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JTL i think the key factor in production monitors is they get a signal with no compression or FRC dithering. This Hugo guy talks about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdJCSqvc1Y8
Blue light photophobia, eyestrain, muscle spasms, pain, twitching
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welcome! lots of new insights & overlap with other folks symptoms/triggers:
'production monitors' is a helpful clue on a rabbit trail we're on already.
Quinine is new & interesting- (finally) ordering some now. [some crazy side effects fyi: change in color perception(!), not effective when taken with magnesium, interferes with different meds (https://www.rxlist.com/qualaquin-side-effects-drug-center.htm#overview)]
Most of us arent bothered that much by fluorescents.
I just read that goat's milk (which i can tolerate) has A2 casein vs A1(cow's- which i cant).
Have you taken the colorblindness tests with the little dots? https://enchroma.com/pages/test
JTL True- would be interesting to try this blackmagic card- it's only $200. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1281031-REG/blackmagic_design_bdlkminimon4k_decklink_mini_monitor_4k.html
JTL yeah i didnt notice any difference in linux either, but in windows it's night and day. https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1082681/geforce-drivers/is-it-possible-to-quot-port-quot-dithering-from-nvidia-x-server-to-geforce-driver-/post/5934577/#5934577
Blair You're very welcome Blair! A lot of this literally came down to trial-and-error over several years.
I had an iPhone 3GS in March 2010 that was great and gave me no problems. In December 2012 I got an iPhone 5 and it would give me similar problems like you are describing with your cellphone. I was able to mostly get around this by keeping the brightness as low as I could see stuff on it and only using it a few minutes a day (good enough to answer text messages and what not).
That's why I'm thinking something changed around 2011 or so with screen display technology that affected us. My first LED monitor I bought in December 2011 was my first clue that there was something about it my eyes/brain do not like at all.
My guess is that the monitor you use on the production set might be one of those boxy CRT TVs like this:
http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/photo/2016/0901/r121048_800x450_16-9.jpg&w=800
These are the old school tube TVs that had that 60 Hz refresh rate flicker. Ironically, these would probably be the easiest monitors for you to look at. Some gamers still use these ancient TVs from the 90s because they still have the fastest response times to them with almost no input lag.
I'll tell you - I thought at first it was my TMJ (I have very mild - wear a nightguard but otherwise have no issues) or related to my Tinnitus (both of these involve inflammation in the temple area) but the timelines don't track. I started wearing a nightguard because my jaw really ached in late 2011. I didn't have a problem with monitors until nearly a year later. The tinnitus has been an issue for nearly 20 years, certainly unrelated.
The first thing I noticed I couldn't look at was Macs. Specifically Macbooks with newer ATI chips in them. 2010/2011 models with GeForce in them were fine. 2011/2012 models switched over to ATI Radeon and they were pretty much unusable.
After that I switched jobs, and noticed that some monitors were harsher than others. But I had tried to "force" myself to get through the Macbook issue, and tried to work under the REALLY BAD fluorescent lighting at work, and just couldn't do it. Bear in mind - I was using a 2012 model Lenovo X220 with an LED backlight at the time in a darkened room as my "safe system", so it's not anything intrinsically to do with all LED's.
I was also driving long hours with an eyeglasses prescription that needed updating - my new job required me to drive 1.5-2 hours each way, always into the sun (east in the morning, west in the evening) and by the time I got home I was really burned out.
This caused me to have a massive anxiety outbreak, I was having anxiety attacks pretty regularly at this time which CERTAINLY didn't help.
Known good systems at that point were breaking down. My TV? Unwatchable. XBox 360? Unusable. Anything that required me to focus on a screen was simply out of the question. Store lighting was bad. I was in a really low place, spending most of my time in the dark away from screens.
But there's hope - I'm 1000 times better now, in spite of using a much wider variety of screens! I have relatively recent laptops I can use (my primary work laptop is a 2015 Dell XPS), I can use relatively recent PC's (the 2015 Windows 10 LTSB with a GeForce 970 First Edition is not a bad system under any circumstances), the only remaining issue is my phone.
There are still bad things - the supermarket put in a ton of LED lighting for the checkout aisles... and then took it out because people complained. Vending machine lighting is often LED's now, harsh and horrid. The nearby Wal-Mart put in high-intensity fluorescents above their produce area, and I have to rush to get my lemons and broccoli now lest I get burned out...
But in general I can function. For how long? Not sure. Hopefully long enough for a cure.
I wonder if there is a common cause - inflammatory response?
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I find it hard to believe that I'd have an unknown infection for a decade... infections either resolve or get worse.
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I could also be wrong with my statement.
I'Ve explainend it in more detail in the health thread. Normal blood tests show that I'm at perfect health, however if you look closer and do further blood tests some markers show that my immune system is permanently running and fighting against something. Some guys mentionend a reactivated Epstein-Barr-Virus and also at my side there was the assumption that this could be a root cause of my problem. However it is not clear and therefore I try out my mentionend micro immune therapy.
