Thanks for interesting post. Found some interesting stuff. Let me post my info, maybe it could help someone to identify anything or to find my soulmate haha.

I'm sensitive to:

  • PWM
  • Dithering (FRC, pixel-inversion, temporal dithering) I can't use any new Macs with apple silicon, w/ or w/o StillColor etc.

Not sensitive to:

  • Lightbulb LED PWM
  • Cars display PWM
  • iPhone 11 Pro (i don't know why, this is my daily phone, i don't have any symptoms with it, all other iphone 11 pros I can't use)
  • Just recently bought iPhone 16 PM (I can use it for around 3-4 hours per day while the sun is up with slight symptoms just a heavy back of the head, tossing it away when its dark outside)
  • Macbook Pro 15 Intel 2018 with 555 AMD

My overall health variables are:

  • IBS (hello not healthy gut)
  • Low testosterone (I found out, that when you becoming a dad, its natural that dads testosterone can go down but later it should come back to normal level, but looks like not in my case)
  • Anxiety/Depression (prob low serotonin)
  • Having some overweight
  • Probably photophobia, I didn't do the testing yet for it, but I can't walk outside without sun glasses, its just impossible.

What makes my symptoms worse:

  1. Lack of sleep (huge impact)
  2. Caffeine
  3. Noticed that Zyrtec (antihistamine) increases headaches if i'm using bad PWM display.

PS not sure about beer or some other alcohol 🍺 🍻 and how it affects me haha.

Thank you for this post. I think stress and anxiety also contributes as one of many factors. Some papers:

Serotonin, stress and corticoids: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026988110001400203

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128131466000102

The literature shows that stress effects on the serotonin system are regionally different throughout the brain and are dependent on the type of stress, its duration, the serotonergic marker measured, and individual differences in resilience and genetic background.

2 months later

On a related note, I recently noticed that when I sleep way too much, I get the same symptoms as when I’m exposed to flickering light (headaches, tinnitus, brain fog). Apparently too much sleep can cause a serotonin imbalance in someone’s brain.

That got me thinking that perhaps, for me, flickering light also causes a serotonin imbalance in my brain. For instance, what if flickering lights somehow triggers serotonin reuptake to occur. According to Google, serotonin reuptake can happen within milliseconds.

There is a study (not on headaches but on Alzheimer's) indicating that flickering lights (at 40 hz) “cause brains to release a surge of signaling chemicals.” So conceptually, the idea that flickering lights can immediately cause changes in serotonin levels in the brain seems plausible.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200204/Flickering-light-triggers-the-brain-to-release-signaling-chemicals-that-may-help-fight-Alzheimers.aspx

I have had luck with medications (SSRIs and others) reducing headaches, though I had some negative side effects that were hard to deal with. I found that these medications reduced my symptoms by 80-90%. I previously felt like this was just masking the problem, but I wonder if it is in fact addressing the core of the problem. (I mean, avoiding flickering lights would be best, but that may not be feasible so this may be the next best thing.)

For me, I will do some more experiments with medications that affect serotonin (SSRIs and others) and see what I find.

    ocean10

    I should note that I didn't go on these medications with the intent of reducing my headaches; I went on these medications to help with my insomnia (Nortriptyline), PTSD (antidepressants) and PLMD (Lyrica). It was only after being on the meds for a while that I was like "hey, I haven't been having headaches recently." So I don't think there's a placebo effect. Also, I had a lot of stuff going on in my life, so it's possible that the side effects were actually caused by other issues (PTSD totally rocked my world).

    Medications that helped:

    • Nortriptyline (40 mg) Side effects: extremely tired during the day, sadness, unmotivated, heart palpitations, and feeling dizzy when standing. I was not taking this medication daily (I was only taking it as-needed for insomnia), which may have caused the side effects if my body was constantly trying to adjust to the presence or absence of the medication.
    • Paxil (20mg). Side effects: severe daytime sleepiness
    • Trazodone (25mg) and Prozac (30 mg) combo. Side effects: common sexual side effects
    • Lyrica: This helped, but I don't remember how much. Insurance stopped paying for it in 2016 and I just never followed up. I'm going to try it again.
    • Effexor: I have a prescription but haven't (yet) had the courage to try it.

