your health

I don't buy into Bates really, but a few things have grown out of it that have have been validated over time. For example, minus spherical correction does stimulate rearward axial growth of the eye.

I met an optometrist who has a great reputation for visual therapy for lazy eye, accommodative and convergence dysfunction etc. for kids mostly but also adults, and this was his opinion. Took the astigmatism completely out of my script and reduced my spherical correction. Those were the most comfortable and functional glasses I ever had. Unfortunately I moved too far to do the weekly vision therapy sessions.

As for the sun, the idea here is that there is a hormetic response. A large amount of sun and uv light will just end up giving you the equivalent of a sunburn on your eye. But limited daily exposure you build up some resilience through up-regulation of defensive genes. I don't advocate staring at the sun. Sunglasses are pretty mandatory much of the time due to all of the extra glare caused by pavement and cars. But think of natural environments like forests, clearings with grass, etc that humans evolutionary spent a lot of time in. The only protection you need is a wide-brimmed hat. It's the concrete jungle that makes sunglasses so mandatory. One of the best and scientifically validated examples of hormesis is that many of the benefits of exercise are completely eliminated when antioxidants are taken before or after a workout. Oxidative stress caused by workout is actually necessary for the benefits of that activity.

Personally I just think northern climates create a mild photophobia (happens to everyone after days of dark weather) that is much more problematic in myself due to existing sensitivities.

I think optometry as a whole is one of the most underdeveloped professions. Take a script to 5 different optometrist and you will get completely different scripts from each one, not even just margin of error level changes. There is a lot of variation between medical doctors but I don't think it's as bad as between optometrists. The practice of sitting in a chair and is A or B better now pony up for your $400 lenses is so flawed and should be completely scrapped for a more patient-centric approach where you figure out what you need from a lens on your own time doing activities that are relevant to you. Only exception here is when lenses are needed to meet a driving ministry test.

One more thing. I think those of us having to turn down the brightness on the screen to super low (I know not everyone here has that problem, but a significant number do), so very unfortunate. I mean, we have to make it very dim or else it causes headaches, but it's very bad for accommodation. The dim screen makes it way harder to focus and really stresses your ciliary muscles (and ciliary contractions are intrinsically linked to convergence). So what starts off with a sensitivity to certain technology, after a lot of strain and pain, becomes eventually a wide ranging asthenopia problem requiring complex refractive corrections. Often times, I can't make out a damn thing on the screen, I turn up the brightness and bam it's very readable (I always have text and ui elements huge so don't suggest that lol), but I have to turn it down shortly because of the oncoming headache.

My optometrist did find one interesting thing though. For a long time the pupil on my right eye has been larger than my left. When we did imaging you can see that the nerve into my right pupil is much smaller, meaning less parasympathetic input into that pupil. This impairs accommodation and pupil constriction. I have no idea how/when this happened because it wasn't like that when I was a kid. None of my family seems to have any idea when it happened so it seems to me like it came on gradually. I think me or others close to me would have noticed if one of my pupils suddenly got larger one day.

@JTL Is cannabis the only thing that has helped? Could it be related to anxiety?

ryans Yes, and he also mentioned the see sick syndrome - https://www.seesicksyndrome.com/
Has anyone here tried the exercises yet?
Im doing it now and I must say that it starts very similar head-pressure and headache symptoms like the screens that give me issues. It is the first time I was able to reproduce this feeling without using any computer.
It mentions photophobia, dizziness, anxiety, headaches... its visual motion allergy basically, which is what flicker and whatever else that new win 10 and some OS updates seem to be doing.
Also in the testimonials some people mention it in connection with TMJ etc., which were discussed here earlier too.

I will keep doing it and see if it can make me desensitized to the stressors completely.

ryans Olanzapine 1.25 - 2.5 mg has decreased my pupil diameter dramatically. Doesn't touch D2 receptors at 1.25 mg and hardly at 2.5 mg (antagonizing D2 receptors is the anti-psychotic action of these drugs).

The other thing that would work is very low dose risperidone (0.25 -0.5 mg). This might be the better option since risperidone doesn't block H1 or muscarinic acetylcholine significantly at that dose. However I wanted the mild sedative effect of olanzapine so I chose it instead.

Passive 5-HT2a agonism is probably the MOA of SSRI-induced mydriasis. Someone not taking an SSRI probably wouldn't get the same miotic effect of these drugs.

Second generation anti-psychotics in low doses are the most selective 5-HT2a antagonists available on the market. The other commonly available 5-HT2a antagonist is mirtazapine but it is insanely sedating at doses needed to significantly occupy that receptor. It's one of the most potent H1 receptor antagonists available.

For a natural supplement one could try a Feverfew extract standardized to 600 mcg parthenolide. Mygrafew is one such product. I haven't tried it myself.

I have a "Pupil Size" PubMed collection if people are interested.

Here is a recent study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28504010

Pupil diameter was significantly larger in patients receiving SSRIs for <6 months and ≥6 months than the control subjects (3.53 ± 0.71 mm, 3.48 ± 0.60 mm versus 3.11 ± 0.72 mm, p < 0.05) but this effect was independent from the duration of SSRI treatment... Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors cause mydriasis which is persistent during the treatment...

The eye-drop Alphagan-P reduces pupil size in dark conditions in healthy people.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21333872

Under dark conditions, the mean pupil diameter was 6.76 ± 1.08 mm before instillation of brimonidine 0.10% and 5.30 ± 0.85 mm after instillation; the difference was statistically significant (P<.001). There was a clinically significant reduction in pupil diameter after 6 hours in 90.4% of eyes. The antimydriatic effect under dark luminance conditions was more pronounced in eyes with light irides... Brimonidine 0.10% ophthalmic solution had an antimydriatic effect under dark luminance conditions and had a negligible effect on pupil diameter under light luminance conditions...