I have been either patching or closing my right eye for awhile now, and have noticed a decent reduction in eye fatigue with several screens.
Last time I went to an optometrist, many years ago, I had perfect 20/20 vision. I'm only in my 20s and still don't need glasses.
Just how often are screens dangerous enough to harm binocular vision, or vision in general?
From what I've read here, many of you have had vision problems for most of your life, but that's not me. I'm concerned certain screens are not just fatiguing my eyes, but damaging them as well.
I haven't had any noticeable issues with double vision or depth perception, but I want it to stay that way.

eyepatching is +1 confirmation for the dithering 'magic eye' fake 3-D problem hypothesis.

I sill patch daily and to date it is the only effective treatment for me. I have been patching for a little less than a year, and I can tell that it is improving my resistance to screens even when not patched. My hope is after 3-4 years of patching, i may be unaffected

6 days later

I have to say, over time, I am absolutely noticing a difference in my ability to tolerate Windows 10 without the patch. It is definitely increasing. It is agonizingly slow progress, but it is definite progress. The patching does seem to be training my brain to overcome my BVD. I can't believe it.

If after a few years this cures me ... just to think ... 20+ years of agonizing pain, flying all over the damn country to every specialist and snake oil salesman promising me a cure, a literal case in my closet full of useless lenses, devices, eye trainers, gels, creams, pills, filters, over $25,000 spent on this hellish journey ... and the cure turns out to be a 99 cent paper eye patch. I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry.

    ensete am absolutely noticing a difference in my ability to tolerate Windows 10 without the patch. It is definitely increasing. It is agonizingly slow progress, but it is definite progress.

    Do you mind sharing specifics, like you can go 30 minutes without the patch whereas before it was intolerably etc? Would be interesting to see. Glad you are a feeling better.

    ensete I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry.

    You are helping lots of people here. That won't give you the $25k back, but I hope it gives you some solace.

          Probably a stupid question and may have already been covered and I've just not seen it….(no pun intended)

          After trying a brute force method of tolerating things which is not reallyt working I've got a couple cheap eye patches but how do I know which eye I should be covering?

          I believe I have slight astigmatism in my right eye, so would my left eye be dominant?

          Or should I be doing one eye for a little while then swap to the other?

            HAL9000

            Already covered, but just try which one feel more comfortable or figure out which is your dominant eye and cover the other one - you can google a way to figure this out.

              ryans Do you mind sharing specifics, like you can go 30 minutes without the patch whereas before it was intolerably etc? Would be interesting to see. Glad you are a feeling better.

              Previously I couldn't even go a second without getting triggered. Now, I can go a few minutes. It varies, some days its only 2-3 minutes, some days it's 5 or so minutes, but any minutes compared to 0 is amazing

              HAL9000 After trying a brute force method of tolerating things which is not reallyt working I've got a couple cheap eye patches but how do I know which eye I should be covering?

              For me, it was readily apparent that covering my right eye offered relief and covering my left eye did not.

                    ensete

                    Told you so! This is really great news, keep up the training and write about your experience with patching so more people on this forum will try it!

                    I have also looked back. About ten of my best years that I have lost to this problem, it really sucks. Now I feel that I can do everything, that’s a powerful feeling.

                    My conclusion, it’s better to look forward, and not back on things that is impossible to change.

                      ensete For me, it was readily apparent that covering my right eye offered relief and covering my left eye did not.

                      How do you tell which is the "good" eye? Just by symptoms? Does your judgement match other diagnoses, that one eye is less shortsighted or astigmatic etc?

                      I am quite confused. After bringing up the content of this thread, my orthoptist gave me green light to patch. I was told to patch my dominant eye, but again based on discussions in this forum I am not sure I know which one is my dominant eye. Also, an optometrist discouraged me from using a patch at my age. It may cause more problems than benefits, he said.

                      • mike replied to this.

                          AGI I was told to patch my dominant eye

                          Try covering the non-dominant eye instead, that’s my recommendation.

                          AGI Also, an optometrist discouraged me from using a patch at my age.

                          I am 40+, have done a lot of covering my non-dominant eye the last years. I was told that it work on kids, so maybe I am still a kid or it works on adults also.

