A flying friend of mine just had his eyes redone by his doctor, and had a prescription change. He was wearing contacts that gave him distance vision in one eye, and the other was set for up close. Now, he has both his eyes set for distance, he claims that he now feels that he can see properly for the first time in a long time. He has had problems with depth perception and orientation while flying, he crashed 2 planes that way. (The 3rd one he crashed because he chose to fly at a construction site, the only obstacle was an outhouse, and yes, he tagged the outhouse).
Maybe your friend has a correctable vision problem? He could also be adversely affected by crowds, and just have to recognize that and not fly once he starts to feel uncomfortable, coming from your description of the problem.