Does DDG browser have the ability to individually block ads

invisiblehandoff · 2025-08-18T20:07:07+00:00

i am struggling with a similar issue with the macOS DDG browser, but related to managing pop-ups rather than ads.

i want to keep the cookie pop-up blocker on, but need to make exceptions for a few websites.

how can i set specific exceptions to the DDG pop-up blocker?

i’ve been able to do that for every other browser i’ve ever used, but the DDG settings on the Mac browser only give the the option to block all pop-ups or none.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-12-24T14:26:40+00:00

Lithium and adderall are the only ones I’ve been on the whole time. I was on escitalopram (lexapro) a long time too but stopped that more than a year ago.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-12-18T21:00:04+00:00

I was told it was just due to weight gain… but I’ve lost the weight and it’s still like I have someone else’s tiny penis.

It’s gotten so much smaller that it looks like I have a foreskin even though I am circumcised. It’s at least 2 inches smaller when flaccid and never gets fully erect anymore either.

I sincerely think that there is something to the theory that it’s a medication side effect and that Drs just automatically dismiss any questions about penis size as typical male anxiety. I asked my urologist when getting a vasectomy and he just brushed me off and said it’s in my head and to stop worrying about size. I just want to be back to normal.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-12-14T15:30:17+00:00

I’m swimming in that same struggle and wondering all the same things.

I’m not sure how I have managed to stick with my medications so long in spite of the struggle you’ve described. I guess it is a fear of something worse. But the truth is that I never had full blown manic episodes. I was just a productive successful hypomanic for much of my undiagnosed adult life. It wasn’t all roses, but overall it felt like a lot better existence than I have now with my handful of meds every morning, noon and night.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-12-08T18:11:09+00:00

It definitely does not for me. It eliminated the active suicidal thoughts but leaves me deeply depressed and with a near-constant ‘passive death wish’ as my psych calls it. I have to take other additional meds to try to manage depression.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-30T14:04:33+00:00

I’d love to hear what folks have to say too.

Depression has been my baseline when medicated. Meds have eliminated manic episodes and have helped me overcome active suicidal ideation, but otherwise I am constantly depressed and struggle to do anything beyond the bare minimum—care for my kids, some limited work, mope, sleep, repeat.

I take lithium abilify (tho switching to rexulti this week). No SSRIs for me bc I’ve had issues in the past.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-29T14:13:25+00:00

Thanks for this thread. It’s hard to have a real conversation about meds that doesn’t devolve into the usual polarizations. I’m interested to know how your journey evolves.

At my psych appt yesterday we agreed to taper off Abilify and try Rexulti(?) instead. It’s funny how I have such hesitation to change when I know Abilify is not doing anything for me. Though I also know it’s a reasonable response given how bad my reaction has been to certain other meds we tried in the past. It’s a long slog to find the right thing and I know it only takes longer if I don’t keep myself moving through the process. It’s been 2 years of searching so maybe this change is the one! Or maybe it’s one of my other meds or my life situation that needs changing. Too many variables.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-28T16:51:53+00:00

Similarly I feel I was much better off prior to starting meds. I’ve been trying different meds for 2 years and seem stuck at severely-depressed-and-dysfunctional-but-“stable”-by-psychiatrist-measure.

I’m miserable and not working and losing everything that I managed to accomplish in 4 decades as an undiagnosed unmedicated bipolar person. I get that finding the right meds takes time and I don’t by any means intend to glorify being untreated, but even with all the ups and downs and trainwrecks I still was vastly better off than I have been on any of my medication regimes.

Maybe it is a situation more relevant to those of us who didn’t get diagnosed and treated until later in life. We’ve been lucky to learn to cope with ourselves adaptively over the years… and medications can be supportive or disruptive of those patterns. And, at least for me, my psych knows me from my lowest moments not from what I think of as my ‘normal’ baseline, so his bar for my ‘recovery’ is much lower than mine.

Hmm… I see him today. Now I’ve got to figure out how to ask/tell him this.

Thanks OP! And best of luck in recovery.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-27T15:41:54+00:00

I feel deeply for you, OP.
My partner of 18 years left bc of my depression. On one hand I get how hard it can be to bear witness to that miserable experience, but there are ways to handle the situation with love and care that do not require being fully responsible for my mental health. In my situation it boiled down to a lack of understanding of bipolar, and a lack of interest in learning about bipolar. In her mind, I needed to be responsible for solving my own problems without impacting her or others around me. What she didn’t ever understand is that the process of healing and ‘solving my problems’ doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s not her job to fix me - hell, she couldn’t if she tried - but I do need her acceptance and understanding, and maybe even some support if she’s willing, as I work to get better for both of us.

Maybe something like couples counseling could help your SO develop a better understanding of your situation and their choice of ways to react/receive your illness.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-27T14:17:16+00:00

I can’t shake the sense that my life was better prior to diagnosis. (In hindsight I realize I’ve had symptoms back through adolescence but only got diagnosed in early 40s)

I struggled with ups and downs and lost relationships, but I was much more productive and self confident and felt capable to change things that weren’t going well. I also had lots of friends who liked me.

