Men are opening up about mental health to AI instead of humans
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Probably the closest space any guy could get is AA or NA meetings.
what do these abbreviations stand for?
Alcoholic Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous
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Therapy is just littered with bad therapists, that do more harm than good and give the practice a bad name.
For every 1 good therapist, there are probably 10+ bad ones.
It can be a fucking ordeal to navigate, financially and emotionally, to try and find the one good one.
My worst experience was a therapist which charged me 300 dollars a session to do nothing but talk about how amazing they were, and that I need to just suck it up and be amazing like they are, afterall, it was so easy for them.
I am on my fifth therapist. The first one I was seeing I kinda stopped going and then he retired, then I had a GF cheat on me and that was super brutal so I started going again.
First therapist was the stereotypical "feelings are okay!" kind of therapist, second one she just automatically assumed it was my fault and was basically telling me that cause I'm a man I should have done better, and the third just immediately jumped to medication like halfway through my first session.
Ended up with my current therapist and she's great. I really like her because she regularly tells me that I'm just straight up being stupid or ridiculous and just need to handle my shit. Which works amazing for me.
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A profound relational revolution is underway, not orchestrated by tech developers but driven by users themselves. Many of the 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT are seeking more than just assistance with emails or information on food safety; they are looking for emotional support.
“Therapy and companionship” have emerged as two of the most frequent applications for generative AI globally, according to the Harvard Business Review. This trend marks a significant, unplanned pivot in how people interact with technology.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I'm totally against what companies are calling "AI", but I understand that many men still have a negative feel on therapy inherited from society, their family, their friends, and the people around them. Now add that with the fact that therapy sessions cost a kidney, I don't blame them. Even mental health has to be monetized in capitalism, and the capitalists (more specifically liberals) are still wondering why suicide rate is so high, I wonder
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This comment section is nuts.
Men #1 issue is lack of empathy, TOWARDS women. Not each other.
There's your solution.
“I’m the one who’s correct, everyone else here is wrong.” – You
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I disagree. I had depression pretty bad, I didn't leave my house for two years.
Empathy is definitely what made me feel different, not 100% better but different and different is the first step out of depression I think.
“The way I do things is how everyone should do things, because what works for me will unquestionably work for everyone else.” – You
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It’s is effectively self-treatment with more steps.
And for many people it's better than nothing and likely the best they can do. Waiting lists for a basic therapist in my area are months long. Shorter if you pay out of pocket, but that isn't affordable to average people because it's like 300-400 for a one hour session.
I get it, but I'm not sure that "something is better than nothing" in this case. I don't judge any individual for using it, but the risks are huge, as others have documented. And the benefits are questionable.
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“I’m the one who’s correct, everyone else here is wrong.” – You
Everyone else is blaming women for how men act. You disagree?
One guy said women raise boys, so it's their fault.
Another said therapy only works for women and suggested women aren't under any social pressure.
You think those are intelligent, well thought arguments? Because they're stupid.
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No that's ridiculous and hilarious to say. I'd agree there is enough to blame everyone but you're not, you're blaming women.
I've never been told to man up by a woman, only men. Ridiculous to say that.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Is it really that ridiculous? Biologically seen, men's properties are mostly due to genetic selection by women over thousands of years, if they are conscious about it or not. Men that are more attractive to women are preferred partners, and the selection pressure is mostly on men, since women have a much higher biological cost in pregnancy, therefore they are much more "picky". That is pretty proven science, and this pressure is also found in culture: men have the attributes that women want them to have to give them an advantage.
It would only take 2-3 generations of women AND men doing child care to fix those issues by reinforcing openness and acceptance, but that takes education, esp in the human sciences, and education for the masses in the US has been dismantled long ago even before the current razing.
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A profound relational revolution is underway, not orchestrated by tech developers but driven by users themselves. Many of the 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT are seeking more than just assistance with emails or information on food safety; they are looking for emotional support.
“Therapy and companionship” have emerged as two of the most frequent applications for generative AI globally, according to the Harvard Business Review. This trend marks a significant, unplanned pivot in how people interact with technology.
Morons, giving all their personal information and insecurities to companies.
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I'm totally against what companies are calling "AI", but I understand that many men still have a negative feel on therapy inherited from society, their family, their friends, and the people around them. Now add that with the fact that therapy sessions cost a kidney, I don't blame them. Even mental health has to be monetized in capitalism, and the capitalists (more specifically liberals) are still wondering why suicide rate is so high, I wonder
You should blame them because the AI is not a solution to their problems, it will only create more problems and worsen their current ones.
