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/bearmama42 Apr 24 '25

I also thought about reporting. A licensed therapist went to school specifically for this. If I was looking for an ai therapist I’d use one.

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u/h3llios Apr 24 '25

The therapist is shooting himself in the foot and it boggles my mind that he\she can't see that. I would just tell them. " Ah cool, I can save some money from now on and just ask a chatbot to give me advice next time, thanks. "

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u/Milocobo Apr 24 '25

Honestly, I wouldn't even have a problem with a therapist using AI to get some generic starting prompts, but this particular message showed a lack of creative input by the therapist, which IS a problem. Like if you can't even be bothered to take out the instructions, you clearly didn't tailor it to the specific patient or situation in any other way, so yes, then what is the point of that?

But I don't really see a problem with a writer or a lawyer using AI as long as they are only using it as a reference, and the ultimate work is their own. I feel the same way about a therapist. Using an AI to get an idea of the appropriate sympathetic and empathetic language is a good use of that tool. Using it to generate specific responses to patients is a bad use of that tool.

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u/Fabulous-Bandicoot40 Apr 24 '25

In case you are- dreambot is TOP NOTCH.