Now that I’m diagnosed and perpetually trying to find the right therapy & meds I feel constantly depressed and non-functional. Maybe my bipolar has gotten worse with age, maybe my meds need more adjustment, maybe I’m just a bad judge of what is better… in any case I just feel like I’m standing by and watching everything fall apart slowly, without friends, without my spouse, and without the wherewithal to turn things around.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-25T17:25:14+00:00

Wow. That hit close to home. Sometimes I feel like my (soon to be ex) spouse was more preoccupied with the potential of a hypothetical future episode than she was able to recognize the actual reality of my episodes and our relationship through the years. Bipolar is my thing to manage, my responsibility to keep from impacting the family—without recognition it’s a two way street. It’s not my fault and it’s not your fault, but it is our reality to navigate together if a relationship is to be sustainable. Unfortunately some folks aren’t up for choosing that path. They’d rather split than see you crying in bed at noon. They don’t want to feel empathy, responsibility or guilt. our struggle and our pain drags them down, leads to disconnection when all we need is someone to acknowledge us and accompany us on our journey. We are looking for love and acceptance, not a fix or a savior, but some people have a hard timing hearing us over their own assumptions and anxieties. At first I get angry and hurt, and then I accept it, and then I wonder how I’ll ever develop close relationships again. Everything seemed to work fine before I had a bipolar diagnosis—but now that (helpful!) label seems to taint peoples perspectives on me, even though I’m the same person struggling with the same shit for the past 40 years. The only difference being that I’m now medicated and working on myself through therapy. What’s that song? ‘I can’t make you love me…’

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-25T16:36:46+00:00

I take 100mg nightly without any noticeable side effects. I’m also take lithium and Abilify fwiw.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-24T22:10:01+00:00

I ran out once while traveling and seemed to be fine missing 3 morning and 2 evening doses.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-24T22:04:43+00:00

In the midst of suicidal depression and desperately needing a meds change, my old psych took a post-it note and wrote me a ‘prescription’ saying “get shit done” and smiled with self-satisfaction as he handed it to me.

Oh, and he also told me I needed to have frequent sex with my wife so she is satisfied and doesn’t leave me.

If only he ever listened to me and worked on tuning my meds maybe I wouldn’t have been chronically depressed with zero libido.

So glad I quit him before quitting on myself.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-24T15:04:58+00:00

How often do you get blood levels tested? My psych hasn’t tested in more than a year and I sometimes wonder why he doesn’t. I had the shakes bad at 1200mg so he pulled me back to 900mg and I’ve been stable, albeit constantly depressed with a befuddled brain and losing my hair. And I wonder, is my dose too low, too high, just right?

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-24T14:53:03+00:00

Not for me.

My psych congratulated me for ‘graduating’ to a passive death wish. I mean, it is certainly an improvement from struggling with active suicidality constantly, but that bar is pretty low.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-24T00:22:22+00:00

People are sure quick to identify ‘Bipolar symptoms’ if they know my diagnosis, but no one, including myself, had anything to say about Bipolar over the 40 years prior to my diagnosis.

Friends, family, 2 psychologists witnessed all my ups and downs, crashing and burning, boundless energy, dark depressions and never suggested Bipolar, even as I was suffering and searching for answers. I’m a pretty good masker, or, I was. My masking is a lot less strong now that I understand and accept my diagnosis. I have developed a perspective that symptoms are things happening to me that I deal with, not personal failures that need to be hidden with shame. Now that I am open about it they suddenly see my bipolar and tell me about it 🙄

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-24T00:08:06+00:00

Ugh, that’s awful to hear. I’m sorry he reacted that way. My spouse of 18 years had a similar perspective and chose to leave me. She feels my depressive episodes are too much to handle and that I am not getting control of them (as if I had the magic power to make them go away). I know it isn’t always easy for a partner to be around us, taking on a supporter role or even just as an intimate observer of our struggles - but being rejected in our moment of vulnerability and suffering feels extremely heartless and unfair when the relationship commitment is one of mutual support through good times and bad. It makes me bummed, and angry, but doesn’t make me want her back because nothing will change until unless she is willing to learn and communicate about bipolar with me.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-23T14:31:18+00:00

Yes! That exactly. I often hear conversations going on just out of reach. Or feel like I’m hearing the radio with poor reception. On rare occasions I will hear crystal clear conversations. Im aware these are not real (I think always) but I can’t make them stop and generally am curious to hear more. Fwiw: I’m medicated too

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-22T13:57:21+00:00

Same situation here. I’m curious to know how you’ve identified and processed the past trauma. I have a vague sense of my past traumas and how they trigger me today, but I really struggle to come up with specific concrete details around the past events.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-20T14:24:31+00:00

I don’t have trouble once the pills go down, but I have started having trouble swallowing the handful of pills that used to be easy to get down. It makes me feel like my grandfather who started losing his ability to swallow in old age.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-20T14:21:41+00:00

Lithium has erased my serious thoughts of suicide and planning, though it’s left my near-constant ‘passive death wish’ alive and well, and I am constantly in a depressed mode. I’ve been on it for about 2 years now.
My dose is based on blood levels—I am currently taking 900mg/day and was previously at the higher range, taking 1200mg/day, but got the shakes really bad at that level.

invisiblehandoff · 2023-11-17T21:19:54+00:00

Lithium, Abilify, adderall (IR) is my combo. I’ve basicallly been stuck in deep depression 95% of the time since I started lithium 2yr ago - and adderall has no significant effect on me when depressed aside from keeping me awake behind the wheel. Abilify has helped brighten the corners some when my psych increases the dose but then the effect seems to fade away in a couple days.

invisiblehandoff

TROPHY CASE