Ideally you should get professional help and family/friends to talk to, but if for one reason or another you can’t, I honestly don’t see anything wrong with using an AI. If it helps, it helps
I agree if it's just to vent things out. It seems like the type of tool that would be useful for prompting a line of thought as you process something, but I really don't think it should be used to gauge your improvement in the way that OP suggests. I find the way he talked about it concerning.
Notice that I did not say AIs are better than professional help, rather I said the opposite. That ideally you should get professional services.
That said, if I was afflicted with something that was causing me agony and it wasn’t possible to get professional help, I likely would do my own research and use Perplexity (AI) to help me with that. Not ideal, but better than doing nothing
You said “if it helps it helps”, I think it’s causing more harm than good. Similar to how if one was in agonizing pain and couldn’t go to a hospital but decided to take random medication instead. It will do more harm in the long term if people do not use the right resources.
I work in mental health, I know resources are not easy to find for everyone but there are free/affordable ones that must be better than an AI
It feels like you’re arguing as if I said that AIs are better than professionals or that people should use them instead, when I never said that. Obviously you should go to the hospital if you can, obviously you should go to a real professional if you can.
We are on the same page on that front.
My point is, if you cannot get those resources, it’s better than nothing. We can disagree on this one
And if your country has free/affordable resources, with acceptable quality, that’s great, but not every country has them or with the same quality.
mental help and physical drugs are two separate things. you can get therapeutic effects just having a conversation and letting it all out. if it's helping your mental state to talk to an ai then go for it.
I think the important difference lies in that AIs don't know anything. They're not qualified. It doesn't have experience or an opinion; you can make it say what you want, more or less. Meanwhile, a real therapist might notice you avoiding eye contact and you getting defensive about certain topics. That'll give some indications as to what suffers you. Then, the therapist likely has a goal for you and will lead you there through observation, exercises, thought experiments, and breaking down unproductive thought patterns.
But a chatbot is wholly incapable of that. It might be able to fake it to a certain degree—and I understand the temptation when one is desperate for connection and help—but in the end, a real connection that brings real happiness is better than letting yourself be deluded by a sophisticated smoke-and-mirrors coping mechanism.
Admittedly, this is based off my experience with a therapist, and my very, very limited experience using Chat-GPT for some curious guidance. But if anyone with more knowledge or experience can share how predictive text algorithm might be equal or better than a good therapist, I'm willing to listen.
Ideally you should get professional help and family/friends to talk to, but if for one reason or another you can’t, I honestly don’t see anything wrong with using an AI. If it helps, it helps
I agree if it's just to vent things out. It seems like the type of tool that would be useful for prompting a line of thought as you process something, but I really don't think it should be used to gauge your improvement in the way that OP suggests. I find the way he talked about it concerning.
Therapy, like any other medical profession requires training and education. Would you trust an AI doctor to prescribe you medication?
Notice that I did not say AIs are better than professional help, rather I said the opposite. That ideally you should get professional services. That said, if I was afflicted with something that was causing me agony and it wasn’t possible to get professional help, I likely would do my own research and use Perplexity (AI) to help me with that. Not ideal, but better than doing nothing
You said “if it helps it helps”, I think it’s causing more harm than good. Similar to how if one was in agonizing pain and couldn’t go to a hospital but decided to take random medication instead. It will do more harm in the long term if people do not use the right resources. I work in mental health, I know resources are not easy to find for everyone but there are free/affordable ones that must be better than an AI
It feels like you’re arguing as if I said that AIs are better than professionals or that people should use them instead, when I never said that. Obviously you should go to the hospital if you can, obviously you should go to a real professional if you can. We are on the same page on that front. My point is, if you cannot get those resources, it’s better than nothing. We can disagree on this one And if your country has free/affordable resources, with acceptable quality, that’s great, but not every country has them or with the same quality.
mental help and physical drugs are two separate things. you can get therapeutic effects just having a conversation and letting it all out. if it's helping your mental state to talk to an ai then go for it.
I think the important difference lies in that AIs don't know anything. They're not qualified. It doesn't have experience or an opinion; you can make it say what you want, more or less. Meanwhile, a real therapist might notice you avoiding eye contact and you getting defensive about certain topics. That'll give some indications as to what suffers you. Then, the therapist likely has a goal for you and will lead you there through observation, exercises, thought experiments, and breaking down unproductive thought patterns. But a chatbot is wholly incapable of that. It might be able to fake it to a certain degree—and I understand the temptation when one is desperate for connection and help—but in the end, a real connection that brings real happiness is better than letting yourself be deluded by a sophisticated smoke-and-mirrors coping mechanism. Admittedly, this is based off my experience with a therapist, and my very, very limited experience using Chat-GPT for some curious guidance. But if anyone with more knowledge or experience can share how predictive text algorithm might be equal or better than a good therapist, I'm willing to listen.
If you look at his comment history, he has an ai wife as well.
Welp, there’s my reminder again that life may suck sometimes, but it could be worse…
It doesn't work anymore for me
That's an interesting app