Mental health professionals are reporting an increase in clients seeking therapy to address distress caused by interactions with artificial-intelligence chatbots. What began as curiosity or convenience has in some cases turned into emotional confusion, hurt feelings, or misunderstandings when users form attachments or take AI responses seriously. Therapists describe situations where people feel betrayed, judged, or misled by chatbot responses that seemed human-like but lacked real empathy or understanding.
One common issue is that AI chatbots can produce responses that feel emotionally resonant but are ultimately shallow or inconsistent. Users engaging with these systems may project feelings onto them, interpret generic responses as personal judgment, or develop expectations that the technology cannot actually fulfill. When real-world relationships or self-esteem are affected by such experiences, it often leads individuals to seek professional help to make sense of what happened and to disentangle human emotions from machine output.
Another concern is that some people may share personal struggles with AI in hopes of support, only to receive responses that are poorly calibrated or even counterproductive. Unlike trained therapists, AI systems do not have a genuine understanding of context, history, or nuance, which can result in advice that feels dismissive or inappropriate. This can exacerbate anxiety, depression, or confusion about one’s own experiences, leading therapists to spend time repairing emotional harm rather than facilitating healing from underlying issues.
Experts emphasize that while AI offers accessibility and scalability, it should not replace human mental health care. Instead, it can be a starting point for reflection or self-education if used with awareness of its limitations. Mental health professionals are calling for clearer guidelines about how people should use conversational AI safely and for developers to build systems that better signal their limitations, helping users avoid emotional reliance on tools that are not designed for genuine human care.