However the only thing which is clear is, that something is going on and that we are far away from common health and eye problems so we also have to do uncommon tests and therapys.
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Blair You should try Choline enriched foods. Or maybe suplements. But i prefer not to take suplements.
"Choline performs a chemical transformation, converting the harmful homocysteine into the helpful chemical methionine."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190108084424.htm
https://www.optimallivingdynamics.com/blog/16-proven-ways-to-effectively-lower-homocysteine
Also betaine is also good.
"Probably the most extensively researched benefit of betaine? It’s used to convert homocysteine in the blood to methionine."
https://draxe.com/what-is-betaine/
Also Cod:
"Cod, specifically, promotes cardiovascular health because it is a good source of blood-thinning omega-3 fatty acids as well as an excellent source of vitamin B12 and a good source of vitamin B6, both of which are needed to keep homocysteine levels low. "
Indeed- I'm feeling hopeful about the production monitor being something I may be able to tolerate long enough to (gasp!).... watch something! Looking forward to getting the technical specs of the ones they use on set. Then promptly buying one, assuming there's a good return policy on it 
The quinine I take is an alcohol free tincture (Secrets of the Tribe brand). The label says 'Organic Quinine (cinchona officianalis) dried bark. So I'm thinking it's not quite the same as the Qualaquin sulfate capsules. I'm hoping not, because I take 400-800 mg of magnesium glycinate per day. I only use the quinine tincture when I'm having twitching, which is infrequent (every few months, for a few days to a week).
It's weird that most of you guys aren't bothered by florescents, yet I am extremely sensitive to them. Are TV's insanely bright to most of you as well? For me, the brightness is practically blinding. I can only look at a television for a few seconds. So it's the brightness, followed by the strain, followed by the muscle pain. I'm also wondering if anyone else here has had muscle spasms in the eyelid due to eyestrain. I have the pain almost daily, to varying degrees depending on how good I've been about staying off my phone.
It's interesting to me you brought up the casein thing. I don't know if that was random or in response to something I said. (It's hard for me to go back over everything that has been written, for obvious reasons) so forgive me if I repeat myself or overlook things. Anyway, I'm sensitive to gluten and casein, but I can also tolerate goat/sheep milk. Grass fed butter isn't a problem for me either, as it only contains A1 casein in microscopic amounts. I'm currently off all dairy except grass fed ghee because I'm doing this low inflammation diet.
Just did the color blindness test. It was normal. Sigh. Always hoping for that "a-ha!" moment...
I'd be interested to see if the 3GS works for me, if I can find one online and it's returnable. What phone are you currently using?
The monitors they have at work are actually flat screens, not boxy at all. The picture is very nice, not too bright. I promise I'll let you guys know exactly what they are as soon as I find out. I never look at them for more than a few minutes, but that's a few minutes more than I can tolerate a "regular" tv, so I'm hopeful it may be the workaround for me and for some of you as well! 
I did try watching an old school box tv when I was at at Irlen center doing testing. It still bothered my eyes/brain. And every color combination of Irlen lenses proved unhelpful.
Blair Wow, the 3GS is really old. May not be able to run too much these days aside from some basic Safari web browsing and SMS text messages. I used the iPhone 5, which gave me some mild symptoms, but not too bad at low brightness with NightShift enabled. Phones are usually used for quick checks versus long sessions anyway. I'm using the iPhone 6S+ currently with similar issues as the 5, but I think the larger screen helps. I have Nightshift enabled at all times on it, and the brightness is low, and I haven't had too many problems I link directly to the phone's display. Thankfully it's a non-factor for me in most cases.
It would be helpful to find out what monitors at work are tolerable for you. If needed, maybe ask some techie there if he can even get model numbers for you too! Getting the model numbers would get you all the technical specs that go with it. You might be able to find a pattern of "eye safe displays"
The first ophthalmologist I saw back in late 2013 suggested doing an Irlen Center screening, which I did back in April 2014 if I remember correctly. After a couple hour session, they did suggest I had Irlen Syndrome to some degree. When I returned to try different lenses though, I couldn't seem to find any lenses that helped to a significant degree over placebo, mind you, I was doing my tests against the printed word instead of the problematic displays that I'm not able to handle.
Irlen Syndrome is a bit controversial, but I remember the vice president's son of our company worked as a summer student once and always wore these blue-tinted glasses. I spoke to the VP once and he said the glasses were essentially life-changing for him, because he had a lot of trouble in school with reading and such, and the tinted glasses were the smoking gun.
The theory behind Irlen Syndrome is over-sensitivity of the optic nerve from specific wavelengths of light. The tinted glasses try to filter out that "offensive" light wavelength. That's at least how it was described to me.