My possible solution, treatment and progress so far

martin I've been to another eye doctor recently and have a follow-up appointment next week. She said my eyes move slightly inwards which can be corrected with prismatic* lenses. Reading your description it almost sounds like you have an opposite condition, where the eyes want to move outwards? When I put on the testing glasses and looked through them I quickly got the same kind of eye strain that I have while using certain software (Firefox, some games, etc...). Covering one eye seemed to remove the effect.

* not sure if this was the right term, I should ask next week

martin Hi Martin. You wrote awhile ago you got migraines. Do you no longer get them now that you've started vision therapy? This research looks interesting https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266949405_Convergence_Insufficiency_Associated_with_Migraine_A_Case_Series

Alexandre Eye convergence excess or insufficiency seem to be my problem. I can feel some pain in my head and around the eyes, as if MUSCLES are involved.

Muscles around the eyes, and in the face and head ARE involved with anything you focus on but that doesn't mean you have an eye defect. My symptoms are tightness around back of head and then in face/eyes leading to headache. The same muscles you feel if you squint and lean forward to look at something small etc.
My theory is the constant dithering flickering is causing the muscles to get exhuasted having to constantly refocus and try to lock on to the continual movement in the same way low freq PWM really bothers some people but dithering is worse because its more random and in the images themselves.

A lot of people here are confusing eyestrain with CVS and overuse etc. Dry eyes, red eyes, things like this with no muscular issues are not eyestrain in my opinion but rather CVS or overuse etc and you can get them reading paper too long but most people don't spend 12 hours a day reading books. If you don't blink enough or have dry eyes for other reasons then staring at a bright light is going to bother you as well. Some of us probably have both types of issues. Some of us might have photosensitive neurological issues. But I think the people following the "convergence" path are going to be disappointed long term. You can find out instantly if this is your issue by getting an eye exam and prism glasses to correct that. If that's your true problem your "strain" or whatever will be instantly gone. Then you could work on therapy (which takes a year or more often) to work on physically correcting it and not needing the glasses.

hpst I seem to have the same disturbs as you. And I agree on dividing between CVS and this other disruptive thing we are suffering from. As said multiple times, I get strain almost instantaneously in front of a "bad" device. It is definitely not overuse. And I do not even need to "converge" and focus my eyes anywhere, because simply staring at a desktop without reading anything bothers me. It looks like a strong allergic reaction. And the effects may take days to fade. In my case I am also quite sensitive to non-incandescent lightning, although I find very tricky to say what is worse between LED and fluorescent light. It seems to be very dependent on the lamp/situation every time.

As to the convergence matter, I know my eyes are not "perfect". However, almost 15 years ago I was shown some convergence exercises by a very good optometrist. I quickly improved a lot. 4 years ago I attended a 2 day vision therapy session by Leo Angart I posted about months ago (https://www.vision-training.com/e/index.html). We were about 20 people of any age. Some guys had incredibly thick glasses and huge vision problems, like they could not even see me clearly from a meter without spectacles. After a few hours introduction, we did exercises similar to the ones I was shown by that optometrist 15 years ago. As Mr. Angart had anticipated before beginning the training, many of those people had to go on the same day to a pharmacy buy cheap glasses with reduced diopters. They could not use theirs anymore. They and I who witnessed that could not literally believe our eyes. Some people had to buy again a new pair of glasses after the second day, which was fully focused on training. Now, here comes my point. I went to that therapy session for curiosity, despair - given no eye doctor could figure out my problem - and to explicitly inquire about my computer-related eyestrain. I asked everyone around me and none of those guys, young or old, who came in with glasses thick like a bottle on the first day and with huge convergence issues, had any eyestrain from computer besides the CVS symptoms hpst mentioned (overuse etc. etc.). Mr. Angart suggested blue light was my issue and told me LED screens were not known to flicker like CRTs (BenQ had just come out with flicker-free LED monitors though!). How come I was the one in sorta better eye shape there, but the only one who would go bedridden after seconds of modern device usage? That is another reason why I believe convergence exercises are great, but are not going to solve my problems ever.

It has been awful for me the last couple of weeks. I kept my phone off for 5 days but now my MacBook Air is driving me crazy too. For some reasons some updates passed thru although only at Office level, and I cannot explain why they would affect my display. I am hoping I am just over-worrying. I noticed in the past that a sinus attack or a flu which I just did affect my eyes, but I feel I am just finding excuses. It is the device again.

I have been long enough but since this thread is about treatments, I would like to add a couple of things. I have been sleeping little, like 3-4 hours a night for long, even if I use UVEX goggles while working on my laptop at night and run f.lux at 4600 K during the day and 1900 K from sunset. The 5 days I did not use my laptop while on holiday I could sleep properly. The day before yesterday I took two pills of 50 mg diphenhydramine hydrochloride and I could sleep. I woke up a bit stoned but the twitching of the muscles around my eyes was greatly reduced and using my laptop resulted less harsh. Today I am back to awful symptoms. What does that mean? Is it neurological?
Finally, in the last few weeks I have been doing acupuncture treatments to cure headache, sinus inflammation and insomnia. I did not specifically mention eyestrain to the therapist. Well, I do not know if the recent worsening of my eyestrain could be ascribable to that, but I doubt. Has anyone tried acupuncture against eyestrain?