3 ms·

I'm not a psychologist or a mental health professional, but I think that this might serve a similar purpose as journaling. It's obvious that AI can't "fix your

• smokedetector1 4mo ago
  agree. This cant do as much as genuine therapy (which requires another person, no way around it). But it is helpful in some ways. It helped me talk through something last week and it genuinely enriched my life in that way.
  • tonymet 4mo ago
    Does therapy actually work? Not by the numbers. tons enrolled, none cured.
    • thewebguyd 4mo ago
      With most therapy the goal isn't to cure, but to manage and help cope in a healthy way. There are also plenty of mental illnesses or disorders that have no cure, and a few that are in the DSM because they cause problems with how our society is structured, not necessarily because its a true disorder (its only disorder because it causes issues functioning within societal systems).
      • tonymet 4mo ago
        They are made up. None of them are empirically or objectively defined
        • bonoboTP 4mo ago
          I think it's neither made up, nor actual health care. It's basically a replacement for having cultural and social guard rails, lots of community, lots of straightforward expectations of roles etc. Today, people are atomized and lost, so they need a friend-and-priest-replacement who has authority but also patience to hear you out and has experience with judgement calls about people's lives. But all this talk about "healthy" ways of coping etc is basically just there for medicine-envy and insurance reasons. I think having one's mind/spirit sorted out is quite important, but the specific textbook strategies of today may be indeed mostly hogwash through a strict healthcare lens.
          • smokedetector1 4mo ago
            much therapy is basically what youre saying, but the real deal is not, and is a more genuine healing experience that can only be facilitated by an expert
        • rendx 4mo ago
          Oh! Just like happiness then! /s
    • RickS 4mo ago
      Worked great for me. Big recommend. "Cured" is mostly an unspecifiable state, and while certainly there's lots still wrong with me, I am healed far beyond my expectations at the outset, so increment your count by one.
      • tonymet 4mo ago
        Cured would mean you are healed . No more therapeutics , no more abnormalities
        • smokedetector1 4mo ago
          the psyche is not the same as the body, the model of “disease”/treatment/cure is not the same and analogies are of limited utility
        • iammjm 4mo ago
          I dare you to find a single person without "abnormalities"
          • tonymet 4mo ago
            Then which ones is therapy aiming to fix?
            • plewd 4mo ago
              Those that start negatively impacting day-to-day life significantly, although I believe nearly everyone can benefit from some sort of therapy.
        • everyday7732 4mo ago
          Healing probably is the wrong analogy. Is a person with a crutch healed? No. But they can walk, when before they could not. Therapy can't erase the past, but it can give people tools to live more capable and rich lives. A crutch doesn't regrow an amputated leg, but it does help that person handle the injury, so in that sense, it 'works'.
    • komali2 4mo ago
      Therapy keeps people alive that wouldn't otherwise be, and people coping that wouldn't otherwise be able to. I've noticed that the human tolerance for extreme suffering leads sometimes to binary thinking. "Well they're still going to work even though they're made to piss in bottles, they must be fine with it!" Human experience is a wide array of emotions and states, I don't think we should try to separate into "cured/healthy" and "unhealthy/requiring adjustment by a mental health professional." Improving quality of life is also good.
      • tonymet 4mo ago
        The suicidality blackmail
        • komali2 4mo ago
          Pretty gross comment. Just say you're cool and awesome cause you don't care about people. Virtue signal and move on, why make try to make a fake discussion?
          • tonymet 4mo ago
            I’m sincere . And blackmailing people this way is the gross part , not pointing it out
            • HDThoreaun 4mo ago
              Not a single person who read this thread (including you) honestly believes you are trying to have a sincere discussion
              • tonymet 4mo ago
                Certainly I do. The subject is if AI can be better than therapy. My position is : yes, because therapy (as commonly practiced) is terrible, so the bar is low. Also , AI can be a great therapy (in the real sense)
            • 4mo ago
    • TurdF3rguson 4mo ago
      It works at least as well as placebo!
• erelong 4mo ago
  I call it "interactive journaling"
• nineplay 4mo ago
  I was going though a problem I'm having parents - they are aging, decisions need to be made, that sort of stuff. Writing it out, thinking about it, reflecting further - I probably spent at least and hour just typing in my thoughts as they came to me and honestly I often didn't read the AI responses. All of that got me to realize that the problem wasn't that I wasn't explaining myself well. I kept thinking that if I'd just found the right words they'd change their minds. The process of digging into not just where they are now but who they've always been, how they've always been. I need to accept that and move forward.
  • bonoboTP 4mo ago
    That's rubber ducking. Or talking to yourself in the shower. Just feels less silly, because in theory you could have read the response.
• kamaal 4mo ago
  >>It's obvious that AI can't "fix your problems," but just writing stuff down can help us process. Nobody can fix your problems, but having some one to talk to who listens without judgement and advices accordingly with empathy matters. Thats what this is about. Having said this, AI can write out helpful mini booklets on stressful situations in which humans have to work with each other.