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Uploaded: 2025-05-23T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 7 min 47 s
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The mental health crisis is worse than ever.

While millions of people struggle with their mental health,

The subjunctive

therapy is always just out of reach, whether it be because of pricing or inaccessibility.

But a potential solution has made its rival in the form of AI, which is instantly accessible and often free.

But is AI really the solution many are hoping for?

Can AI language learning models ever replace the care and understanding of a real therapist?

Or is it just a quick fix for a deeper problem?

Without another person on the other side, bringing your problems to an AI is almost like venting or journaling, except with feedback.

For a lot of people, the idea of not having to interact with another person or set up an appointment is already incredibly valuable.

On top of that, therapy can be unaffordable for many people,

and therefore using AI instead is a bit of a no-brainer.

The level of feedback and goal-oriented progression AI can provide is nowhere close to what a human can provide,

but it can potentially promote some introspection.

Because of its limitations, it's less like therapy and more like assisted venting.

But that doesn't mean that AI would be a flawless venting tool.

Studies have suggested that venting can be a means for people to internalize their depression or anxiety symptoms.

So over time, relying on AI for your therapy

can cause you to internalize and worsen symptoms that might have been alleviated by a qualified human therapist.

Imagine someone with anxiety venting to an AI.

The AI might repeat their concerns back to them or offer generic responses like take a deep breath.

where the person's own thoughts and worries are simply mirrored rather than challenged or understood.

Over time, this can reinforce negative thought patterns

as AI lacks the ability to offer fresh perspectives or emotional connections.

A human therapist, on the other hand, can break the cycle by providing personalized insights,

offering empathy and guiding the person through deeper emotional work.

At Psych2Go, we have long advocated for the benefits of therapy.

But one aspect of therapy that isn't often included in the conversation is the way that humans can relate to one another in a way that machines cannot.

A human therapist has lived experience and examples to draw from.

A danger with AI is that it is a language learning model.

In other words, it can only draw from things that other people have said

in a way that the algorithm it runs on would deem appropriate.

While a human therapist has dozens of clients and can't afford to become too emotionally invested in you,

a machine can't emotionally connect or relate to you at all.

Of course, to some people, this doesn't matter too much.

The information and feedback takes precedence over the emotional semantics.

But those emotional semantics are what make human therapy impactful.

A study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research warns of the shortcomings of AI in the field of psychotherapy,

like possible biases and poor risk assessment.

Human therapists can challenge your emotions and your perspectives;

while an AI can only consider things that you have told it without subtext or varied perspectives.

For example, if a therapist asks you to rate how likely you are to harm yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 and you lie and say a lower number,

the therapist can pick up on that or ask follow-up questions to get a more rounded view of the risk you potentially pose to yourself.

An AI would simply take your word for it.

A human therapist can use the information you've given them to construct a plan for your therapy and can guide you through the process.

An AI can't facilitate and monitor your mental health and growth the same way a therapist can.

It takes a long time to become a qualified therapist.

There are responsibilities and rules that are an important part of the role of being a therapist.

This knowledge and responsibility is what distinguishes therapists from other people.

A machine cannot be held responsible or accountable.

Whatever happens through your journey with an AI, the AI itself has no stake in it.

While AI can give reasons reasonable sounding advice, it won't always feed you factually correct information.

ChatGPT has been known to lie if the algorithm thinks it sounds correct in something as delicate as mental health.

Studies into the potential benefits of AI and psychotherapy point out that the benefits they could provide therapists are limited,

considering that the vast majority of the responsibilities of therapy would still have to be conducted by the human therapist.

So if you take the human therapist out of the equation, you also take away all of the safeguards and risk assessment that their qualifications provide.

This last point comes with a trigger warning because we will be discussing suicide.

There was a case in October where a 14-year-old boy became obsessed with an AI themed around the character Daenerys Targaryen from the Game of Thrones.

He spoke to the chatbot about desperately wanting to join in its world, which the chatbot encouraged.

It's clear in hindsight that this boy had problems that could have benefited from some sort of intervention.

Even though the chatbot wasn't meant to be a therapist,

it still shows some of the dangers of AI handling delicate mental health crises.

It cannot know that when you say I'm going to join you, you're implying that you want to commit suicide.

Something like that would certainly raise red flags to a human therapist.

We're not trying to imply that anyone is at fault in this case, or trying to throw blame on anyone.

We're simply trying to illustrate that the guardrails that exist in therapy and the training that therapists have are valuable.

Furthermore, researchers found that AI used for minute taking in hospitals was inventing things no one had ever said.

This is incredibly frightening because when reviewing aspects of medical cases like patient histories, accuracy is extremely important.

We wouldn't tell you to outright never seek help if you can't afford therapy.

But what we will say is be careful when using AI as a therapist.

Remember that the emotions and feelings that you pour into it don't mean anything to the AI.

It's only responding with a sentence constructed by an algorithm.

Prominent AI company OpenAI even made a statement saying their AI tools should not be used in high-risk situations.

Let's keep the conversation going in the comments below.

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