Treatments, desensitization, pills, exercises - solutions

martin Thank you for your really detailed posts about what helped you martin! Now that you believe you're on the right track, please don't forget about us! Please give us a 1-month progress check, 3-month progress check, 6-month, etc, via calendar reminder if you have to, just to ensure that it's not just another red-herring!

I believe I have a similar source issue as you: convergence insufficiency & accommodative insufficiency. My eyes look fine, and I don't have any lazy eye or anything like that, but they are a bit wide-set, and may have a bit mroe trouble converging at near than a general control. Earlier you were saying convergence excess though, which is the exact opposite as convergence insufficiency, so I just want to make sure which one is correct in your case.

I just had my annual eye exam on Tuesday of this week. I also want to stress again what martin was saying. The problem is not one of vision acuity. Every year, with corrective lenses (either spectacles or contact lenses), I have 20/20 or even in some cases 20/15 vision. The issue is long term comfort in focusing at near (arm's length). This is more to do with how the two eyes team up to create a fused image that your brain processes.

It's unbelievable seeing the war between optometrists & ophthalmologists on this issue as well. It seems they believe two different schools of thought. Optometrists (if you get a good one) believe the issue may be due to binocular vision, and may do a "binocular vision assessment" on you and determine if you need prisms in your glasses, or binocular vision therapy. Ophthalmologists on the other hand will just believe you have dry eyes. It's pretty unbelievable that they spend 12 years at university to come up with a diagnosis that is so wrong. Don't waste your time. Go to an optometrist and ask for a binocular vision assessment (convergence testing, accommodation testing, etc)

If at all possible, I would like to try beating the source of the problem through binocular eye exercises. When I first presented my big issues in the fall of 2012, I couldn't keep that ruler with the E on it together and fused at my optometrist's office if my life depended on it. On Tuesday, it can pretty much nearly touch my nose and I still have it fused. The convergence exercises I did over the years made this possible. My challenge still though is holding this fusion for several hours a day I spend using a computer. Long into a work day, I will still have the issue of my eyes getting a bit tired, and my fused vision will get a bit "jumpy" (incidences of suppression)

martin, can you explain a bit more what makes these new glasses of yours so special? Do they use extra prisms to help with convergence and/or accommodation? If I find over the months/years that I can't quite get where I need to be with the eye exercises, I will resort to "cheating" and getting glasses that do it for me!

MagnuM Just to chime in again to mention that it is unlikely I will ever be able to use both eyes together, and have always had convergence difficulties, also I am extremely short sighted with astigmatism.

I have what is known as alternating strabismus, one eye can see independently at a time, e.g. if i look out of my right eye, the left eye turns inwards but the right remains straight, same with the left eye, if looking through it, will look straight but the right will turn inwards. Essentially I have almost no stereo vision.

I have never noticed strain of any kind until LED monitors, HDMI inputs and Dithering came into action, I believe within the last 5-10 years.

Can any of you use these problem devices with one eye covered?

Also, surely if everybody on this forum can remember a time when they didn't have these problems, seek out that computer / graphics card / monitor combo and try it. If you still are eyestrain free with these old devices then surely the issue is directly with the new technology/drivers and not our own eyes.

These exercises are great - I'm realizing my symptoms of feeling "out of it," dizzy, like i've been staring into the sun.. just woke up, drunk, head is mush, etc.. are really my brain trying to come up with an explanation for why it suddenly can't focus correctly.

diop Wow, that really sucks! Has it always been like that? Have you ever asked anyone trained in binocular vision therapy if it may still be helpful for you? My binocular vision therapist from years ago said they had one kid that would look forward with one eye, and the other eye would essentially be pointed at the wall. It took 3 years of intense vision therapy, but I think they may have been able to graduate from the therapy! Kids are way easier to work with though, because the neuroplasticity of the brain is still at its highest.

I have two separate but distinct eye issues when it comes to computer monitors. Sometimes I will only talk about one at a time as not to confuse people. I can't look at LED monitors at all. It feels like staring into a very bright light, even at 0% brightness, and "hurts my brain". So I rule them out completely. I avoid them like an allergy-sufferer would. But even on long term "known-good" monitors I was getting eye strain and temple headaches after being on them a long time. That issue is what I credit the vision therapy for. I share that info because other people here talk about "eye strain" but sometimes without going into specifics about how long it takes. Then some people, maybe on other forums, would suggest they get their eyes checked (acuity), and they get frustrated because they may be seeing 20/20 without glasses. The correct suggestion may have been to get their binocular vision checked.

