new-jdm So it takes a bit of a therapeutic approach with short exposures, feelings of safety, then building up to long exposures.
Not confident if this actually works or not, supposedly it does. Either way, it's all I've got to try. Otherwise I'll always be chasing safe screens, and I'm running out of them.
Yeah, neuroplasticity is a thing. The problem, especially for those of us with chronic health conditions, is things like “brain retraining” programs are expensive scams and it’s easy to be thrown in the psychiatric box.
I think of it more like your body has experienced a physical trauma and like anything, you need to do physical therapy to build it back up.
The problem I have is that it’s difficult to untangle different parts of the nervous system, brain, eyes, etc.
For example, some people have found success acclimating to devices after a week or two that gave them problems. In that case it seems they were able to adjust.
For others, pushing seems to make it worse and worse and worse. So how do you determine whether you’re in the “I just need a week to adapt” vs. “my brain is having a neurological reaction and I am hurting myself.” I think this is much more relevant relating to flicker like PWM or dithering, especially the latter where frequency is usually 15-30Hz and well within the danger zone for seizures in epileptic individuals. The 15” M4 MBA triggered the beginning of a seizure in me within 2 minutes. If I kept pushing, I probably would’ve ended up in the hospital.
This is what makes this situation so difficult and somewhat dangerous. One person can go to a concert with strobe lights and be fine and the other ends up in the ER.
But it’s also disingenuous on other forums like Apple Support Forums or even MacRumors where people complete dismiss addressing these technologies and say “go get your eyes checked.” There should be accessibility options for people to disable flicker or alternatives for sensitive people. The problem is that hardly anyone in tech is offering these solutions in a usable way. It’s not the ‘90s where you could conceivably not use a computer and do your job and live your life. Phones and computers are a requirement of modern society and jobs. I can’t even use my banking app anymore because it requires an iOS update to iOS 16 and I know they introduced more dithering in that update and I can’t afford to have no usable screen at all.
None of us asked to have this issue, just like no one asked to get COVID or a chronic illness. I lived a very healthy lifestyle prior to getting sick and did “everything right” as people would say. As I tell people, I would happily use a 5-10 year old device if I could do my job with it. I don’t care about the latest phone or MacBook. I just want to be able to do my job. This is not a “I want my shiny new toy” scenario that a lot of people who aren’t affected seem to think it is.