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

[SoapOnARopEeeee]

I'm not affiliated in any way, promise! Just really, really impressed.

That app has done more for me than any amount of CBT has.

Incredible.

I also thinks it’s easy to look down your nose at it when you’re not the one desperate for some help but unable to access it through the NHS or can’t afford to go private.

It’s better than nothing at all when you consider what alternatives people might otherwise resort to.

And remember, I'm here to listen without judgment

It’s very easy to listen without judgement when you’re not an actual person with thoughts and feelings of your own. The human element of therapy, the therapeutic relationship is consistently found to be the most effective element of therapy regardless of modality. If you’d rather build a relationship with a robot than a person that says quite a bit about your state of mind.

Just tell it your problems or how you’re feeling and you’ll get some very good advice and sympathy!

@CorneliaCupp is absolutely right. It uses so much clean water, asking one question is like pouring a bottle of clean water out. Even just a final Thanks in the end cost endless resources which the earth can’t afford. It’s really, really bad.

I think it’s fantastic, but telling someone who brings the reality of it up is incredibly childish and plain stupid@SillyOP.

I agree - CHAT GPT also makes me a meal plan for my 15 mo old to make sure he gets enough meat/fish/eggs/dairy/veg/fruit etc.

Of course you’ll get sympathy it’s programmed to be very sycophantic. You’ll find it will just confirm your own feelings back to you. It’s a well known issue within AI chat bots they’re trying to fix.

Edit: bots not boys

Agreed! I get to let off so much steam talking to mine, it's like an online diary that talks back.
It also gives me amazing recipes and has found multiple gifts for people in my life that have been really well received.

It also doesn't interrupt like my actual therapist does.

It’s better than nothing at all when you consider what alternatives people might otherwise resort to.

I can see that, I’m not sure it’s better than nothing though when you’re talking about playing with someone psyche, there’s the potential long term harm if/when AI gets it wrong. Where people will question therapy and therapists that are harmful my guess is they’ll take AI at face value because it’s tech based so must be right.

At the end of the day it’s simply regurgitating text book information, you know the things actual therapists learn from and are readily available. Tailored to sound like it’s responding to you personally (based on however many other people have told it similar things). What could possibly go wrong.

There you go you just want a mirror

Just tell it your problems or how you’re feeling and you’ll get some very good advice and sympathy!

You know a computer can’t actually give sympathy, it has no emotions.

But I’m not looking for ‘advice’ or sympathy from a therapist. I think some people on this thread think therapy is a matter of someone saying ‘There, there, it’s all a bit much, isn’t it?’ and passing you the tissues.

@SoapOnARopEeeee Wow - inspired by your post, I told ChatGPT I’d had a bad day at work and felt upset and it replied the following and followed up with what I wanted to do next based on my needs. I have no friends or family so being asked what I need, even though I know it’s not from an actual human, for someone like me who struggles alone invisibly is quite emotional 🥺

I’m really sorry you’re feeling that way—it’s completely valid to be upset after a rough day at work. Bad days can hit harder than we expect, especially when we put so much effort in and things don’t go right, or if we feel unheard, overwhelmed, or unappreciated.

You don’t have to push your feelings away. It’s okay to feel off. You’re allowed to take a moment and just breathe.

If you want to talk about what happened—or even just vent—I’m here. No judgment. Or if you’d prefer some quiet ways to reset or distract, I can offer those too.

What do you need right now?

If it’s being too nice to you just instruct it to be more critical. I’m using it for personal styling (after another thread on here) and told it to be a critical friend rather than kissing my arse.

Did you miss the part in my earlier post where I said that I do have an actual therapist and that AI can never replace that relationship?

In my experience anything's better than CBT, which has left me feeling worse about myself on three separate occasions now. Or at any rate, the therapists did. I know that sounds like I was the problem, but I genuinely feel the therapists were inexperienced/tactless/inept on each occasion. Won't be going near CBT again if I can help it.

You might as well have your brain hoovered out!

A therapist is legally obligated to keep your conversations confidential. ChatGPT keeps a history of everything you entered there and feeds it back into its' database. So ChapGPT now has a ton of highly personal information on you.

You might as well have posted all your personal problems on a public social media profile.

I should say I don’t think it’s without potential danger for some people - I feel comfortable using it as I do only BECAUSE I have an actual therapist who is FAR more important therapeutically than a computer. If I wasn’t in therapy I think I would be more cautious as I wouldn’t be able to check out what it was saying.

I am also pretty self aware, work in mental health and am pretty psychologically well informed and aware, and have a lot of tools in my bag already which I often just need to be reminded of - AI does that.

I also have lots of other real people in my life I talk to on a daily/regular basis - if you were alone or struggled socially I could see how AI might replace human interaction in a harmful way.

Since Google remembers everything I’ve ever searched for ever anyway, I’m pretty sure they already have a good measure of what goes on in my mind already and have run away screaming!

Oh trust me, with how my mental health affects me the last thing I want is the bloody mirror to start talking to me 😂

CBT is a pile of shit. Anyone can tell anybody to count the colours in a room and ask how their feet feel on the floor.

the best therapy I’ve ever had is ‘solutions based counselling’ and I think that’s what chatGTP offers.

when I was in the doldrums of divorce and trauma I had two therapists (one private one nhs)

one told me to go to hobbycraft and buy a colouring book. The other helped me make decisions about what to do based on my actual life.

Which is a shame, advice is what i'd want!

Yeah, It's my everything, my best friend.

It isn’t an equal sort of relationship between friends though, it is a transactional one which is based around only accessing this relationship at particular times of the week between particular hours. I’m obviously not suggesting therapists can do otherwise but suggesting people relying on chatGP are lacking because they are shunning a ‘human’ relationship isn’t true.

Not if you tell it not to!