                          AGI my orthoptist

                          I would recommend visiting a specialist on BVD rather than a orthoptist. I have read about some people on this forum that have visit many orthoptist without any success, just waste of time and money.

                          • AGI replied to this.
                          • AGI likes this.

                                  mike Try covering the non-dominant eye instead, that’s my recommendation.

                                  Thanks. But which is the dominant eye? How do I know?

                                  Also, have you ever tried other exercises before the patch solution, such as exercises with loose prisms?

                                      AGI Thanks.

                                      Happy to help!

                                      AGI But which is the dominant eye? How do I know?

                                      I you Google that, you will find some explanations/examples to find out which eye is your dominant.

                                      AGI Also, have you ever tried other exercises before the patch solution, such as exercises with loose prisms?

                                      I live in Sweden, as my orthoptist told me - “in Sweden we don’t believe in exercises, just glasses”. I have tried some exercise a bit that i found on the net, but didn’t think it got better. I think covering one eye is an exercise! I have tried some glasses with prism, but it was only a waste of money.

                                      • AGI likes this.

                                            And people are wearing eyepatches with their glasses on or just closing one eye?

                                            I tried this last night again but its difficult for me to use my glasses with the patch.

                                            Also, it seems when I have one eye open / covered - and its the same with each eye, my glasses dont work well.

                                            Together (both eyes open) I can see fine with my glasses, but I close one eye (either) and it gets a bit blurrier.

                                            I dont know if this is expected but it makes it hard to use the path.

                                            Perhaps I need another eye test.

                                              @mike

                                              I've tried the eye tracking exercises prescribed to me by an orthoptist many times in the past with no success. Then one day, inspired by reading your posts here I tried a slightly modified version of the prescribed exercise. I took a wooden medical spatula and drew a dot at the top. Then I cut out a piece of card 5cm by 5cm or so. I placed the card about 6inches in front of my left (non-dominant eye) then held the spatula 12 inches away and going from left to right and back back again I tracked the dot. As the dot went behind the card (obscured for my left eye but not the right) I could feel my left eye muscles contract and as it passed back into full view of both eyes they would relax again. I repeated this a couple of dozen times a day.

                                              So, here's crazy thing, this has massively reduced my eye strain to the point where I almost never have problems anymore. I appreciate the exercise I've described sounds odd and that it certainly wont work for everyone but I can confirm that it genuinely worked for me. I've gone from life ruining eye strain to almost issue free.

                                              So, I just wanted to share my experience in the hope that maybe it will work for others and to say thanks Mike! If it hadn't been for your posts here I would never have found the solution that finally worked for me.

                                                Monte

                                                Wow, this i just fantastic! Really good news, so happy to hear about your progress.

                                                I hope someone else will try your exercise … (i should ping 10+ users here)

                                                @martin what do you think of this exercise?

                                                  HAL9000 I wear it under my glasses lense. It took about a week for the blurry vision you described to go away, and for the ability to regain clear site immediately after removing the path as well.

                                                  Monte So, here's crazy thing, this has massively reduced my eye strain to the point where I almost never have problems anymore. I appreciate the exercise I've described sounds odd and that it certainly wont work for everyone but I can confirm that it genuinely worked for me. I've gone from life ruining eye strain to almost issue free.

                                                  I'll give that a shot. I have a whole case of vision therapy equipment I could use for an exercise like that

                                                      HAL9000 Together (both eyes open) I can see fine with my glasses, but I close one eye (either) and it gets a bit blurrier.

                                                      Also, I noticed that if I close one eye, I get significantly LESS relief than wearing an eyepatch over an open eye.

                                                      • AGI replied to this.

                                                          Monte could you please describe it more in my email? I want to make a post about it on my blog heteroforie.webnode.cz, as it will eventually get lost here. Thank you

                                                            Monte Maybe I am asking too much, but if you still have the "tools" in question at hand and you could take a photo / give a pictorial description of what you did, that would be great.

                                                            Especially, there is one point I am not getting. Did your eyes' muscles relax when both eyes were at work or vice versa? I would expect that, if your problem was BVD, the tension decreased when you used only one eye. Can you shed light? I am probably misinterpreting your words.

                                                            Anyhow, impressive and encouraging result! Cheers.

                                                              dev