00:05Imagine if all you could see was this small spot.
00:08If everything else was a blur.
00:11That's what happened to Michael Linz.
00:13He's almost blind due to glaucoma.
00:17One day, I got out of the bathtub and thought I had soap in my eye.
00:21So I rubbed it, but it didn't go away.
00:25And it turned out I had glaucoma in both eyes.
00:28When I received the diagnosis and heard both eyes were affected,
00:32I must say I got pretty depressed.
00:37Now Michael is joining a residential rehabilitation program.
00:41It's a big step that requires courage and is associated with fear and shame.
00:46Can Michael learn to live without his eyesight and find a new place in life?
01:01In one month, Michael, 60, will be moving to a rehabilitation center in Berlin.
01:07Today we're visiting him at his home on the city's outskirts.
01:11The darkness in his field of vision is growing.
01:14There's just a small spot left in his center of vision.
01:19If I drop something, then it's pretty much gone.
01:23It's incredibly hard to find.
01:25I need to keep track of where I put things.
01:28I was never the most organized, and now that's coming back to haunt me.
01:36Michael is a social worker at a shared living facility for people with cognitive impairments.
01:41He's known some of his clients since they were children.
01:47Now I can recognize myself responding in the same way as the people I work with.
01:53In many cases, support fails because it cannot be accepted.
02:01There's a certain sense of shame associated with accepting help.
02:08I technically need more help than I ask for.
02:12Michael has a grown son he used to enjoy working out with.
02:16He had a lot of hobbies and loved to travel.
02:19But then, gradually, he started to withdraw.
02:23That's sometimes the way I cope, by avoiding certain things.
02:27If I'm struggling with something, I quickly lose my patience.
02:31When I have a day off, I avoid doing anything difficult.
02:37Even if that might also mean avoiding pleasant things.
02:43I don't travel anymore, for example.
02:46Not at all.
02:47There are things I'd like to do.
02:48Visit friends, visit family.
02:50I'd love to.
02:51But not at this cost.
02:57I hardly go out.
02:58It's not like it looks nice out here.
03:00Everything's always foggy.
03:03Michael had to learn that blindness was taking more from him than just his eyesight.
03:08He was also losing his sense of connection with others.
03:13I feel like I'm losing my own expressions, because you always mirror other people's.
03:21He's not incredibly keen on the thought of going into rehab for an entire year.
03:25He still can't quite picture what good it would do.
03:32I don't know yet. It's hard to say.
03:35It's not like I'm hanging all my hopes on it.
03:37In terms of eyesight, you can learn to manage all sorts of situations.
03:43But that still doesn't mean you can see.
03:48One month later, his rehab begins in a residential school in Berlin, specialised in the professional rehabilitation of people living
03:57with blindness and visual impairment.
04:01Green Star, also known as Glaucoma, is one of the most common causes for blindness, affecting over 80 million people
04:10worldwide.
04:11It's sometimes also referred to as the silent thief of eyesight, because it often causes vision loss before it's even
04:19detected.
04:20Frank Kiesling is one of the therapists here. They're discussing Michael's next steps.
04:26More and more items are disappearing from where I left them on the kitchen table. I'm getting more insecure.
04:34For rehab, we'll check out where the issues are and do another eye examination.
04:40Now it's time for Michael to meet his class. Most here don't want to be shown on camera.
04:46Losing their eyesight has cost plenty a fulfilled and successful career.
04:52In Michael's case, he's lucky to be paired up with Doris Spiekermann.
04:57She used to be a photojournalist with a large daily paper, until she could no longer deny that she was
05:03going blind.
05:08Throughout the year that I spent here, my confidence shifted entirely. It came back.
05:15I was devastated. I couldn't see anymore. I couldn't do anything anymore. Stay this year. You'll definitely learn something new.
05:24With her, Michael can talk about anything. Like the fact that he doesn't want a cane or a visual impairment
05:29badge. He doesn't want others to see that he's blind.
05:33It just goes to show how self-conscious one can get. I used to think I wasn't really all that
05:38vain.
05:40I used to think I wasn't vain either.
05:43But in this case, you can tell, right?
05:45I just don't feel very mobile with it, but I'm not really mobile anyway.
05:49I keep wanting to pretend like I can see, so that others can't tell.
05:53For Michael, that meant turning down all support. If he didn't accept help, he told himself, he wasn't really blind.
06:03And then I visited the professor. He had a look at everything, checked my field of vision.
06:10Then he asked, have you applied for blindness benefits yet?