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I'm a therapist who works almost exclusively with men. Here one pattern I've seen often:
- Man is conditioned from a young age not to identify, process or express his feelings
- Man doesn't share his feelings with anyone - friends, family, partners - for years
- Man sees woman as safe, caring and validating
- Man confides in woman only and continues not sharing feelings with others
- Woman becomes overwhelmed, resentful, dismissive
- Man gets the message that he never should have opened up in the first place
It can be true both that men need to open up more and should not treat their partners as therapists. We all need support systems because no one person can always be available to give us everything we need. It's not wrong to confide in a partner, but if that partner is the only confidant it's precarious for both. And I want to emphasize this is not the fault of a man, or men as a community. This is the result of generations of conditioning from both men and women, and both men and women play a part in the solution. I also want to recognize that many of us don't have a network of people we could open up to even if we wanted to, and many more can't afford therapy.
If anyone reading this can afford therapy, I highly recommend it. It's a place to undo some of that conditioning, to sit with someone who's committed to listening, caring, and not judging.
man is conditioned from a young age not to show feelings
I feel like you skipped over this part way too quickly. Myself and other men have been hearing things like "it's not manly to cry", "whining isn't going to do anything for you", "being weak is girly", and countless other things for my entire memorable life
And it's not just men telling me this. It's men, women, adults, my classmates, teachers and mentors.
It's not a good thing. And it's changing now, which is so good. But man hearing that from your earliest memories makes it really set in.
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Probably the closest space any guy could get is AA or NA meetings.
what do these abbreviations stand for?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]AA = Alcoholics Anonymous
NA = Narcotics Anonymous
Both are treatment programs for their respective addictions.
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Ironically, i am feeling attacked right now..
If you gave all your personal details and vulnerabilities to a corporation's chatbot then you fucking should feel attacked rn. You know these AI have been in the news for telling people to commit suicide for a while now, right? Either get real professional help or go browse some public discord/matrix channels about your interests to find somebody to voice chat to, fr.
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You should blame them because the AI is not a solution to their problems, it will only create more problems and worsen their current ones.
Ok, so the solution to men feeling too scared to open up about their mental health enough to rely on something as unreliable as ChatGPT is for you to victim blame them?
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What the fuck? Can you read?
Coping Skills are not gender specific. What a dope.
You just blamed all his so-called issues on him being a man. The question is can you read your own comment or do you just type out sentences that you yourself don't understand?
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Ok, so the solution to men feeling too scared to open up about their mental health enough to rely on something as unreliable as ChatGPT is for you to victim blame them?
If some men thought the solution to loneliness was fucking a toaster I'd think less of them too, yeah. At least find a tool that suits the purpose, talking to the AI is just self harm.
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This comment section is nuts.
Men #1 issue is lack of empathy, TOWARDS women. Not each other.
There's your solution.
You seem to lack empathy.
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You reply to an anecdote (well really more of a logical argument but w/e) with an anecdote.
Astounding level of intellectual discussion going on here.
Well, you see, only his anecdote has any value, anybody else's is just an anecdote and therefore doesn't count.
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Is it really that ridiculous? Biologically seen, men's properties are mostly due to genetic selection by women over thousands of years, if they are conscious about it or not. Men that are more attractive to women are preferred partners, and the selection pressure is mostly on men, since women have a much higher biological cost in pregnancy, therefore they are much more "picky". That is pretty proven science, and this pressure is also found in culture: men have the attributes that women want them to have to give them an advantage.
It would only take 2-3 generations of women AND men doing child care to fix those issues by reinforcing openness and acceptance, but that takes education, esp in the human sciences, and education for the masses in the US has been dismantled long ago even before the current razing.
Yes that is ridiculous because the intent is to lay responsibility at women's feet, again. Like always.
This stuff about how women see men or whatever weird breeding shit you're rambling about is irrelevant you're just trying to argue women have a choice in some weird way to make the men they want and "choose" not to. That's so silly.
The simple fact is men are allowed to not take part in their kid's lives and having one parent do the job isn't gonna work regardless if they are male or female. As you suggested that is a comment on our social structure which i agree with but again, not what is being said in this thread it's very clear they are blaming women directly and entirely.
Now again there's dozens of factors at play here but the bottom line is men are responsible. They hold power in society, they are allowed to disregard children and they are the ones bullying boys into being the way they are. Do women have a role in that? Sure. Is it their responsibility or fault? No that's silly as fuck especially cause most couldn't have jobs, couldn't vote and still can't do either across the globe.
Bottom line is men are failing men and the first step to a solution is empathy especially towards women which this thread lacks hard. Women are literally the ones leading the charge in reinforcing openness and education, don't believe me? go to your local elementary school and check out how the teachers speak to kids. Some will be men most will be women and they're impressively kind and open and teaching a variety of skills to help kids be better people. Men as a whole are not doing that, in fact most men in power are actively trying not to let that happen. They call it sissyfication.
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You just blamed all his so-called issues on him being a man. The question is can you read your own comment or do you just type out sentences that you yourself don't understand?
Please quote me. I said he's being sexist which he is.
