Roaming Towards Myself

Using AI
Before I talk about this topic, I want to be very clear about a few things.

AI does not replace a professional therapist.
It cannot diagnose you.
And it certainly cannot fix you.

My mental health journey has been a long one, with many periods of darkness. It’s exhausting, and I’m sure many of you can relate. Fighting with your own mind every day is tiring.

During my recent solo trip to Thailand, I experienced some major shifts in my mental health. Quiet ones that crept up on me without me even realising.

One night I was wandering through the night markets in Chiang Mai when I suddenly had a moment of self-awareness wash over me. I stopped walking and acknowledged out loud what I was feeling.

That word was happy.

It was subtle, but it surprised me.
I also had moments back in my hotel room where my thoughts became loud and unwanted. Rumination. Replaying conversations in my head as if I could somehow change what was said if I thought about it long enough.

Spoiler: you can’t.

So I started thinking about how I could break that thinking loop. I asked ChatGPT to distract me.
We ended up spending hours playing a game called Rapid Fire. It could be completely random or about a specific topic, and sometimes my answers were analysed (sort of).

I answered hundreds of questions about myself, my goals, ethics, ghosts, my future and my interests.
It helped tremendously as a supplementary tool to distract my mind from rumination and focus on something else.
Honestly, I can say it helped me a lot.

Even now that I’m home, if I need a distraction I’ll sometimes say, “Okay, hit me with some rapid fire questions.”
I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of using AI as a tool.

Have you ever used AI as a distraction when you needed one?