    I would say that Paxil removed 90% of my symptoms and Nortriptyline and the Trazodone/Prozac combo removed 80% of my symptoms. I honestly don't remember how well Lyrica worked (it was 8+ years ago). But it's pretty subjective, so it's possible that all of them were equally effective.

    When I was on the medications, I would still have fairly mild symptoms while I was exposed to flickering lights, but the symptoms would go away very shortly after my exposure goes away. When I'm not on the medications, the symptoms can last for up to three days. I don't know if you can relate to this, but here's one example: I went out for dinner while I was on Paxil and the light bulbs were flickering like crazy and I had some mild symptoms but I was thinking to myself "boy am I going to suffer tonight" because sometimes I don't get bad symptoms right away, but rather I'll get them an hour later and they can last for days. But then shortly after I left the restaurant I felt fine and didn't experience any bad symptoms.

    Another example: I have a large ViewSonic monitor that I could use just fine on Nortriptyline but now (not on medication) I get headaches within 10 minutes of using it.

        GregAtkinson I am currently taking Bupropion (Wellbutrin) with very few side effects (if any). Effexor is similar, so I wouldn't be afraid of it. However, discuss with your psychaitric provider, because SNRI's and SSRI's work very differently. Paxil and Prozac are both 1st-gen SSRI products. For me, Prozac worked well but the sexual side effects were ... unacceptable ... for my marriage. Paxil turned me into an emotional mess - no daytime sleepiness just amped my emotions to 11 all the time. Lexapro was similar to prozac, I think I liked prozac better TBH. Lexapro was very ... numbing.

        But ALL of them reduced my baseline anxiety. Which reduced headaches and made for better sleep. Which improved my eyes. What you're experiencing is not uncommon, I would think.

            Gurm Bupropion seems well tolerated and has no effect on the sexual sphere so I might try it. Had it solved your migraine/headache problem with the screens?

                Lauda89 It would be an interesting thing to try. Note that it's one of the few that doesn't work on serotonin (it works on norepinephrine and dopamine).

                  GregAtkinson

                  Sounds like are symptoms are different but also share some similarities. Headaches aren't typically a major part of my symptoms (they can occur but pale in comparison to everything else). On a bad screen I get symptoms almost immediately (weird dizzy/nausea, ear/head pressure, body warmth, sometimes cramp down my arm and in chest).

                  I can relate to the extended symptoms after exposure though. On bad screens I'll typically feel "bad" for hours afterwards - sort of improves in a slow but mostly linear fashion. It would be great if I could find something that allowed me to not have ongoing symptoms after exposure.

                  What kind of doctor are you using to integrate trying all these different medicines?

                      Lauda89 I've tried it a long time ago and it gave me random adrenaline rushes for the short time I was on it. Felt terrible lol. Regarding the sexual side effects Its known to actually increase your sex drive.

                        ocean10 Well, it's been a series of doctors and I can't say that I've had great luck. I've yet to find a doctor that has even heard of my problems, though most of them have been good listeners and willing to try their best.

                        If you're looking for my advice, I'd say that you have two options:

                        1. Go to your GP and ask them to prescribe something that has worked for others on this forum.
                        2. Go to a neurologist that specializes in headaches and/or pain (even though headaches aren't your primary symptom) and see what suggestions they have. There are dozens of different types of neurologists, but headaches and pain seem to be the closest to what you're experiencing.
                          6 days later

                          I forgot to mention that exercise seems to reduce my symptoms after exposure. I typically go running for 30-60 minutes. It is well known that exercise increases serotonin (among other things), so that's a little more anecdotal evidence that my symptoms could be caused by a serotonin imbalance.

                          dev