Since taking a computer programming class as a senior in high school, I have had a love-hate relationship with computers. When I developed severe eye strain about seven months ago, the hate part became really intensified.
But because of my suffering, I am now able to teach others how to heal severe eye strain, and even give tips on how to prevent it in the first place. There is a silver lining around this cloud. 
I believe the problem began when I first started creating thecrunchycoach.com site. I would spend two to three hours reading and typing on the computer every day, without giving my eyes the proper breaks I should have. Then, last December, I got in a hurry to finish a project. I spent over an hour at a time staring up close at the computer screen while copying, pasting and editing content.
The next few days, I couldn’t look at the computer screen for five minutes without developing a splitting headache.
But did I take a break from the computer? NO-O! God forbid I allow my Alexa ranking to go down to allow my eyes to heal. So I kept on. In a few weeks, I not only had a hard time going through e-mails, but developed pain after reading just a page or two in a book.
I was frustrated, my intense, seemingly out-of-control ambition constantly colliding with my gut feeling that if I could just forget that my computer existed for a month, I would be all right. I had hit rock bottom emotionally when I signed up to be a Be Young Essential Oils distributor. And discovered Masaji.
After taking it for only a week, I was a new person, and was able to see (pun not intended) my situation from a new perspective. I was finally able to relax (well, at least a little) for the first time in my life.
Healing from severe eye strain
Long story short, I did three main things to heal myself from severe eye strain:
1. Began doing the eye exercises I found at this site.
The very first day I did these exercises the headaches stopped. I try to remember to do them every day, as they will help to prevent eye disease.
By the way, some people–even some blind people!–have completely restored their eyesight and been able to ditch their corrective lenses by doing similar exercises on a daily basis.
2. I bought the essential oil blend, “Eye Vision.”
I actually found out about this a couple weeks after joining Be Young. I was talking to someone on the staff, and suddenly the thought popped into my head that there might be an oil to help heal my eyes. He told me about Eye Vision, which I immediately ordered. When it arrived a few days later, I immediately applied it to my upper and lower eyelids. I felt immediate relief!
Later, I found out that the ingredients in Eye Vision are anti-inflammatory. A-ha!
3. I rested my eyes.
This was the hardest part. For an entire week, I didn’t pick up a book. For an entire month, I stayed away from the computer. Thank God for podcasts and librivox.org! Having a supportive husband helped, too.
Preventing eye strain
Trust me, you do not want to go through what I have. Here are a few ideas to prevent eye strain:
1. Take a break from the computer every 30 minutes.
If you are at home and have been working on the computer for half an hour, go doing something else for fifteen to thirty minutes, or longer, if you can. If you have to work on a computer all day long, get in the habit of looking away from the computer every fifteen minutes and rolling your eyes. See if you can break your computer work up so that every thirty minutes to an hour, you can perform another part of your job that doesn’t involve looking at the computer.
2. Enlarge the text size whenever possible.
3. Minimize the brightness of the screen.
On my computer, I do that by hitting the “FN” – or function – key, while hitting the “F6″ key.
4. If you’re typing, as I am as I compose this blog, look away as often as possible.
Even when I was struggling with the worst of the eye strain, I could last a lot longer on the computer if I was typing rather than reading something online.
5. Do the eye exercises daily.
You only need about five minutes. Totally worth it, especially if you wear corrective lenses and you find yourself needing a weaker prescription after a few weeks!
6. Keep your eyes an arm’s length from the computer screen.
This is also recommended for reading books, although I find it hard to keep a book that far away. Just know that if your nose is literally in a book, you are increasing your risk of eye strain.
My eyes still haven’t completely recovered, but they are much better and I definitely notice incremental improvement. And I no longer utterly hate computers.
Update
A few months after writing this post, I broke down and saw an opthamologist. No vision problems, but he diagnoses me with Dry Eye Syndrome. I happen to believe I have Computer Vision Syndrome with a minor in dry eyes (lol), but whatever. I am now taking megadoses of vitamin C and omega 3′s, and the combination seems to be helping at least with the computer vision symptoms.
