The new lives of vision: when presbyopia arrives in the middle of our most active life

There is a moment, in many people’s lives, when their eyesight "changes". But what strikes me every time is not the physiological change itself. It is the moment in life when it arrives.

For years I have worked with opticians, optometrists and companies in the industry. I know the technical, scientific, "measurable" side of vision well. But I know just as well, because they tell me about it every day, the emotional, psychological and relational world that moves behind one simple sentence: "I am starting to not see well up close". And this is the point I want to start from.

Presbyopia arrives when life speeds up

Presbyopia does not arrive when life slows down. It arrives when we are changing profession, when we put ourselves back in the game, when we rebuild a personal project, when we are raising teenage children and looking after our parents, when we go back to studying, when we discover new activities, when we are in the fullness of our adult identity. It arrives at the centre of a living, full, complex life, often beautiful and demanding. And this changes everything: it is not the sign that we are getting old, it is the sign that we are living.

We got used to an old linear model of life: study, work, retirement. An orderly, predictable model. But we no longer live like that. We live plural lives, cycles that open and close, continuous restarts, professional, family, emotional and identity transitions. I see it in the people I meet on social media, in courses, in optical practices: every life is a work in motion. When presbyopia arrives, it catches us off guard precisely because it finds us in the middle of a new chapter, not at the end of an old one.

And then something particular happens: presbyopia stops being only a visual fact and becomes an existential question. "How do I see myself?" "How do I feel?" "What image am I giving back?" "And now that I have so many projects, will my eyesight support me?" These are not technical questions. They are questions of identity, the same ones that run through the series on neuroscience and the choice of eyewear.

Passing 40 is not a slowdown, it is a climb

Between 40 and 60 something happens that few people consider: life becomes more real. It is the age at which we truly become who we are. We make choices, we take stock, we find courage and take on responsibility. It is the age at which we allow ourselves the freedom to reinvent ourselves and to start again. And this is exactly why presbyopia weighs more than it should: it enters a life that needs to be supported, not slowed down. A life that demands vision equal to it.

The new presbyope is not an elderly person: they are a person in evolution

International data on the so-called longevity economy tell the same story: the great majority of people over 50 still think about the future, do not perceive significant limits, lead an active life and in many cases are starting a new cycle. In the talk I quoted four percentages, 95%, 84%, 85% and 67%, for these four points.

Do you understand what this means? It means that presbyopia does not arrive in a person who is "going down": it arrives in a person who is climbing, growing, planning. And so our task, as vision professionals, changes radically.

We do not have to reassure about age. We have to support life.

Every person carries a story they do not tell

Behind "I can’t see up close any more" there is much more. There are those who fear looking less competent at work. Those who are afraid of losing autonomy. Those who have a very precise image of themselves and fear that glasses will call it into question. Those who say "I don’t want to complicate my life" but in fact fear no longer being recognised in the role they have. Those who think "I am not like this", looking at themselves in the mirror with a lens on for the first time.

These unspoken emotions determine everything: acceptance, resistance, choices, timing. The technical part alone is not enough. You have to be able to read the person, the moment of their life, the chapter they are living. It is the same logic as consultative selling: first the person, then the product.

Eyesight today is a piece of identity

We live immersed in digital, in multitasking, in constant relationships. Eyesight is what allows us to stay inside our own life. Seeing well is not an "optical" goal: it is an existential act. It means continuing to work the way we want to work, doing the things we love, recognising ourselves, liking ourselves, sustaining a full life. Presbyopia, read in this way, becomes a threshold: a moment in which to choose how we want to cross our next life cycle.

Accompany, do not correct

The optician’s role, today more than ever, is that of a companion. Not only a competent technician, not only a reliable consultant, but someone who knows how to listen, read, interpret, give back security and continuity. This is what the person is really looking for: not a product but a direction, not a pair of glasses but a continuity, not a correction but a meaning.

When this happens, when the relationship becomes collaboration and not a simple transaction, presbyopia changes meaning: from obstacle to opportunity, from loss to possibility, from fragility to growth.

Presbyopia as a threshold of life

Presbyopia is not "the beginning of the end". It is the beginning of a new cycle, in which we ask our eyesight to support us while we live more intensely than ever, and in which being able to count on prepared, empathetic professionals capable of reading the person makes all the difference. Because vision is not only about the eyes: it is about the way we live, the way we see ourselves and the way we want to keep becoming ourselves. This is the real "new life of vision", and it is the heart of Optics & Love.

This article reprises Alessandra Salimbene’s talk at the A.I.O.C. Congress "Presbyopia. Innovation, treatments and quality of life", Florence, November 2025. To go further: the optical retail marketing area, the Charismatic Method and in-store training for the team.