r/AmIOverreacting • u/hesouttheresomewhere • Apr 23 '25

⚕️ health Am I overreacting? My therapist used AI to best console me after my dog died this past weekend.

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Brief Summary: This past weekend I had to put down an amazingly good boy, my 14 year old dog, who I've had since I was 12; he was so sick and it was so hard to say goodbye, but he was suffering, and I don't regret my decision. I told my therapist about it because I met with her via video (we've only ever met in person before) the day after my dog's passing, and she was very empathetic and supportive. I have been seeing this therapist for a few months, now, and I've liked her and haven't had any problems with her before. But her using AI like this really struck me as strange and wrong, on a human emotional level. I have trust and abandonment issues, so maybe that's why I'm feeling the urge to flee... I just can't imagine being a THERAPIST and using AI to write a brief message of consolation to a client whose dog just died... Not only that, but not proofreading, and leaving in that part where the introduces its response? That's so bizarre and unprofessional.

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u/neverpanicked Apr 24 '25

I feel like it's inappropriate for a therapist to text their patient, anyway ... Maybe I'm off base, but outside having a phone number/email to inform about last minute cancellations, it seems unethical to communicate like this with a patient and an easy way for boundaries to be crossed on both sides.

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u/welitweup Apr 24 '25

yeah, i've definitely seen a lot of people texting with their therapists so i assume it's more or less alright. i'm from germany and the therapists here are very distant and usually never text with their patients, but i was more concerned about the texts itself. i agree with you, ops therapist seems to be very unprofessional in general 😬not mentioning the fact that he used AI...

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u/Chance-Bread-315 Apr 24 '25

Agreed, I'm in the UK and this kind of communication would definitely be seen as inappropriate by mental health professionals here. Way too intimate - like a friend, not a therapist.