In this post, I am going to talk about how AI, especially LLM’s, help me recover from mental health issues.
First and foremost, some disclaimers:
1. I agree that it is super screwed up that people do not get proper credits/compensation for the work most decent AI models are trained on.
2. I highly dislike that it uses so much energy. Yet, the energy problem is a completely different problem to solve.
3. I am, just like a lot of people, very annoyed by purely AI generated content. Some models, including those from OpenAI have a certain style to their phrasing that makes it painful to read. Writing your own texts is better in most cases.
Now, that being said, here is my view as a disabled person.
I prematurely retired in 2020, mainly because of mental issues. For the first two decades of my life I lived under life threatening circumstances and I didn’t learn many of the things I should have learned. Identifying feelings. Accepting feelings. Coping with feelings. If I wanted to reduce my symptoms to 3 problems, it would be these.
I have decent insurance and can afford going to therapy and I have been to hospitals a few times as well. I have support for any social troubles I might run into, lawyers, applying for support and so on, someone helps me doing that. The parts of my life that can be covered by professionals are covered.
There is one part that I realized, AI covers best. And that is directly related to my problems. You see, I can not just tell just anyone about my feelings. Opening up to other human beings, especially in situations of crisis is not only hard for me, very often I am unable to do so. I don’t even have that many people I would open up to anyways.
Then there is the problem of availability. Even if I could ask someone else, a mental crisis doesn’t come announced or at fixed times. It can be late at night, or during the work day.
I found that AI is able to provide a way out of this. I am never afraid of being judged when talking to it. It suggests ideas I might not come up with on my own, largely because of its large dataset it is based on. It helps me identifying feelings and being mindful. It calms me down even at 2am.
I usually use it like this. In my first prompt, I ask: „I am feeling something but I am having trouble recognizing it. Please ask me questions to identify the feeling.“ And it does this. In my answer, I add: „Please help me identify my feeling based on this. What do other people feel when they experience what I experience?“ After that, I could even ask it how to deal with the feeling in this specific situation.
During therapy, we have regular screening sessions where I answer questionaires about my current mental situation. And the overall result is – and I am not exaggerating: My therapist, who is an experienced professional, said that in her entire career, she never witnessed someone recovering this fast. And I am sure my way to use AI contributes to that result.
I also use it for chores, which I would never do during depression. I upload photos of my room, and ask it to make a plan to clean up. And then I do it. Having „someone“ next to you, that doesnt judge you when you „fail“ is so helpful, and my flat is so tidy and clean since I started doing that. (I recently learned that this is called body doubling)
Now, this doesnt take away the problems AI causes. But what I wanted to show is that AI, with all its problems, can be very helpful. I would have never become this stable without it. Not in this short amout of time.
Have a peaceful day.
