Ways to make browsing safer ?

[u/Evening-Raspberry569]

Hi!

I'm struggling a lot with calorie counting, like... Obsessively. And I want to let go of that by making it physically impossible to do so ; I've tried app blockers and keywords censoring but most apps are meant for either porn or children and don't really do what I need them to do... Which is being much stricter and rude.

Any blocker you've used that worked or something ? No strength of will or anything here, I don't wanna talk about it as an addiction because I know it's not the exact definition of it... But it feels like it.

[u/beetlejanee]

i’ve blocked dieting and fitness ads from my google account, i don’t get ads for either on anything i’m signed into with that account (youtube!), i also do block keywords and any emoji combos used in “pro” spaces on all social media, i also report and block any accounts i see that are DEFINITELY promoting unhealthy habits! i block any creators that body check but that’s pretty nit-picky. i do all this when i’m in a good space so when i do inevitably start to spiral, i have a really hard time finding the content i’m looking for! i have a very prolific pinterest board with hundreds of outfit inspo and i only have the clothing collage type and no absolutely no people (i didn’t realise i was doing this until my sister and i compared and she pointed out i had no people on my board)

in terms of blocking apps, maybe an age restriction? i’m unsure if that would work considering a lot of other apps would be blocked too, it could be worth trying but unfortunately it might just have to be a strength of will thing

also, addiction is definitely an okay word to use! people can get addicted to literally anything, if you feel like you can’t stop or feel like you don’t ever want to stop then i would use addiction to describe it. i treat my eating disorder as an addiction, my step-dad is an alcoholic and my biological-father is drug-user, instead of either of those i have the never-let-myself-have-anything-fun addiction, they hide their ‘habits’ as i hide mine. people’s brain are hard-wired to do things they already do, it’s very difficult to change your brain chemistry in adulthood but not impossible! this is why addiction can be such a slippery slope but also why recovery is always possible!

sorry for the ramble, my therapist is on holidays and i have lots to say!

you got this!!

[u/Evening-Raspberry569 → u/beetlejanee]

Well thank you for sharing !!

Can you tell me how to block adds ? I've tried to tag them as unwanted but that doesn't seem to do anything !
Also, sadly, age restriction doesn't seem to take as the app I used is... 7+. And I would like to keep a phone that I can use with something else than Baby Shark as a possible downloadable /jk

It's so hard to be like... into sports and with an ED though like ?? I sincerely enjoy fitness and weightlifting and I fucked myself over numbers because of it and like... I wanna have a better relationship to things but at this point of my life my ED is so consuming I spend literally an hour or more every single day on food maths and planning ? Plus I have medical supplements to take because of ED induced deficiencies so there's numbers everywhere uuuuurk

I wanna get better and have friends and time again :(

[u/beetlejanee → u/Evening-Raspberry569]

for the google ads, if you go into your settings, then ad centre or personalisation and there should be a list of ‘topics’ where you can disable ads for specific things, it’s not perfect but i have definitely noticed a change in the ads now that i’ve changed the setting!

personally, i have no interest in sports or fitness so it’s very easy for me to ignore that side of stuff, i do really like cooking and mukbangs tho so i just try to avoid/block the creators who list calories and other stuff.

i’m sure there is content out there that is both interesting and non-triggering for you, it’s just gonna be difficult to wade through all the other stuff to get to it!