By DIANE PHILLIPS

We’ve done it to ourselves. We’ve made electronic interaction so handy, so easy, so available, so intelligent, we can go a full day getting all our work done, looking smart, achieving goals without interacting with a real human being. Now we’re taking it to a level that only a few years ago might have sent shivers down our spine. In one of the fastest growing trends in health care, we are increasingly relying on AI Chatbots for our mental well-being.

The Bot is becoming our shrink, lending support when we need it, helping us deal with stress, anxiety or depression, possibly even talking us out of suicide. That’s a big ask for a robot we’ve never had the pleasure of meeting in person, but then again, that bot has heard it all before. How did we get here and where will it lead?

It started with our reliance on ChatGPT, Claude, Alexis and Gemini. The Bot became our friend. Alexa didn’t complain if we asked her to change the music we wanted to listen to ten times before we got to the exact sound we wanted. She didn’t even expect a nod of appreciation, a fact that probably did not do our manners habits any favour. Gemini did our research for us, saving us time. And there was almost nothing we could throw at ChatGPT that she could not do better than we. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the ChatBot has become our latest addiction. The stats are staggering - ChatGPT users are expected to reach 700 million weekly.

We can Google everything from the best pizza crust near us to the most expensive diamond ever sold. We don’t have to figure out how much change we should expect from a $30.85 sale if we hand the clerk a $50 bill ($19.15) or how to find our way to the closest electric vehicle charging station. So why would we be surprised that we are turning to a Bot by our side when we are having one of those moments when we could use a little mental helping hand?

The trend is growing so fast that it has caught the attention of professionals who hold both academic and practical, hypothetical, experiential and anecdotal knowledge. Though opinions vary, many feel the Bot might be a good companion, especially in the wee hours of the morning when the doctor is less likely to be available and just having “someone to talk to” who understands and can work with the individual to boost their spirit, let them talk it out, perhaps come to a positive conclusion or path forward themselves can supplement other mental health assistance.

They recognise that depression, loneliness, stagnation, emotional hardship or paralysis does not recognise a schedule when the couch, comfy chair or zoom call is available. Others worry that the Bot will only reinforce and reaffirm the problems the individual describes because it is viewing those issues through the eyes of the persons seeking help instead of objectively bringing an “open mind” to the conversation.

Pro, con or somewhere in between, psychologists, psychiatrists and others in the mental health field understand that the technology is revolutionizing the mental health industry – a sector that is expected to be a $4.2 billion market by 2030. They are aware that the Bot is not only available on a moment’s notice at any hour, it is likely to be a lot less expensive, though there is a charge. And that may increase as the demand continues to increase, but then so will competition.

Bots don’t need to repay a four- or eight-year or more college career. They don’t have to hire receptionists, lease office space. It would be reasonable to assume they are masters of discretion and never tell anyone your business.

The Bot doesn’t worry about medical school or internships. It has the knowledge of the entire world at its disposal and that, say some professionals, is the concern – inability to understand that what people talk about is not necessarily the real issue that is driving them to seek help. If we knew what was really bothering us, would we bother to seek help to try to find out what it is and fix it?

Interestingly enough, the rise of the AI therapist appears to be growing especially fast in China and among the Chinese population in places where stress levels are high. Whether it is DeepSeek in China or talk2us.ai in the US or one of several other bots, there is little doubt that the day of having to lie on a shrink’s couch and bare your soul, hoping to find an answer in either a parental relationship that led to a complex that is destroying your chance at happiness or just discovering a way forward without worrying about the DNA-driven cause, the business of mental well-being is going the way everything else in our lives is.

We’re happily handing it over to some electronic equipment with an intelligence we will never match, hoping for a magic we cannot create on our own, And in that regard, we are doing in this contemporary sophisticated world what we have always done from the beginning of time. We are taking the path of least resistance and there may be nothing wrong with that at all. The path of least resistance is, and always has been, the most efficient, effective way to get from Point A to B.