Yeah it is really wild isn't it? I have found in chronic illness communities I don't know what to say when people are like "chat GPT is my friend/therapist/health coach". But it gives me a whole ick. 🙃😩
Yeh! I feel like I don’t want to be judgemental - that’s part of the problem it seems to be solving for - but I don’t seem to know how to work through my concerns about it in a diligent way… that doesn’t appear judgy!
As promised to anyone interested: a small range of free or cheap non ai resources.
Please note I live with someone who has complex health needs & these resources have helped me/continue to help me navigate some significant events & feel less isolated.
The Psych Collective
Is based in Wollongong, and have free downloads & cheap courses resources. Their video in distress helped me understand more clearly the role of the vagus nervous system. They a free download:
Conquer Anger and Panic
This eBook distils some essentials from our Surviving Distress Course - Master Distress with expert techniques, not just pills. Possibly less helpful if you live in a war zone.
To Write Love on her arms aka TWOLHA is an amazing organisation in America.
I get weekly blogs written by people with lived experience of suicidal ideation, self harm, binge eating, and a whole lot more. They have a free helpline and a great list of resources across the USA.
TWOLHA also invests directly in mental health treatment through their Treatment & Recovery Scholarship Fund. According to their website, they have invested a total of $4.3 million into inpatient and outpatient treatment that people otherwise could not afford, including 31,891 hours of therapy.
Check them out via instagram, website etc. Great for young people & LGBTQIA community.
Additude: an online resource for those with add/ adhd/autism diagnoses. They often have free webinars as which are recorded.
Weekly emails
Headspace: a meditation storytelling app - that will always discount if asked. My partner uses it every night.
Somatic self care: via "office of well being" at John Hopkins
Great short exercises to centre your breath and body for assisting fight or flight mode.
The office of wellbeing offers resources for John Hopkins staff but some are readable by anyone.
Politically depressed - a podcast & you tube video blog which is part of " The Fire these times" collective which are an amazing group of people Lebanon, Syria, Palestine; Sudan etc.
Their content is vital to help anyone understand the history of regions,colonialism etc.
Engaging in community is good therapy.
Ayman has two recent video essays on you tube: "My Therapist broke up with me" &
"Is Psychology Dead?"
The Practice: by Liz Milani, an Australian writer.
Therapy and Insight for those reconstructing their faith or leaving church communities (seen through the Christian experience). I read it most days to just slow down.
free on instagram/daily email/app $19 for a year on Google play or other stores
SANE: an Australian organisation.
SANE started as a group of people with various psychiatric diagnoses who felt they often better understood their own conditions. Its grown to be a funded organisation with free forums (available globally); free 6 session counselling programs with peer workers or "professionals" plus webibars and groups.
Peer mental health workers:
The UK, Canada, & Australia are now training and offering affordable support through programs with peer workers, i.e. people with lived experience who have undergone training to assist people. Frankly, it's cheaper to employ a peer worker but it does mean there a greater range of accessible programs out there if you look on government websites.
All of these resources offer connection. Reading the comments what I get is a sense that we have or are becoming too comfortable relying on professional help online during covid and chat gpt therapy may, in my opinion, reduce our willingness to seek out connection.
But If you need help get it anywhere it helps you, just protect yourself.
Finally: Serving others is therapy.
The best thing I've done since covid days is volunteer with a few organisations a few hours each week.
In helping others I've made broader connections with my new community & I learn so mych by listening.
As a person who writes professionally and as someone who has benefited from therapy with a human, this scares me a lot. I’m opposed to generative AI for different tasks because of what we lose when we don’t create. I’m not opposed to all new technology, but I think we need to ask what we give up when we adopt it (including social media! I doubt many people would say social media is all good). I get that not everyone has access to therapy, which is a problem, but… using ChatGPT turns my stomach. The environmental problems, the shady tech industry, the security, the ethics… yikes.
Its embedded in my google search & what's app and using the mic is easier than typing.
And oh the questions and places we can go in a week - knowing that Google is storing:
"How many carbohydrates is in..."? For my type 1 Diabetic partner as we sit for dinner.
"Side effects of xyz medication"
"What books in the Christian Old Testament contain apocalyptic writing"
"Cheap flights to".
I guess within that diversity of questions, a picture builds of my life but therapy? No.
As you pointed out - I sit in relative comfort - with a bulk billing psychiatrist & a 10 care mental health plan with a psychologist. Access is everything.
