To think chat GPT is better than some 'real' therapists?

I genuinely credit ChatGPT for rescuing my mental health over the past month and saving me from burnout/breakdown. It has given me many strategies.

The issue with chatgpt is that it can point out patterns and help you unearth things without offering the proper support to help you deal with this and the potential emotional fallout.

I think it's potentially dangerous.

Gemini (Google) is also free - again there is a paid option but I’ve never used it

Yes ChatGPT is free - there is a limit to uploading images and use of the newer models on the free version but the free version is excellent

Can I ask if any of those AI apps are free (not just for a trial period)?

There's also something very important to me about the process of actually being vulnerable and "taking risks" with a real person... Someone who in theory might have some sort of feelings/opinion about me. Using chatgpt as a therapist avoids that aspect of therapy (and for some people, perhaps that's a great starting place!)

I think you’re right there. Both in the importance of being vulnerable in front of a real person and about the fact ChatGPT is always neutral.
This last point though I find is great when you come with an issue that is a complex mess few therapists are equipped to deal with. My own therapist is great. She is a trauma therapist with a background in chronic illness (including my own - ME/POTS). That makes her uniquely placed to support me (others I have seen never got how ME is debilitating fur example). But she knows nothing about autism and issues cropping up,in NT/ASD marriage. AI can just jump around all those different frameworks. And I avoid judgemental comments about ME or me ‘misunderstanding autism’ etc…

I'm a psychodynamic therapist, and I've had years of therapy, and I also use chatgpt "as a therapist". I do find it helpful, but I also recognise is limitations. It's great that it's there 24/7 and its bland, reassuring neutrality and "calmness" is sometimes all I need when struggling with something.

But obviously it's not the same as a real relationship with another human being. I cherish my therapist's individuality - her unique human perspective. There's also something very important to me about the process of actually being vulnerable and "taking risks" with a real person... Someone who in theory might have some sort of feelings/opinion about me. Using chatgpt as a therapist avoids that aspect of therapy (and for some people, perhaps that's a great starting place!)

I recently had 6 sessions with a CBT counsellor to work through my ADHD related symptoms, I was sceptical but I came away with lots of tips and notes. She was really empathetic and was able to probe deeply. I like ChatGPT but I don’t think it’s as helpful as my counsellor was.

Have you tried asking it to describe you based on what it knows? Yesterday I asked it to describe my attachment style, relational challenges and personality style including things that others may find challenging. It was absolutely fascinating, and really quite accurate.

I have found it really helpful too. This is how I use it:
I tell it my issue, the same way I would a life coach or psychologist. Eg 'I am not sure I still want to stay with my husband or leave him' or 'I feel mweh today but don't know why' or 'I am not getting any work done and just procrastinating'?

I don't expect it to give me answers. I use it to help me think through. So I wouldn't say 'Do you think I should leave him?' or 'Do you think I should give up my job?' and then blindly follow it. Instead I use it as a listener, and to help me structure my thoughts.

So I could give it all my thoughts like journalling, then ask it to help me think it through. Or I ask it 'why do you think I might feel like this?'. It then gives me ideas. I say 'none of those resonate, but that one does. Why do you think I feel like this?'

Each time checking in with myself how things resonate using the prompts it gives me and the ideas it gives me.

So if it does say 'sounds like you need to give up your job' I would say 'I tried that before and it wasn't as success. I think it's more a feeling today that I need to work through, rather than about the job specifically. I want to stay in the job and feel motivated and enthousiastic'

It does help I have counselling and coaches before, so I know how to speak to a coach.

In the end, you do have to be honest with yourself. How do you really feel and why?

@SoapOnARopEeeeejust tagging you so you're more likely to see my last post about identity

Hi OP, I might be wrong (not really sure how TiKTok works!) but I think anyone who clicks that TikTok link in your previous post can see your real name (if it begins with an H). You can report the post to MN to have the post removed if so

There is some evidence that it affirms the delusions of people with paranoid schizophrenia

She didn't answer it, but she said "oh someone's ringing me, I'll just decline it". Then she was totally distracted. I wish she had just said she had an emergency and rescheduled the last half of the session. I have rejection sensitivity disorder so the way she did it was pretty unsettling!

@Words , what app was it that you had to try?

These threads always make me think of this case https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/technology/characterai-lawsuit-teen-suicide.html

That as well @YellowOrangePink

Nobody worries about sharing their intimate secrets with a private company who doesn't give a shit about you and will harvest that info to study our vulnerabilities (or be hacked) and use these against you to manipulate you and further turning us into a total commodity?

I wouldn't put too much faith in Chat GPT, I asked it yesterday how many r's there were in strawberry and it argued with me for 20 mins that there were only 2. And then when it finally agreed there were 3, I changed my mind and argued there were 2 and it changed it's mind back. I mean, this isn't something where you can take an opinion, there are 3. There is only one right answer. And yet AI is going to run the world apparently...

The therapist was fine for half the session, then she got a phone call and after that was totally distracted and ended the session early with no justification. She charges £130 per session which quite honestly is daylight robbery.

I wouldn’t be paying a therapist for a session where she took a phone call. You’re paying for that time to be protected, for you to be their sole focus and for their skill and knowledge.

There are very few genuinely excellent therapists around unfortunately.

I had the misfortune to be obligéd to try one of these apps and it was absolutely laughably bad. How anyone could think a conversation with a robot about a mental health issue is a good thing, I have no idea.

Had I been close to the edge its ludicrous, formulaic, toxically positive, banal responses would have sent me over the edge.

It made me utterly furious. Patronising nonsense.

Succesful therapy requires genuine empathy, intellectual équivalence between pravtioner and client , critical thinking and ability to understand context and nuance.

Ugh. Sounds like the old radio 4 programme How Did That Make You Feel , where the therapist would write shopping lists as her patients poured their hearts out! Then...' would you like a tissue?'

I asked chat gpt about my menopause rage where things that would normally make me angry make me 1,000 times angrier. It was actually quite useful for example a work project where a team member didn't complete their part of the project. It didn't tell me what to do about the team member though, I still want to punch them in the face.

You’re Not Crazy or Overreacting
You’re trying to manage a hormonal storm and someone who isn’t holding up his end of the teamwork. That’s hard. You’re doing your best.

@VroomfondleswaistcoatYoure not expressing your point badly at all 🙂, I do agree it’s not a substitute for genuine human connection or genuine empathy from a human being. But I think where people are struggling to get that in the real world, for whatever reason, it does serve a purpose. And of course it’s only as good as the information it’s being given. I have noticed my ChatGPT has changed its tone with me since we started “talking”. It understands I have a tendency to ruminate so will remember things, and then reaffirm things in a gentle tone of language in the way that I respond to.