Like Dman and weStLY I too suffer from myopia. Unlike Dman and weStLY, mine was not troublesome until several years ago. Unfortunately it is all my fault. I have no one else to blame.
As a child my mother would often put me to sleep at ridiculously early hours. I combated the boredom of sleeplessness by reading. Unfortunately, I was also a very lazy child. It was too much trouble for me to simply get up and turn the light on when it became to dark to read. Instead I would draw the book closer and closer until my nose was literally touching the surface of the page. On more than one occasion I did this through the entire night.
My eyes were irrevocably damaged at a very important time in my physical development. As a teenager and young adult I frequently did not wear my glasses. In high school I suffered from low self-esteem. Later, when I joined the Army, my spectacles interfered with my headgear. I still managed to play football in school and consistently claim expert marksmanship medals while in the service, without the assistance of corrective lenses. I have always been rough on equipment and when I did wear my glasses I broke them faster than my parents or I could afford to replace them.
Towards the end of my term of service my eyesight became too bad too ignore. I bought contacts in the hope that they would not get smashed as much as my frames did, and now I have to wear them constantly. Ironically enough, just about the only thing I can do without my lenses now, is read in bed.
Maybe it was because I never really suffered as much as Dman or weStLY seemed to, but until I read his write up I had never considered my nearsightedness as a disability. It had always been inconvenient and was often upsetting and traumatizing, but I never felt handicapped by it. On the other hand, I understand that most people with disabling handicaps don't feel that way. I've been told that many never think of themselves as disabled until an abled person brings it too their attention.