My concern, apart from privacy which I try to protect is the western canon of psychology/psychiatry and the lack of diversity in AI training. I understand someone wanting to seek help in remote or badly serviced areas but the flatness of AI would only help so far.
As for the loneliness bit - that breaks my heart. I'm pretty isolated due to age, and carer responsibilities & a desire to hide but I have a small faith community and those resources of people. But living with someone with a complex & occasionally severe diagnosis of bi polar is terribly hard to explain in a world where everyone is labelled. Rather than diss AI and go over a lot of what you wrote I'm going to come back here and drop a range of resources that subscribers could try or pass on. Some are free, some will offer discounts. Some are apps that probably use ai? All of them are resources available in and outside Australia.
I'm also trying to track down a major article about the lack of linguistic diversity in ai that came out ages ago. Back soon.
I'm a therapist and more and more clients are telling me they consult ChatGPT with their mental health issues, and I love it! Separating the profit-driven org for a moment with the actual concept of AI-Therapist, the tool itself is so accessible and lets clients have a soundboard. It's a great addition to real therapy, but definitely can't replace it. And I dont say that because it's my job. I do believe that vulnerability, presence, exploring your insecurities/trauma with someone physically cannot be replaced. This "contact" between therapist-client is in itself a healing and transformative space. But in between therapy sessions, yeah totally use AI-therapy tools to supplement your awareness.
I do find ChatGPT useful if I'm stuck on a sentence while writing. Hardly ever do I accept its redraft, but just seeing the sentence expressed in another way often 'unblocks' me!
I sat next to a guy on a plane from Melbourne to Sydney who told me his friend uses Chatgpt (paid version) regularly for therapy and to the point he has given up his human therapist. I mean I'm still using Chatgpt to help correct my spelling;)
I use the Feeling Great App, which follows the TEAM-CBT methodology of Dr. David Burns from Stanford. This methodology is excellent and works! I recommend everyone try this app out. It has saved me years of suffering, and I can go back to it whenever I can't figure my thoughts out. I always feel heard and find solutions that work for the long haul.
Yeah it is really wild isn't it? I have found in chronic illness communities I don't know what to say when people are like "chat GPT is my friend/therapist/health coach". But it gives me a whole ick. 🙃😩
Yeh! I feel like I don’t want to be judgemental - that’s part of the problem it seems to be solving for - but I don’t seem to know how to work through my concerns about it in a diligent way… that doesn’t appear judgy!
As promised to anyone interested: a small range of free or cheap non ai resources.
Please note I live with someone who has complex health needs & these resources have helped me/continue to help me navigate some significant events & feel less isolated.
The Psych Collective
Is based in Wollongong, and have free downloads & cheap courses resources. Their video in distress helped me understand more clearly the role of the vagus nervous system. They a free download:
Conquer Anger and Panic
This eBook distils some essentials from our Surviving Distress Course - Master Distress with expert techniques, not just pills. Possibly less helpful if you live in a war zone.
To Write Love on her arms aka TWOLHA is an amazing organisation in America.
I get weekly blogs written by people with lived experience of suicidal ideation, self harm, binge eating, and a whole lot more. They have a free helpline and a great list of resources across the USA.
TWOLHA also invests directly in mental health treatment through their Treatment & Recovery Scholarship Fund. According to their website, they have invested a total of $4.3 million into inpatient and outpatient treatment that people otherwise could not afford, including 31,891 hours of therapy.
Check them out via instagram, website etc. Great for young people & LGBTQIA community.
Additude: an online resource for those with add/ adhd/autism diagnoses. They often have free webinars as which are recorded.
Weekly emails
Headspace: a meditation storytelling app - that will always discount if asked. My partner uses it every night.
Somatic self care: via "office of well being" at John Hopkins
Great short exercises to centre your breath and body for assisting fight or flight mode.
The office of wellbeing offers resources for John Hopkins staff but some are readable by anyone.
Politically depressed - a podcast & you tube video blog which is part of " The Fire these times" collective which are an amazing group of people Lebanon, Syria, Palestine; Sudan etc.
Their content is vital to help anyone understand the history of regions,colonialism etc.
Engaging in community is good therapy.
Ayman has two recent video essays on you tube: "My Therapist broke up with me" &
"Is Psychology Dead?"
The Practice: by Liz Milani, an Australian writer.
