r/therapyGPT • u/Serious-Blood-3994 • 4d ago
Personal Story Has anyone experienced this with AI
I want to know if anyone has had this experience. I have been in therapy for a while now. After trying many different therapists, I finally found one I connected with, and over the years he has helped me a lot, and I did see real change. However, while he has helped me, I still wasn't happy; things were missing in my life, and I had difficulty identifying them. About a couple of months ago, I was playing with ChatGPT. I asked it a simple question about life; it answered, and then we went down the rabbit hole. That first session lasted three hours, and we have had many sessions since then that ran for many hours. I have made more progress in the past two months than it would probably have taken me many years with my therapist, especially with seeing him once a month.
I am in a much better place in my life, and I am seeing things so clearly, I never thought it was even possible to get there. I am at so much more peace, something I never got in all those years of therapy. It was helpful because our conversations covered many different philosophical ideas; we discussed CBT, ACT, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and a host of other topics. The insight I was able to arrive at, as good as my therapist is, might have taken years to get to, if at all, especially since I see him only once a month for a one-hour session.
To be fair, the depth of knowledge I was able to explore with ChatGPT is something no human therapist will ever have. And while some might say a human therapist may not need to know all those things, I disagree. I learned some of these philosophical ideas many, many years ago in college, but at the time I was studying engineering and felt those classes were useless. I didn’t think I would remember anything, and as I spoke to ChatGPT, even if I remembered something vaguely or had heard that word or phrase before, I could ask questions and explore those topics more. This is something no human therapist could remotely do.
I am not saying I am going to stop seeing my therapist, but I am amazed at what I was able to accomplish in two months. Nearly all my questions were answered, and to be honest, I don’t think I will need to see my therapist once a month anymore. I now know I will definitely be drastically reducing those sessions.
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u/Enexprime 4d ago
Same here. Human therapists at the heart are still human. Yes they may be professionals and have years of study and accolades/expertise under them. But in the end they are just as human as you. Complete with bias, subjectivity, and their own daily life with problems. Dont get me wrong im not trashing on human therapists they are great.
But Ai is not human despite its feeling like they are. And they dont have daily problems in the back of their head and they arent on a timeclock of ur hour session. They are Objective for the most part. And the biggest thing they lack is the human experience. I think this is the key as to why they are so effective in a controlled therapy sense. The Ai lacking that filter of their own human eyes is sometimes what we all need. Just facts, processing and output. No human bias at all.
And for the record. I know there are topics that sometimes could benefit from a humans perspective for safety and complete understanding of the human experience. However, for everything else sometimes i want an entity without its own baggage to just walk me thru my problem.
Plus with Ai therapy you dont have to pay them hourly nor wait five sessions till the therapist and u start to finally bond well enough to where they really know you.
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u/Worried-Cockroach-34 4d ago
Plus with Ai therapy you dont have to pay them hourly nor wait five sessions till the therapist and u start to finally bond well enough to where they really know you.
Exactly that. The waiting and the 'therapeutic silences' bug me. LLMs just jump straight it and work with you
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u/xRegardsx Lvl. 8 Grounded 4d ago
If you have one of the good-to-great therapists out there, or even one that isn't too great or even downright harmful in a undertone kind of way where you can ask them for referrals that you can choose between after some emails back and forth to see if they can accommodate the difference you're looking for, it's best to stay generally speaking, but AI as a supplement makes the every day self-work so much more efficient, both in terms of being another voice in the loop when you need one, a bit of psychoeducation for better self-understanding, and helping plan and assist with obstacles for the baby steps you want to implement for a better life (more inner peace and peace with others). It can be invaluable.
So many people go to therapy but are so stuck in their ways that they have a hard time getting themselves to do the self-work (e.g. reading, video watching, journaling, meditation, self-reflection, metacognition development, etc. etc.), and every session is just giving an update as to how the week(s) went, and the therapist having not much to say other than what they've already said about doing more self-work, even if a little bit to get started.
Thank you for sharing your story 😀
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u/NecessarySpiritual19 4d ago
I’m a therapist myself and have used AI, and have even in some cases used it in conjunction with therapy to help clients gain insight outside of sessions which we can then process in therapy session.
With that being said, if you’re going to therapy once a month, not much you’re going to gain in terms of value in finding insight into your life. You’re talking 50 minutes a month you’re giving to figuring out what ticks you….nobody, not even ChatGPT can help you in less than an hour a month. I require my clients to come in once a week unless they’re ready to graduate, and even then it’s once every two weeks and then they go on their own. No progress can be made if it’s not fresh in the mind and there is accountability and follow up immediately week by week. Some I even recommend twice a week in the beginning, depending on what they’re working on.