06:13And I just looked at him and said, no.
06:16He said, well, you're blind.
06:20And I have to say, I felt so relieved.
06:23It was such a weight off my shoulders to realize that I didn't have to keep pretending I could see.
06:34Michael and Oys want to stay in touch.
06:36They share similar problems and concerns and the same sense of humor.
06:42After nine months of rehab, we go back to visit Michael.
06:46He comes up to greet us with a cane.
06:49It was easy, thanks to the cane, because my vision's gotten a lot worse.
06:59Mobility specialist Petra Kiborg shows us how Michael started out.
07:04They spent months training indoors.
07:06Today, they give us a demonstration.
07:10People with total blindness can learn to turn at right angles.
07:15We practice that, down to turning your feet the right way, so that you learn how to orient yourself.
07:21Then each time you turn, you know, I just turned 90 degrees to my right, so I might have to
07:26turn back 90 degrees to my left.
07:29Then if he noticed the stairs in a building, then I know I can take him outside.
07:35Today, they're practicing acoustic signals at pedestrian crossways.
07:40Unlike many other cities in Germany, Berlin is fairly well equipped with guiding strips and sounds for people with low
07:47vision.
07:47But they take long to fix, which is why the two also practice situations like this.
07:55No sound. That will be a challenge down the road, but we don't practice that today. For now, we'll stick
08:00to easy things.
08:03Michael needs to place a lot of trust in his mobility trainer.
08:07She's the one opening the door for him back into a life of independence.
08:13The first time he crosses alone will likely be more nerve-wracking for me than for him. I'll be biting
08:19my nails.
08:20Entering a shop or taking a train, I'm still a little insecure at train stations.
08:28Michael's vision is down to 2%. He might lose that, too. For now, he's trying to use as much digital
08:35technology as he can.
08:36I've gotten enough input here at the school. I'm still practicing Braille on my phone.
08:44And once I've got the bandwidth for it, I'll turn to other things, like getting audio output, so I can
08:50find my way around the city using Google Maps.
08:58It's February 2026. Michael has been out of rehab for a month.
09:08I'm on vacation for now. And I'm enjoying it. That was all pretty strenuous. I learned a lot. It was
09:16good.
09:17My brain has been trained well, for example, in remembering things quickly.
09:25Now, Michael is 62. He still does pretty much everything himself. The fact that his yard isn't as tidy as
09:32his neighbours doesn't bother him too much. It is a wildlife garden after all.
09:38I was cutting back the hedge here. And suddenly my neighbour, who had been passing by, greets me and tells
09:44me I'd cut a hole in it.
09:46Things like that can happen, but what can you do? I've got to do it somehow.
09:53He wants to use the wood he's cut to make a garden chair with friends. That too has been coming
09:58back, his desire to be creative.
10:01Much has improved, but Michael still doesn't want to go back to his old job.
10:06I probably won't take up my old work. I thought that's exactly how I'd feel. Like a blind dog, not
10:13good for anything, being fed scraps out of kindness.
10:19And I wouldn't be able to keep working at my old job with an attitude like that.
10:25I'm a family therapist, and I'd be keen to practice that. And I think that's something I could do from
10:31home.
10:32There's phone consultations. I'll take care of that next.
10:40And now Michael is back to working out. He and his son have devised a special challenge, holding a one
10:47-hour plank.
10:48His son can already make it a whole hour. Michael is up to 43 minutes.
10:54He called me the other day, and we talked on the phone while I was down here. It was fun.
11:00But at some point I could hear his heavy breathing, and that reassured me a bit.
11:10He goes shopping twice a week. The bus only comes once every hour, so he walks four kilometres instead.
11:18The snow and ice are enough to challenge anybody, even with their eyesight.
11:23Now I know that I can get around. I'm already thinking about travelling and going out more often than I
11:29do now.
11:30But first I'm going to take back my day-to-day life, go grocery shopping or head into Berlin and
11:35stuff like that.
11:37And then we'll see from there. I'm looking forward to it, because I know it's possible.
11:47Glaucoma might have stolen his vision, but it won't take his life away from him.
11:54My goal is to have fun. That's what I kept trying to drive home to the clients I worked with.
12:01It's all about having fun in life.
12:05And what I used to always tell them, I am now claiming for myself.
12:11So, I will only keep doing things that I really enjoy.
12:14I will only do something that makes fun.
12:17Let's see.
12:18Let's see.
12:18Let's see.
12:27Let's see.
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