Therapy and Insight for those reconstructing their faith or leaving church communities (seen through the Christian experience). I read it most days to just slow down.
free on instagram/daily email/app $19 for a year on Google play or other stores
SANE: an Australian organisation.
SANE started as a group of people with various psychiatric diagnoses who felt they often better understood their own conditions. Its grown to be a funded organisation with free forums (available globally); free 6 session counselling programs with peer workers or "professionals" plus webibars and groups.
Peer mental health workers:
The UK, Canada, & Australia are now training and offering affordable support through programs with peer workers, i.e. people with lived experience who have undergone training to assist people. Frankly, it's cheaper to employ a peer worker but it does mean there a greater range of accessible programs out there if you look on government websites.
All of these resources offer connection. Reading the comments what I get is a sense that we have or are becoming too comfortable relying on professional help online during covid and chat gpt therapy may, in my opinion, reduce our willingness to seek out connection.
But If you need help get it anywhere it helps you, just protect yourself.
Finally: Serving others is therapy.
The best thing I've done since covid days is volunteer with a few organisations a few hours each week.
In helping others I've made broader connections with my new community & I learn so mych by listening.
Thanks Yassmin. 🙏💜
As a person who writes professionally and as someone who has benefited from therapy with a human, this scares me a lot. I’m opposed to generative AI for different tasks because of what we lose when we don’t create. I’m not opposed to all new technology, but I think we need to ask what we give up when we adopt it (including social media! I doubt many people would say social media is all good). I get that not everyone has access to therapy, which is a problem, but… using ChatGPT turns my stomach. The environmental problems, the shady tech industry, the security, the ethics… yikes.
"Yeah but no but yeah but no"
is my response.
I don't have ai installed specifically but
Its embedded in my google search & what's app and using the mic is easier than typing.
And oh the questions and places we can go in a week - knowing that Google is storing:
"How many carbohydrates is in..."? For my type 1 Diabetic partner as we sit for dinner.
"Side effects of xyz medication"
"What books in the Christian Old Testament contain apocalyptic writing"
"Cheap flights to".
I guess within that diversity of questions, a picture builds of my life but therapy? No.
As you pointed out - I sit in relative comfort - with a bulk billing psychiatrist & a 10 care mental health plan with a psychologist. Access is everything.
My concern, apart from privacy which I try to protect is the western canon of psychology/psychiatry and the lack of diversity in AI training. I understand someone wanting to seek help in remote or badly serviced areas but the flatness of AI would only help so far.
As for the loneliness bit - that breaks my heart. I'm pretty isolated due to age, and carer responsibilities & a desire to hide but I have a small faith community and those resources of people. But living with someone with a complex & occasionally severe diagnosis of bi polar is terribly hard to explain in a world where everyone is labelled. Rather than diss AI and go over a lot of what you wrote I'm going to come back here and drop a range of resources that subscribers could try or pass on. Some are free, some will offer discounts. Some are apps that probably use ai? All of them are resources available in and outside Australia.
I'm also trying to track down a major article about the lack of linguistic diversity in ai that came out ages ago. Back soon.
I'm a therapist and more and more clients are telling me they consult ChatGPT with their mental health issues, and I love it! Separating the profit-driven org for a moment with the actual concept of AI-Therapist, the tool itself is so accessible and lets clients have a soundboard. It's a great addition to real therapy, but definitely can't replace it. And I dont say that because it's my job. I do believe that vulnerability, presence, exploring your insecurities/trauma with someone physically cannot be replaced. This "contact" between therapist-client is in itself a healing and transformative space. But in between therapy sessions, yeah totally use AI-therapy tools to supplement your awareness.
I do find ChatGPT useful if I'm stuck on a sentence while writing. Hardly ever do I accept its redraft, but just seeing the sentence expressed in another way often 'unblocks' me!
I sat next to a guy on a plane from Melbourne to Sydney who told me his friend uses Chatgpt (paid version) regularly for therapy and to the point he has given up his human therapist. I mean I'm still using Chatgpt to help correct my spelling;)
Hi! I just listened to this US journalist experimenting and um.... lumina seems to be non functional to the point that I wonder if the study was faked. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/shell-game/episode-1/105116088
I use the Feeling Great App, which follows the TEAM-CBT methodology of Dr. David Burns from Stanford. This methodology is excellent and works! I recommend everyone try this app out. It has saved me years of suffering, and I can go back to it whenever I can't figure my thoughts out. I always feel heard and find solutions that work for the long haul.