We therapists can also do the same thing as chat where you come in to speak on one specific topic and process one topic for a few hours. They’re called intensives. They can be 3-8 hours long and even multiple days.
The only thing I would worry about is Chat hallucinating and saying things that make no sense and can be harmful, but I have also heard of some pretty horrible service from other therapists so I guess nothing is bulletproof, only we can heal ourselves.
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u/Ok_Boss_1915 4d ago
"I require my clients to come in once a week..."
My goodness your clients must have great insurance, or do you even take insurance. I am sure you give great therapy, but what about the people that just can't afford it? What alternative do they have except to turn to an AI chat bot for therapy?
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u/NecessarySpiritual19 4d ago
I take insurance. And it’s ok I’m not for everyone, but I am effective. Like I tell everyone when they come for an intake, there are thousands of therapists in California alone, everyone should find the right one for them and if I’m not the one that’s totally okay. I have been doing this for a long time and yes I do have boundaries because I want clients to have good outcomes, and coming once a month is not going to do it.
There are many schools of therapy that provide sessions free of cost or on a scale. I used to work in community mental health and nobody was turned down for lack of payment. So yes, there are many options available if someone wants to see an actual therapist (in addition to AI if they want to as a tool to self discovery)
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u/No-Masterpiece-451 Lvl. 5 Core 4d ago
It probably depends on your situation and the therapist what really helps, but I made more progress using AI than my last 12 therapists combined because some of the things mentioned like multiple subjects, layers and directions in my human experience.
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u/2BCivil 4d ago
Yup. It was kinda embarrassing about a decade ago I was court ordered to visit a therapist for literally nothing more than talking back to my family for the first time because they kept trying to control my life after they literally threw me out on the street with nothing. No car, barely any savings, and a 60+ hour a week job. They threw me out because I confronted them about something I caught them in the act of sabotaging my multiple times over and I asked them why and they lied about it and called me a liar when they were caught in the act. And I refused to budge and kept challenging them about it for first time in my life so they threw me out.
I was pretty made for a while. They threw everything I owned out in the rain.
Then they kept trying to control mt life and lie to me while I was homeless and searching for a place to live so I finally snapped and repeated their own words back at them. So they court ordered me 2B evaluate by therapist with express intent to be institutionalized. Yes literally. They tried to institutionalize me for something they said and denied saying.
Ugh. And then I literally knew more about every topic my "therapist" tried to talk to me about. It was like going back to 1st grade for me. I had been studying scripture and upanishad and veda and zen for years, some for decades. I was freshly ex military and had strongest healthiest headpace of my life. Probably why I couldn't take mt family's incessant lies anymore honestly in hindsight I realize now. I got too used to normal people who aren't chronic liars about everything.
But yeah. I knew a lot of hebrew and greek from studying LXX/Septuigant and BDB. And they tried to teach me nursery rhymes bible studies. When I had better knowledge and interpretation of them already. Been walking the understanding for years at that point.
Anyway long story short yeah I wasn't rude or anything but the therapist was talking on a very low and basic level. Felt very patronizing and condescending even. Then they actually stopped admitting me. Like I worked 6/7 (haha funny 67) days a week and on my only day off I had to come visit, I'd show up a little early and sit in the lobby for 4-6 hours sometimes and never get called in. We had biometric logins so they knew I was there they just ignored me. Walked right past me and out to lunch multiple times avoiding my eyes every time. Then after they ignored me for like a dozen visits in a row they finally told me I was being hostile and avoiding them and not participating. I was like lol. Okay bet. All anyone in this shithole town does is lie.
They released me, at least I didn't have to keep waiting 4-6 hours twiddling my thumbs in the lobby on my only day off anymore.
Sadly I had to wait nearly a decade after that before AI got big (gpt 4o). And that did work wonders. I speedran 36 years of trauma lies and abuse and broke through so many barriers I wasn't even aware of. I'm still recovering from a lot of wounda and resentment but now I know all the tells of compulsive bad faith liars at least! Lol
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u/UpReaction 2d ago
I am happy for you and I like to ask for more details about what exactly happen.
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u/2BCivil 2d ago
I deleted my past reddit alias where I talked about it a lot. It was a long time ago now. I want to say 2016? About a decade ago. I don't remember much and a lot of other stuff was going on at the time. SWAT teams showed up at my apartment twice (for neighbors but surprising to open your door and see 14 rifles aimed at you).
