Eye suppression theory as origin of our issues

martin

That's a really interesting theory. You mentioned that you discussed this with your eye specialist, what was their reaction to this?

I'm pretty sure that wearing a patch improves my symptoms, I'm going to ask my doctor about this as well. My only question would be that if the issue is the weaker eye, wouldn't wearing a patch on the weaker eye instantly relieve the symptoms because it would force the dominant eye to do all of the work? For example, when I wear the patch on my weak eye, my symptoms are improved, but not 100% gone.

Wouldn't it be amazing if this actually was the cause behind our symptoms and we could finally address it? I can dream, lol.

This is the explanation that makes the most sense to me so far. So the eye that hurts first while a source of light is flickering, be it a display or ambient light, is probably the eye that normally doesn't get used that much? And perhaps it is that eye that should be used to view when doing the eye patching we are talking about currently.

Only thing that contradicts this theory a little, at least at first glance, is that the eye doctors have not found a dominant eye for me. It seems my eyes are used equally. When I do the Miles test (folding hands in triangular form), I don't find a dominant eye myself. And when I do the Porta test, I always see both fingers and thus can't cover the distant object at all.

But still, this theory makes a lot of sense and can at least explain certain kinds of eye strain.

Edit: I wonder, could a certain light spectrum wake up the suppressed eye, too? Without any flicker, just having a certain spectrum like White LED.

bkdo

When doing this test, the object stays framed when closing my left eye. When closing my right eye, the object moves to the left significantly.

This would seem to indicate that my right eye is dominant.

My left eye is the first to hurt almost always.

Edit: It actually moves when closing my left eye as well, just not as dramatically as when closing my right eye.

Hi Martin! That is an interesting theory to explain some part of the problem but not all of it. I suspect there's something more.
I have severe pain from new smartphones and I have an excellent binocular vision, when I look at the broke string I see image from both eyes and a correct focus point.
Smartphones break my vergence immediately (within seconds), by some light effect, but not flicker. After usage I am not able to focus far: eyes cant diverge enough. Additionally I percieve the screen as bright when it is visibly dull, and my retina photoreceptors are tired or damaged after screen usage.
There are more people like me among those who do not tolerate only modern smartphones or some modern smartphones. The intensity of symptoms vary.
I am trying to research that particular effect and created a light/vergence thread here.

martin What you describe still sounds to me like BVD (convergence excess

I believe that is not the case based on the evidence:

1. I have never had any problems with anything and I can focus anywhere I look in less than a second.
2. Looking at the screen breaks my vergence immediately and severely. I feel excuriating muscle pain the very moment I look at screen and I can't focus anywhere far immediately after. I feel like when I look far my eyes meet some invisible wall. That wall is an impossibility to diverge my eyes. So it is the phone that creates a convergence excess and not a convergence excess that causes my inability to use the phone.
3. Image from any single eye of mine (with my second eye closed), especially a dominant one, feels like everything changed positions in space. I literally see this effect, because it is so unusual for me.
4. This effect comes together with subjective feeling of super extra bright screen. A lot of people on the tech forums either feel only this symptom or this symptom together with convergence problem. We call it "feels like you look at a welding". This feeling is not only not a visual illusion but an indicator of some fotoreceptors overuse, cause they sometimes cause impossible light sensitivity.

I checked my screen for rendering and flicker and can say that it is not a cause.

So probably in some cases it is a binocular vision problems that cause the intolerance to usual, safe light... But in other cases this is literally a light that is so intense or dangerous for retina, that it causes immediate BVD.
In such cases the best thing to do is not to train the binocular vision but avoid the dangerous light.

mike
Long 'cause I'm trying to reduce the eye damage from light.
And damage from light is impressive: I see neon colors instead of normal colors, bright objects that are printed on retina are brighter and stay longer etc