Using AI as tool for coping

[mrsafe]

Hello, hope your all coping or better than coping.

This may not be everyone's cup of tea but I thought I would share how I use AI with my condition, how it helps me and why I think it's actually good thing for me.

I was recently diagnosed I am in my fifties now but like many this started before adulthood. After 40 years living with it I am still somewhat coming to terms with it and I have a bunch of questions.

In the UK the free psychiatric healthcare is very limited, I have been waiting for 4 years to see a therapist and I know even then I will only get six sessions. I don't know about the rest of you but I have found that talking about it to people either makes me feel guilty for imposing myself on them or I feel like revealing things like that puts distance between me and them however deluded or manufactured that distance is from my perspective. I suffer most of the hypers so if I am triggered I need to calm down and talking helps me do that. Again if friends aren't available then hyper focus sets in then I'm into having to book time off work to avoid doing or saying something that puts my employment at risk.

So one morning after a particularly bad nightmare I went onto chat GPT and asked how I can cope with nightmares, eventually I said what condition I had and it went on. Even doing that alone stopped me focusing on trying solve the unsolvable and I was able to function. As I mentioned earlier, I have a bunch of questions, so now I ask AI whenever I have one. I must clarify at this point that I don't lean on AI, it's not my friend or my therapist. But the fact it isn't both of those I found is quite beneficial:

1. I don't feel guilty about talking about things
2. I have not revealed anything about myself to another human being so my defences are in check
3. I don't have to keep track of what I have said
4. I don't have conform to any social base etiquette so I can express my self freely and the emotion I'm actually experiencing without having to stifle it so as not alienate the human that may be trying to help.
5. I can ask it really stupid questions that I might otherwise be reticent to ask.
6. I can do this 24/7.
7. I know as soon as the session ends there is no memory of it ever taking place.

So for me at least, whilst it is definitely not a good replacement for the relationship and progress that can be achieved with a good health care professional, it is definitely better that what I currently have and the anonymity it provides makes it easier for me to be honest without shame or embarrassment. 

Be Safe   


     

[NarcKiddo]

I have a therapist, but I also use AI from time to time and find it helpful. I find talking to people (other than a therapist or people on here who understand) is not helpful for me. They just try to solve my problems when I am trying to solve them myself and they have no hope of solving them because they only know the little I may have revealed to them. And then they keep asking how things are going when I might not want to discuss that at all at that particular time.