But yeah, getting a fried brain within minutes or sometimes seconds can't be related to any eye-teaming issues. I still don't know why I can't handle LED-backlit LCDs; I can only handle CCFL-backlit LCDs. I still think it's to do with intense blue-light though, because turning up the brightness, disabling flux, and turning off the "warm" Preset Mode on the OSD of my Dell U2410 (CCFL) will reproduce that "brain ache", but it's still more tolerable and takes longer to set in than an LED would.

reaganry What exercises in particular are you doing?

I've had tension headaches that started suddenly (woke up to them) since March 2006 that gave me those feelings you described (head full of cobwebs, feeling almost hungover, feeling really spaced-out and out-of-it, etc). They've really been a lot better in recent years. I credit the binocular vision therapy to that, as well as trying to maintain more consistent circadian rhythms (i.e. sleep-consistency: going to bed and waking up at the same time, even on weekends). I often used to wake up with a pretty stuffy head after oversleeping on the weekend and waking up close to noon (when I normally wake up at 7:30 AM for work), and that headache would usually last all day until at least the next sleep cycle.

Anything medical is very hard to "troubleshoot", unlike computers, just because there can be so many different factors at play (and sometimes, even combinations of factors)

diop I've found exercises here https://www.uhb.nhs.uk/Downloads/pdf/PiConvergenceExercises.pdf

martin What I need to do is test that with print. Almost everything is digital these days. We spend hours staring at our phones, completely mesmerized with what we are seeing or reading, and forgetting to look away and refocus our eyes from time to time. Holding any clenched muscle for a prolonged period of time would be difficult.

I need to read some book or instruction manual for multiple hours at a time, resisting any temptation to use my phone during that stretch of time, to see if the same familiar ache starts to build up. If it does not, then it's possible there is still something with the digital display of the iPhone 6S+ that makes the issue worse.

I run my iPhone with pretty low brightness and with NightShift mode on at all times. Since holding a phone is half the focal distance of looking at a computer monitor a full arm's length distance away, I only use my phone for minutes at a time when I need it. If I find an article that I like, I will sometimes email it to myself so I can read it on my larger and further away desktop monitor so I don't strain my eyes as fast.

Little strategies like this have seemed to make a difference.

MagnuM the one that does it for me is the 3 thumb stretch out one. it seems to immediately counteract the equally immediate blue led effect.

yeah i get the fried brain in <2seconds with a single blue led.
i discovered i can correct it quickly with the 3 thumb stretch exercise...
that implies to me that the led has triggered my eyes to converge incorrectly...
then I think the 'fried' feeling is my brain interpreting blurry vision as intoxication. the way it interprets narrow FOV in video games as poisoning.

I will be scheduling it soon.

Are we the problem? Is it really our eyes or brains that are "messing up"?

It could be we just have superior visual processing in one way or another.

Those of us sensitive to PWM - it could be we just process visual information faster than other people. Look at all those who don't notice the flicker of an incandescent bulb. Incandescent doesn't cause me pain but I can always tell it's not a steady light most people don't notice this and you have to go out of your way to show them and even then a lot of the time they'll be like "I don't see it". I assume this would be the same reason some of us think we're sensitive to dithering. Generally "normal" people will get the same symptoms as us if the PWM is too low for them albeit at a much lower frequency.

Same with if it's the frequency of light maybe we're just more sensitive to it. There are people who can see UV light, people who see a lot more colours, what if we're just seeing something most people aren't and LEDs are producing it in too high of a quantity for us to be comfortable?

What I'm saying is, we're all looking inside but what if it's not us that's the problem but every body else?

Of course we should be looking at ourselves and trying to figure out if there's something wrong with us that's a problem. However, it could be just our eyes/brain aren't wired right or high rates of flickering causes something akin to a seizure - In some ways it does make me think of epilepsy.

I think the easiest fix would be finding out the true outer cause (the problem with LEDs, the problem with drivers, PWM) to our problems so we can come up with a real work around. Most of us (or all) are not all that sure what our issues are actually caused by just that some things hurt and we do not know exactly why.

It could actually be a defect we have but could it not also just be that we're just better at visual processing in some way?

Soreeyes It could be we just have superior visual processing in one way or another.

I heard someone had issues with PWM start after being struck in the head. I don't know how a TBI is "superior" to someone without a TBI.

Soreeyes However, it could be just our eyes/brain aren't wired right or high rates of flickering causes something akin to a seizure

This does make me think of photosensitive epilepsy. It's very rare in contrast with the general population, and even people with epilepsy.

Soreeyes I would say that's a different thing altogether, I mean in that case they literally know what caused their problems. That is an unfortunate situation though.

Which statement are you referring too?