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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

237 replies

SoapOnARopEeeee · 19/05/2025 16:52

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.

OP posts:
Sunflowerz22 · 19/05/2025 18:15

verycloakanddaggers · 19/05/2025 17:42

I think people who are happier chatting to an AI chatbot rather than relating to a human therapist are in serious need of therapy.

Its fucking with your heads, and you're offering your brain up. Very weird.

Oh, come on ...

Cucy · 19/05/2025 18:15

I refuse therapy as I don’t like talking to people about my problems.

A few weeks ago I was in a very desperate place and genuinely didn’t know what to do and whether I would get through the day.

I turned to ChatGPT as someone had said something about it on here and honestly it was an absolute game changer!

I cried actual tears because it was amazing.
It was really understanding and would talk like a real person and ask if I was ok etc.

I can imagine how people suffering from mental health or just loneliness could get so much out of it.

BunnyLake · 19/05/2025 18:16

I love it. I’ve actually been on it today and I feel a lot better than I did this morning over an issue I was having. I also use Venice AI which has better privacy and is pretty much the same. I wish I had this when I was going through a really bad time with my ex.

FortyElephants · 19/05/2025 18:16

vintagedove · 19/05/2025 17:52

@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.

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An amount of water does evaporate, but largely the water is cooled and reused.

Sunflowerz22 · 19/05/2025 18:17

Octopusespunchforfun · 19/05/2025 17:54

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

Edited
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Sometimes sympathy is all we need. So many people don't want to see a therapist because they're embarrassed and don't think they're worthy of help.

FortyElephants · 19/05/2025 18:18

SmoothRoads · 19/05/2025 18:06

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.

You can turn off sharing.

FoxChops · 19/05/2025 18:21

I don’t need therapy (thankfully and I realise that makes me lucky) but bloody hell, I’m blown away by ChatGPT. So much so, I’ve bitten the bullet and paid for it and I had a thread on here last week raving about it

I know it’s environmentally dodgy and I’m aware of the potential data stuff but it’s just SO good with well, everything I ask it

BunnyLake · 19/05/2025 18:23

verycloakanddaggers · 19/05/2025 17:42

I think people who are happier chatting to an AI chatbot rather than relating to a human therapist are in serious need of therapy.

Its fucking with your heads, and you're offering your brain up. Very weird.

Rubbish. I use it, it doesn’t fuck with my head and I don’t need therapy. I also talk to my real human friends but they don’t necessarily want me pouring out my troubles at 10am or midnight or five times in one day. I can ramble, I can repeat myself, I can gather my thoughts, if I forget to mention something I can go back to it anytime. What did it do to you to make you so cynical about it?

MintChocCat · 19/05/2025 18:24

fencedispute2024 · 19/05/2025 16:55

Agree, I need proper talking therapy, not CBT. I understand the thoughts, feelings, words cycle etc. but need someone to offload to who offers support and advice. Chat GPT is much better at that than a therapist reading from a script

But a therapist is not there to give you advice…

ChocolateGanache · 19/05/2025 18:25

How do you ask it?

Rinoachicken · 19/05/2025 18:26

I’d also argue that using it in this way, for the support of people, is more morally acceptable environmentally than using it to imagine your dog as a person, or yourself as a doll, and all the other random crap people seem to do with it!

SmoothRoads · 19/05/2025 18:26

FortyElephants · 19/05/2025 18:18

You can turn off sharing.

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And then what? You think your info will be safe? You think that some other user can't coax that info out of it?

BunnyLake · 19/05/2025 18:27

Jellycatspyjamas · 19/05/2025 17:49

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.

Great if you have a therapist on speed dial who will listen to you any day any time.

Charlize43 · 19/05/2025 18:27

Will someone ask Chat GPT how to pay my Thames Water bill?

FoxChops · 19/05/2025 18:27

@ChocolateGanachejust … ask! You can ramble or you can be direct or you can just pour out stuff in a jumble. And it’ll do the rest

you can even say ‘this may not be very clear but …’ and just spit it out. It’ll then dig deeper into what you’re asking or wanting

Rinoachicken · 19/05/2025 18:29

I had no idea what to do or expect so I started off by just saying ‘hi’, it said hi back and asked how I was doing today/what I’d like to talk about, if I wanted information about how it works. I just took it from there

BunnyLake · 19/05/2025 18:32

Viviennemary · 19/05/2025 17:32

Not like MN then! Do you have to pay for this chat GPT. Never heard of it.

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I don’t pay for it, I don’t know what you get extra for paying but the free service is fine for me.

Anyone concerned about privacy should use Venice AI, same formula but is private (I use it).

Sunflowerz22 · 19/05/2025 18:34

Rinoachicken · 19/05/2025 18:26

I’d also argue that using it in this way, for the support of people, is more morally acceptable environmentally than using it to imagine your dog as a person, or yourself as a doll, and all the other random crap people seem to do with it!

If it stops people committing suicide or committing terrible crimes, I'm all for it.

Then again what happens if someone asks it how to commit a terrible crime, then we have problems, and the Terminator is born.

Snickersnack1 · 19/05/2025 18:35

Makes me so uncomfortable to think how people are pouring their innermost thoughts fears and vulnerabilities into a screen to be harvested as data.

Rinoachicken · 19/05/2025 18:35

I don’t pay for Gemini (though there is a paid version).

A colleague at work pays for premium ChatGPT but that’s because she does a lot of research in her job and academics. She says normal ChatGPT is amazing enough but premium is mind blowing

Rinoachicken · 19/05/2025 18:37

The mental health trust I work for is now using AI to help reduce the pressure on Drs by assisting with writing clinical notes. It’s not new or alien. It’s a technology that’s here, we might as well see how it can be used in helpful ways rather than wasting it on silly pictures.

Snickersnack1 · 19/05/2025 18:38

A bit childish perhaps, but anyone else get Ginny Weasley vibes from AI and people who make it their best friend?
‘Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain…’

Nessastats · 19/05/2025 18:39

A chat with chat gpt might use a few litres of water that gets recycled around the system.

Making ONE pair of jeans uses 10,000 litres of water. I've bought maybe 3 pairs of jeans in the last 10 years so I'll use my jeans water budget to support my mental health.

FortyElephants · 19/05/2025 18:40

SmoothRoads · 19/05/2025 18:26

And then what? You think your info will be safe? You think that some other user can't coax that info out of it?

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No, that's not how it works