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I’ll be bookmarking this post. Thanks
My eyes have deteriorated rapidly after having and respecting my 20/20 vision all my life. My Optician assures me that it has nothing to do with computing, but as much as I respect her, I don’t believe it. I’ve worked more intensely on computers over the past couple of years and I started having problems not long after. Too coincidental for me to ignore.
I do believe we can heal many things, eyesight being one of them, naturally and with exercises. I’m glad you have found some relief. Headaches are no picnic. Great post!
.-= Christine Holroyd´s last blog ..Renovations =-.
You’re welcome. I hope some of these suggestions will help you! It took me a while to find the solutions that worked for me. Most of what you find online about eye strain is for mild cases. May you begin to recover quickly!
Thanks for writing this article on severe eyestrain. I am currently dealing with this problem. I get it badly at times, where the eye fatigue and related symptoms last beyond a good night’s rest. I usually experience it after several hours of intense work in front of the pc. I get dizzy, lightheaded and nauseas sometimes. Also, headaches felt right in the eyes or above the eyes. As far as eye exercises, is there a chance that working your eyes with them would worsen the eye strain? I’m not sure exactly how that works. Also, which one of the 3 main methods to heal that you described here worked the best for you. I greatly appreciate your time!
If you do the exercises just until you feel a gentle pull, I don’t think you’re going to make them worse. But I’m just speaking from my own experience–I abdicate any claims to treating or curing eye strain. If you’re afraid the exercises might make them worse, try taking a serious break from the computer for a week or so, then do the exercises when your eyes and head feel somewhat recovered.
I honestly believe that all three methods work synergistically to help; however, if you have to pick just one it would be forcing yourself not to even turn on your computer for two weeks to a month. I know that’s really hard when you’re trying to make money online, but you have to ask yourself what’s more important, my eye health or making a few extra dollars which loss I can make up for later?
Thanks for visiting my blog, and HTH!
Thank you for your detailed, prompt response!
One other question, if you don’t mind. You said when you did those exercises, the headaches stopped. Which exercises did you do? The free ones? Or did you pay for the full program? Was there any one in particular that stopped the headaches? Thanks!
Hi there, I have had bad eye strain for the past 6 months and it is really interfering with my work. I hope you have seen an improvement in your eye strain. I just wondered how you are getting on now as the post was in 2010 and what you found most beneficial? Becky
Becky, thanks for visiting! I have seen an overall improvement, but I still can’t read for very long on the computer. The recovery is taking its own sweet time, and the main thing that works for me is to know my limitations and keep within them. When I go over the boundaries, so to speak, I regress in my healing. Taking the homeopathic eye drops are great to keep my eyes feeling more lubricated, and I couldn’t do anything without the computer vision glasses I bought on Amazon.com.
I would recommend you take some time off from the computer – as long as you dare – and limit your time to perhaps 10 or 15 minutes on the computer, then take a break for at leas that long. And remember to do a lot of blinking and looking away from the screen as much as possible.
Hope you recover quickly – I completely empathize!
Hi Emily! I’m reading your post and I can recognize myself. I used to have exactly the same problem. There was a time when I couldn’t read even 1 email without tears in my eyes. And the reason was my computer work. And here’re the things I did: eye exercises, diet, and relaxing. Just like you, as you can see:)). And it does help. But it takes some time and patience to have constant results. That’s the “bad side” of this method (and most natural methods in fact). One of the things I do now to prevent that painful situation is blinking breaks. It works perfect for me as blinking is like a moistening massage for the eyes.
Janet, thanks for confirming! I actually recently discovered that a couple of drops of almond oil on each eyelid 2-3X/day works wonders at bringing the moisture back…which in turn has considerably reduced the Computer Vision Syndrome.
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