MagnuM Thats incorrect. You train your nervous system also, therefore it can help with a nervous system response over time. Nerves dont grow like muscles do, but there are adjustments and changes too.
I have an exercise with transparent card, where I see clearly how my vergence works (or doesnt) with accomodation. Its simple and cheap, but you cannot achieve this with pencil pushups.

My optometrist advised me to use a new iphone I bought (iphone 7) to supplement my training in a way that I have to find a line of when the pain gets too much, stop there and repeat when Im fresh again.
It seems the new training Im doing kicked my system into adjusting. Two weeks ago I had a migraine from the phone, then nausea within minutes, then sickness. Now I use it all day and except for a tightness and pressure in head when I look into it too long, its ok. Even played a game on it for hour without the glasses and had slight discomfort at the end of the session.
Also the recovery my body needs has changed, as in I can use it for texting, reading web and so on (even without my glasses now), and if it starts being uncomfortable, I stop and within few minutes to half hour Im ok again, as opposed to the past, when exposure of 15 minutes could result in a days migraine.
I hope this keeps improving with advances in the training to the point when Im part of the 95% who have no issues whatsoever.
I have also changed the background to greyer colors, and set nighshift on permanently at about 35%.

I dont want to get ahead of myself or get my hopes up too much, however if this keeps improving like that, I might be symptom free by the end of the training. I dont dare to use a modern computer yet, but the phone is a welcome improvement.

      martin So the optometrist idea was that you should buy a phone that gives you eye strain, and use it little to little to adapt your brain.

      So how did you get better with your phone? Just getting used? Or doing specific exercises for it?

      You use your phone with prism glasses?

          tfouto Please read back in this thread, the progress is written there. Exercises for convergence excess and accomodation insufficiency. I bought the phone because I needed it, but was afraid it might interfere with my training (it does when I overuse it, tires the eyes so much I cant get results in training after), however he advised me not to be afraid and find a line where I stop and start next day, or later. Couple monhts ago, before the training, I couldnt use it for more than 10-15 minutes and when I did, I had a raging migraine for the rest of the day.
          This by no way means there isnt something different with new display tech. My old iphone 4s still is very comfortable to use for hours.

          Yes with prism glasses but also now without them. Im still advised to use it with glasses though. It also helped to start one eye at a time only, before implementing binocular vision. So for couple days when I was using the phone I always covered one of my eyes (and was switching them every few minutes).

              martin Did it worked better with only one eye at the time?

              Was it worse with your lazy eye?

                  tfouto Not sure, it seemed the same. But the training and the whole issue is indeed made more difficult by the fact that I have shortsightedness only on one eye, therefore extra effort required for both eyes to cooperate properly (its easier for the brain to prefer the sharper one).

                    Came from the doctor. My sight is perfect. Except for the small insuficient convergence. He told me that there was nothing i could do. I asked him if there were eye convergence therapy i could do, he said that it would do anything. But i said i'd like to try, and he gave me a contact. So maybe i would try.

                    I think there is something about convergence. There's just to many people here who have convergence issues. That seems to much to be just a concidence. He's there anyone here who knows from eye exams, that dont have any convergence isuficienct?

                    I think everyone has SOME degree of convergence issues...the eyes are rarely 100% perfect in all ways and the brain does most of the visual work. But lets say its just us....I have heard no plausible theory as to why that would mean only CERTAIN display types etc are bad for us. Maybe something like dithering and its constant movement challenges the eye muscles too much and since ours are already struggling it's painful? But that's nothing more than a reaching guess and no doctor has been able to answer it for me.

                    Also every doctor I have talked to about this has said its dangerous to DIY therapy as you can end up making the problem worse and causing double vision etc. You can of course be given home exercises, but just doing the ones someone else told you about online seems foolish since not everyone's insufficiencies are the same.

                      hpst by your theory since nobody has a plausible theory and nobody knows, it doesn't exist.

                      DIY is dangerous, but not with a therapeut.

                      • hpst replied to this.

                          tfouto I don't know why you think I said/meant either of those things. I didn't say something doesn't exist because there is no plausible theory...I simply said I have heard no plausible theory. As to your second point I said exactly that...home exercises guided by a doctor are one thing.

