musical and a concert, along with TV shows and films I’ve been watching at home.

The concert I went to was a PR invite for me to review, but otherwise nothing is sponsored to appear here, and in any case all opinions are my own as usual. So let’s jump straight into April’s post and video roundup, and I hope you enjoy!

AD | National Open Youth Orchestra – Ring Out! Review

Note: I received a complimentary ticket for this concert, but all opinions are my own.

Music is an incredibly powerful, immersive and varied medium that impacts us all in one way or another, irrespective of who we are. It’s certainly been a constant feature in my life, as I’ve always enjoyed listening to it, and when I was a kid I used to play it a bit as well, just for fun. Being unable to read sheet music didn’t matter, as I could memorise things with practice, and I enjoyed improvising too. I still think it would be cool to learn an instrument like the guitar or piano one day, if I had the time, patience and guidance.

So I know first-hand that being able to play and/or compose music is a great form of escapism that allows you to express yourself and be creative. But for many disabled people, it’s not only enjoyable and rewarding, it can be truly vital. It can enable them to communicate clearly, reveal their personality, share their ideas, demonstrate their talents, feel safe, increase their confidence and form connections with other people, in ways that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. Music is the magic key that can unlock so much.

Of course, that can be easier said than done, if there are instruments that are inaccessible, or if you can’t find other people to share things with and learn from. So it’s always nice to learn of ways that disabled people have been given the opportunity to fully engage with music, especially at a young age so they can carry it with them throughout their lives. And I had the privilege of seeing one such group perform last weekend.

I Want Some More! – Oliver! Review

As I’ve said in the past, I love the 1968 musical film adaptation of the Dickens novel Oliver Twist, with all its wonderful songs, characters, sets and costumes, all brought to life by a brilliant cast. It was based on Lionel Bart’s theatre show of course, of which there have been several productions since it launched in 1960, and while I have the soundtrack albums for some of them, I’ve never had a chance to see the musical live, until now.

That’s because I recently went to the Gielgud Theatre to see an audio described performance of the current production of Oliver! by Cameron Mackintosh, which launched last year. And on reviewing the situation (for this post that isn’t sponsored), I think it can consider itself well in, because it’s a fine life for those who will buy a ticket to see it.

The Gielgud Theatre, a four-story building with ornate decor that stands proudly on a street corner, with signage for the Oliver musical. The centre of the building, which curves around the corner, has an extra room with a domed roof on the very top.

Poster for Oliver, showing a painted image of a young boy's face, with the London skyline in the background, including St Paul's Cathedral. Blue text above him says Everybody's Asking For More. Just below the boy's face is more blue text saying Cameron Mackintosh and Matthew Bourne's glorious Dickens of a show. And immediately below that is the title Oliver, with an exclamation mark, in big red letters.

March 2025 Favourites

Hey there, hope you’re doing alright, and welcome to my latest roundup. March has been a bit of a mixed month for me, what with losing our Virgin Media service for almost a week (thankfully now fixed), and hearing about the government’s plans to cut disability benefits (which I’ve talked at length about in a separate post).

But there have been good things too, as I saw a couple of my favourite entertainers live for the first time, and enjoyed a variety of bits and pieces at home. So I’m going to focus on all of that in this post and video, which is relatively short I know, but I hope you find it interesting as usual!

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