Update - December 2024
I hope you're all well and finding solutions to your problems. I've been meaning to come back and provide an update on my current situation. In general, I have found workable, manageable systems and a balance of medications that have kept all my symptoms at bay.
Health
I am 41 and in pretty good health. I have been proactive in getting many tests done over the years in case there was some hidden physical or neurological condition that was causing the problems, but nothing major has come back.
This has included:
- specialist eye tests - my local university happens to have a specialist ophthalmic department for diagnosis of obscure eye problems. Everything came back perfect - I still have 20/20 vision.
- blood tests
- general health check-ups and speaking with multiple specialists across different fields
I do find it important to stop using screens around an hour before bed.
Pattern Glare / Visual Stress
My journey to finding a workable phone led me to discover that I believe I may suffer from pattern glare / visual stress.
I actually believe that in my case this may contribute more to my problems more than 'temporal dithering' - in the 13 years I've been having this problem we've still not found anything conclusive relating to TD, but pattern glare / visual stress is a very real thing.
See this thread here for more information.
Neck Pain
I still experience moderate to severe neck pain from use of any systems, particularly down the back left hand side of my neck. I have found huge benefit to the likelihood of waking up with a headache / migraine from stretching at night before bed.
The yoga move child's pose works well for this - often I will continue stretching until I feel movement / popping / bubbling in my sinus area above my left eye, exactly where all my pain originates from on bad systems.
Relevant Medication - Migraines / Headaches
I have found a balance of medications that work for me - please do not take this as advice, but it is 100% relevant to my journey to a migraine-free life. I have often tried cutting down or adjusting these medications but ultimately the likelihood of headaches and migraines increases hugely.
Some of these are prescribed by my doctor, and some I have discovered to work very well for me.
Propanolol - 80mg per day
This was prescribed by my doctor for migraines and definitely has a huge positive impact.
Levothryroxine
Probably unrelated but worth mentioning in case underactive thyroid is a common problem between users here as it has wide-ranging health implications.
Magnesium - 400mg per day
I have found this to significantly improve the likelihood of waking up without a headache.
CBD Oil - 3000mg per 30 ml - 5 drops per day
This is the one I've tried and tried to disprove. I have been certain for years that there's a placebo effect with this and I have on multiple occasions stopped taking it, only to find that within a few weeks headaches and clusters of migraines return. I can say with certainty now that for me, CBD Oil is contributing very positively to my lack of migraines. This is the non-psychoactive oil (there's no high from it) and it is definitely worth a try - it does take a few weeks to build up and there's very little science to support it.
Current Usable Systems
I am still unable to simply use any system for any length of time, however with the medical interventions and stretching above I am able to use anything for short periods of time at work without major issues.
I can still tell immediately when a screen is no good for me (jittering eyes / unable to focus / left eye will ultimately begin getting painful etc).
Dell XPS 15 9560
I have 5 of these machines now, all with the configuration detailed above and I am able to use all of them with relatively few issues other than neck pain.
They are all running the latest version of Windows 11 - windows versions don't seem to affect me. The Nvidia drivers are still the extremely old ones (about the first ones ever released for this laptop).
This is my go-to laptop for working on the go. I still use ditherig and the shortcut detailed above when using this machine - as ever it's hard to prove what is actually making a difference but if it works….
New PC Build
I have recently built a new PC, including changing the monitors and graphics card. I did this in stages - taking a working system from before (GTX 770 / i7 8750 / benq 2440w monitor) and changing the motherboard and CPU first, then the monitors, and then the graphics card. I'm very happy to say that I've had no issues with it and it's working perfectly for me.
OS: Windows 11 23H2
Mobo: Asus B550 Creator
CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X
GPU: Gigabyte Geforce RTX 3070 Eagle OC 8G
GPU Driver: 32.0.15.6614 (6th Nov 2024)
Monitors: Dell S2421HN
I am finding this system completely comfortable to use, which was a huge surprise to me. I expected a lot more experimentation to find a setup / combination of hardware that would work, but it was relatively simple in the end.
iPhone 13
Please see this thread for details on how I got the iPhone 13 to be fully usable for me.
Conclusion
Good luck with your journey. Please take my experiences with a pinch of salt - this is largely a neurological condition with some physical affectations, but hopefully some of the above may help someone to find a solution to their problem.
Keep at it - it does get better!