                              hpst We are in the dark, what seems plausible means 0. That what it is.

                              The inner workings of the eye and brain are too complex for us to say what is plausible, what is logic. That's nothing.

                              We have to try experiment, and hopefully stumble in something.

                                  tfouto I did the exercises wrong in the beginning for about two months and yes, it got even worse. You absolutely have to do the specific ones that balance out yout deviation, otherwise nothing will happen or in worst case youll strenghten it even.

                                  It has to be led and adjusted by a specialist with checkups. Finding one seems most difficult to most. Even among optometrists many dont believe in heterophoria and only want to get involved when it develops into visible strabismus or diplopia.
                                  If your doctors examination doesnt last longer than one hour, its probably bad and you should go elsewhere. Mine took 2.

                                  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterophoria

                                    Id like to share all the exercises I did so far and also some Im about to do, to show you how complex such issues can be and that pencil pushups you found on the internet probably wont really do it justice:

                                    -tranaglyphs with 3d (red, green) glasses - images that go futher and further apart (red and green image respectively) and I am trying to keep them fused, see peripheral points and checking for depth perception on each step, my vision being separated by the colored glasses. That is done by small steps timed by a metronome to keep a steady tempo and increasing difficulty. This trains endurance.

                                    -tranaglyhps like in the previous description, but now only two steps a lot further apart, you jump back and forth. These train explosive power in the eye muscles and usually lead to better results in the endurance exercise before

                                    -brock string (now completed), following a string from near to far point, keeping fusion, checking if I have input in both eyes, trying to fuse the point where the string crosses with the point where I accomodate

                                    -accomodation on each eye separately, with the other one covered - switching two lenses in front of one eye for a minute at a time, refocusing through the lens on a text of specific size and specific distance. Future exercise is to do this binocularly, so to use both eyes at the same time.

                                    -transparent card - the most recent and most fun, as it doesnt require any computer and makes me realize what Im trying to achieve. Card with images progressively further apart that you try to connect with depth perception first by converging your eyes in front of the card, and then behind (that for me is the problem, not enough divergence power and convergence overpowered). Then when the images fuse, you should also see them sharp (accomodate binocularly) and with depth perception (keeping proper eye vergence).

                                    There is more exercises to come and Im about halfway done at best. As you can see, its a lot more complex than anything youll find on youtube or on the net, unfortunately. This is very neglected field but work is being done on it being more available.

                                    Ive been using my new iphone 7 without glasses all day yesterday, got a bit of tension in the evening which went away quite quickly once I laid it down. I dont wanna get ahead of myself, but it seems to be improving day by day. Previously this would result in a migraine that I would still have while writing this.
                                    I recommend you ask your specialist if they even know about these exercises, and if they dont, move on to someone else.

                                      martin Thats good news. How long can you look at iPhone7 for a period of time without feeling symptoms?

                                          martin Do you find that doing these exercises can sometimes bring on the very symptoms you are trying to relieve?

                                              tfouto It improves every day now and depends on the activity - pictures and videos least difficult, reading most difficult. Now today it was 2-3 hours in total and I feel no symptoms, or just slight tension. Its also a bit taxing and tiring as it requires effort still. Im not there yet completely, the idea is to not feel any problems at all with a larger display (computer).

                                              ryans not yet but we might get to it, he mentioned using some tech possibly down the way.

                                              MagnuM yes but thats the point. In the exercises I know whats causing the issue and I can train it, then if it overlaps with what the tech is causing, I can compensate for it. The idea is basically to find the pain and train in that area. It was previously impossible with the tech, because it was too much at once, an overload. I believe people who gotten used to it but had same symptoms as us had similar deviancy with they eyes, just less severe and the tech served as a training in itself, so they managed to adjust in couple weeks.

                                                    hpst This is just plain wrong. Not everybody has some degree of convergence issues.

                                                      5 days later

                                                      Update in case anyone cares, my insurance will cover a portion of vision therapy, so I will be starting once the new year rolls in. I am not going to get my hopes up that it will cure everything (e.g. muscle twitch from smartphone), but I am hoping it will at least help.

                                                        dev