I am unable to share my problems with my wife. She is unwilling to listen to me. She is completely emotionally unavailable to me. I still love her and I am unwilling to throw her under the bus by talking to a friend or family member about our problems.
I recently heard about the AI Chatbots Youper and Woebot. It sounds like it is something I could use. Have you used it? Do you have a preferred platform? Did it help you?
14 comments
This sounds like the premise to a sci-fi film… And if I know my Asimov, it doesn’t end well for the human.
Can you possibly talk to a real human mental health professional?
talk to a real therapist. the AI are not subject to the same discretion laws, and honestly aren’t reliable at this point. They are made by people who want to exploit the mentally ill for a quick buck.
You would be better off talking to some one on here or another forum that to a chat bot. They are basically just a toy. Counseling works best in person, alot of pros wont do phone consults. But there are some newer services online i have seen advertised. No clue about cba on all that
Theoretically, they could work. A not insignificant part of therapy is just being able to verbalize your problems and be able to release some tension and stress by expressing what’s weighing on you. It doesn’t particularly matter if nobody is listening as simply being able to hear yourself say it can help. AI could help with this and provide a bit of generic feedback to help you express it even better.
Now, obviously this wouldn’t apply to any serious psychological matters, but if you just need to bitch and vent a bit, it’s something to bitch and vent to and that could aid in getting it off your chest.
I agree with the folks who say to talk to a real person if possible. If you’re going to mess with AI, I think you should treat it as a semi- interactive prompt service instead of something that actually has an opinion or expertise. If you use it as something between a journaling tool and a Socratic dialogue, you may get some stuff out of it, but as soon as you start giving it’s opinion weight it’s going to get dangerous because it cannot give a measured, reasoned response for its advice.
Eh
I’ll listen to your problems (female)
(I’ll be making some assumptions here, if those assumptions are wrong, just ignore the things linked to them)
Your wife might not be the right person to “unload” these type of things on, because of the way you handle these problems after venting them as it has *her* panicking. Especially if the problem is never solved, her listening to ypu describing it is like an addition to the things she will from now on will have to worry about as you are not able to change it, she certainly can’t change it because its ***your*** problem and since the problems only add up withput going away she might fear that some day you will break down under the stacking burdens.
If your actions can’t make her confident that you cannot/will not solve any of these problems, even though you are showing you recognize the issues, then telling her about will sound to her like “hey look over here, there is another crack in me, some day I’ll break!” So she can either stay in the demolition zone seeing these cracks spread, get away and find a safer place to be or ignore the cracking sounds and hope they fix themselves/someone else takes care of it. And at least to some degree you’ll understand: She has her own issues, some of which she is already unable to fix herself, how would she be able to handle yours too?
If I had to give you “advice” it would be: Less talking, more doing – try to fix those things and show her that you did. If you need someone to talk, talk to other men you are close to. Your wife is not the one person to fulfill every social role in your life, being exclusively someones romantic partner is already enough, therapist and best friend might be roles for others.
*”Men of Reddit. What has been your experience in using mental health AI chatbots like Youper and Woebot?”*
None.
I hate A.I. so I don’t use it.
Never even heard of them. Is this an advertisement?
So no-one has actually used them? I’m also interested to hear actual experiences as OP asked.
*I still love her and I am unwilling to throw her under the bus by talking to a friend or family member about our problems.*
No single person is able to fulfill all our needs. Talking to a friend is not throwing her under the bus, it’s taking care of yourself.
As of Chatbot…
+ I can talk to them about things I wouldn’t tell even my therapist, and they help me accept them as part of myself.
– They have goldfish memories. Once you start seeing how much they are just reacting to latest stimuli, it’s hard to pretend they are there for you.
>I am unwilling to throw her under the bus by talking to a friend or family member about our problems.
This is why you fail. You **need** to talk to someone.
Get an actual therapist. Don’t talk to AI