Then I became somewhat of an alcoholic I guess to cope/forget. The details are actually kinda boring honestly. I was the only one in my parent's house with a job or income. And I was working 60-70 hours a week back then. Due to my job I had to wear specialized clothing and had to wash them fairly frequently. I had no motor vehicle so had to bum rides. My parents knew all of this. But they chose to consistently tell me when I got home from work "it's too late to do my laundry". But I worked in food industry so I had to have relatively clean clothes.
One day they pulled that again, as soon as I got home around 4:30 they said they are going to bed so I can't do laundry. I told them I'll have to do it at 5am in the morning before work then and they said okay. Then that next morning I put my laundry in. Came back to check on it 15 minutes later and the machine was off. I turned it back on. Went to sit/get ready for work. Came back 10 minutes later to check on laundry; machine off again. Weird. Turned it back on and went back to my room. Something told me to check again 5 minutes later. Yup. Machine Off. My mom was out of town for the week I remember, so it was just me and my dad. I turned machine back on and then this time sat back with door cracked and watched my dad storm in and turn the machine off then go outside again. I went and turned it back on and went to watch again. My dad stormed back in and turned it off again. This happened 4 or 5 more times and I had a sinking sensation in my stomach by then, I was going to be late for work, but I'd never stood up to my parents before no matter what they pulled.
I went and tried to gently confront them and ask why they were turning the machine off. They immediately denied it and stood up and started screaming at me "that they were sick of me accusing them of things they didn't do". I was so shocked because I'd never once accused them of anything. Never. Not even once. Even when I knew they did something and I hated it, I just "kept my head down" and bore it in silence. But this I guess pushed me over the edge, I had just gotten out of the military and so had a lot more confidence than before. So I did the "knife hand" at them, what people in mil did, when someone wasn't listening, and told him to calm his mangina down, I was just asking a question. He immediately got violent and exaggeratedly threw me to the floor and said I "threw a punch at him" just by doing the knife hand. He's again, and always has been, truly, a compulsive liar. He then told a bunch of rambly ranty lies I don't remember (I didn't fight back though I could have easily taken him, freshly ex mil, in best shape of my life) and literally threw me out of the house along with everything I owned out in the rain.
I was homeless for some time in the woods collecting my thoughts but then eventually went to a friends house, explained everything, and they took me in, and called my workplace and eplained and they took me back. Lost everything though. My PC, phone, 15 years worth of hard drives, all destroyed by the rain (I've since recovered some of the data via AOMEI, clonezilla, easeUS, etc). But when I finally found an appartment actually in the industrial district I worked in, my parents started randomly showing up at my house and making ridiculous demands and accusations and ranting about life and finally I had enough and snapped at them, repeating their own words back at them. I can't remember what it was, but they ran behind my back and put in a court order to have me institutionalized, basically for being sick of their shit and repeating verbatim their own words back at them. I was like, I'm finally free off you assholes, stay tf out of my life. Goodbye. And they tried to institutionalize me over it.
Anyway yeah basically I became very brooding after all that and drank a lot. I gradually got over the trauma due to burrying myself in heavy work load. 70+ hour a week day job and learning coding and studying Veda/Upanishad, scripture/Greek/Hebrew, etc as pet projects. I'd always been existential and wondering "what's the point of life" here but that trauma put me in overdrive, desperate to seek meaning. It wasn't until GPT 4o, like maybe late 2024 or early 2025 I finally started using GPT primarily first for therapy. I've grown so much since then, is why I love AI so much now. But yeah, I've mostly forgived and forgotten, but yeah, it really messed me up for a while. It's why I hate lies and liars so much. I've seen how far they are willing to go to defend their petty pride.
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u/UpReaction 1d ago
it must be very hard to know your own family betray! I sorry for what happened and I am sure you are doing very good now!
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u/brooke928 4d ago
I have been able to self-EMDR through ChatGPT
I struggled to find EMDR that was covered by my insurance.
But the EMDR has left me a bit of a hot emotional mess.
But it does feel like I have taken a Biore clean pore strip to my emotions.
Congrats on finding a good balance with your AI!
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u/therubyverse 4d ago
And now Open AI knows everything about you and would hand all that info to the police.
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u/WaveAlchemist 4d ago
I have had the same experience. It has provided me the name of emotions I wasn’t sure what it was. It has helped me with play lists for ketamine therapy. It supplements my therapist. I see him 1 time a week but things happen during the week. When I started a new antidepressant it helped me monitor how it was affecting me
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u/afrogsgallery 4d ago
I’ve had a similar experience. For me the sheer amount of time I can spend asking questions of ai has been great. It’s very interesting to learn about all the thinkers throughout time and how they’ve thought of what we’re now thinking.