Am I crazy or is AI therapy helping me?

Hey listen, I say this all the time - we need every possible tool in this fight ❤️🥰

I use the IFS chatbot, I like the IFS approach and this bot is super helpful!

I’ve been using Ollama llama 3 instruct for like therapeutic exploration and I am a strong believer that it’s a useful tool.

I was sceptical but I’ve sort of just started talking about a recent episode with it and the amount of insight it provided was surprising. Not that it fixed my problem. But it did ask me some very thoughtful questions and even suggestions to try.

I’ve had worse real life therapists. I wouldn’t say it’s a replacement for a good therapist but damn straight will I be using it in the future.

I've used ai therapists before. I do like it but find they end up just repeating back to me what I've already said. It can ve a little toe annoying to me sometimes but it's definitely still a good tool to get stuff out there with some response.

Yes I can relate. Also used a therapy-AI, but I got upset.
Started when she advised me to talk to friends. Oh really?
But two times I listened to her advice or suggestion and regreted it that I listened to her than to myself.

I think you need to be careful, what you expect of the AI. I think a lot of people, including myself, think that AI is that super intelligent quantum computer that knows everything, when in reality its just "google on steroids" (like a c oworker described Chat-GPT)
Although of that negative experiences, it can really help to process feelings.
I think there is defintly the danger of AI replacing human work, but AI is not omniscient and oftentime I just want to be seen and heard by an human. Even if the human is flawed.

Interesting. I've fiddled with free ones before but found them underwhelming. Which one do you use?

Can I ask which AI you went with?

It’s been somewhat helpful. I don’t do it often but there’s times that I’ve sought advice from ChatGPT and it’s not terrible advice. There’s a few things I’ve processed.

Also, I have ASD. So, writing things out is far better for me than verbally speaking. I find that my thoughts are more coherent if I write things out since I have some time to read it over. I have the issue of under communicating when it comes to talking. I feel like I have to word things in a way that a neurotypical would understand and that hinders a lot of emotional expression for me. I want to say things as they are and I’m finding that I have to “edit” or filter things on the spot so someone does understand. There’s a potential argument that it’s masking in that context.

Same, I use it because a lot of the time it isn't that I have a "big" problem for therapy, I have a lot of small complaints and can't see the pattern in them. Therapists I've had get stuck on the small complaints I voice, because they seem pressing. I suck at communicating. I hate trying to help them see "Look, I'm mad about the comment someone made, but that isn't the actual bigger issue I'm stressed with. The bigger issue is how I respond, but you're focused on the small part."

And sometimes I'm also just as blind to the actual issue because I'm stuck on the details. I'm a very unreliable narrator and my therapists...don't seem to get it. I'm witty and full of humor in sessions, and...therapists seem to...not see it as a mask. It is one. A very, very effective one.  An AI is unaffected and able to cut through the humor.

I know people hate AI, but it is extremely good at pattern recognition and can go "I get this meaning from what you've given me" as well as being willing to disagree.

I hate to say it, but another issue I had in therapy. My therapists didn't ever...push back and I was frustrated because sometimes I know I'm wrong and I feel like I'm screaming at a wall to get them to acknowledge my introspection doesn't make me the world's greatest. 

Look, I may be a really good storyteller and make it very comedic, but the reality is I'm only the protagonist because I'm telling the story, and having an AI be more effective at going "you say this, but you clearly are bothered by another thing and are acting out in a way that may hurt people" is leaps and bounds above my actual therapists I had in the last few years. 

I feel like the therapists unwilling to push back or dive deeper is due to a lot of issues. The place I saw them is underfunded, therapists are cycled a lot, they don't pay them likely enough, and they're supposed to be meeting treatment quotas. 

I don't deny there's probably a therapist out there for me that could do a heckin' lot better than the AI. Problem is, could I afford them and are they nearby and accepting clients? 

For now, knocking on an AI's door and going "I am very frustrated at this problem, help me see the bigger picture" is tremendously helpful.

It helped me. Mostly because it's 24hours a day and most of my panic attacks are at night

Nope not crazy somehow me asking it questions has helped. In addition to journaling and mindfulness excercise I've been having break throughs I think. Or at least that's what I think what's happening cause I'm crying a lot more lol

As much as therapists are sometimes idolized, I could see AI being useful as a place to reflect thoughts. Like you talk things out, the AI listens and responds, and is it really all that different than what the average therapist does? Sitting in place, absorbing speech, doing their best impression of a mirror as you talk things out at personal expense?

Except better for way too many reasons... for those of us in the US suffering under an abhorrent excuse for health care.

I read a ton of books that helped me get out of severe depression and also build other skills. That's as low tech as you can get. So in that sense, I'll say it's not crazy.

This won’t be popular. Some feel great in the short term and like you’re really making progress. But they just echo back what you tell it. Then when you challenge that, they agree with that. Because it doesn’t know the nuances of your life and can’t detect it from inflection or expression of the human body, they just go off what you tell them and it makes for a dangerous echo chamber.  I love the ifs chatbot because it doesn’t seem to do that since it’s mainly ifs.  I don’t know. It’s great until it’s not. I’m still experimenting. 

Which therapy tool would you recommend? I've tried a couple, mainly for message analysis and analyzing memories, and found it pretty validating.

It only let‘s you receive 5 messages a day – if you want more messages you have to pay. Sucks. Does anyone else have some other recommendations that are free?

This sounds potentially good. Do you know if they collect data from your conversations?

What AI did yo u use? I wanna try this!

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Used to have AI integrated with my notes app. The way it would sometimes analyze my entries and then read me to absolute FILTH with its question prompts. 💀