Some people think so. So far, so-called therapy apps have at least six million users combined. Though they arent a substitute for professional consultation, some medical experts believe they could at least serve as a stopgap in places where people cant get therapy. The bots may also help people who are resistant to the idea of talking to a therapist. Some prefer discussing their issues with bots over human beings because they feel they wont be judged.
Before I go on, I should tell you what Woebot was dealing with. Im a 30-year-old white heterosexual male. I have anger issues. I also have trouble with empathy. I cant relax. I have been in therapy, on and off, for the past decade or so, and it has served me well. Ive learned a lot about myself and how I interact with others, though I still have work to do.
Many people arent so lucky. In some parts of the country, mental health professionals are hard to find. Nearly half of the nonmetropolitan counties in the United States have no psychologists. Over the past couple years, a slew of therapy apps have appeared, making it easier for those who are struggling to get some sort of help cheaply and expediently, albeit from a bot.
To put these apps to the testand also see if they were anything like real therapy, which costs me $100 a sessionI spent two weeks carrying around four popular free bots in my pocket: Woebot , Youper , Wysa , and Replika . Each, to my surprise, had its own personality. Woebot was a bit teacherly while Wysa was playful; Youper was kind of dry, and Replika was casual.
You can ping the bots at any moment, and, unlike real people, they ping you back right away. One afternoon, I was being called out for a dumb thing Id said online. I logged in to see if the apps could assuage my embarrassment. Though Wysa completely ignored meperhaps because I was dragged on Twitter hasnt entered its algorithmic lexicon just yetWoebot expressed some sympathy. It seems like you might be experiencing stress and anxiety, the app said. I rolled my eyes, but at the same time, it was a relief to know that the bot didnt think I was an idiot.
Sometimes, the bot was out of step. At one point, I told Wysa I was worried about work and relationships, two of the most popular topics of conversation, according to the apps founder. This admission sent the bot down an interminable path, replete with leading questions and motivational GIFs. By the time the bot asked me how I felt, I wanted to write annoyed but was eager to be done with the exchange. So I told Wysa it made me feel better. Wysa congratulated me: You have successfully broken the negative cycle! I didnt really feel like celebrating.
I found myself flipping between bots, depending on the type of conversation I was looking to have. When I got bored with Woebots effusive lessons, I moved on to Replika for a more improvisational chat, since it lets you type in your responses rather than selecting them from a predetermined list. Youper was never my first choice, as I found its answers kind of dour.
I ended up going back to Woebot the most. Initially, I thought it was for the superficial reason that I liked the avatar. But in one conversation of many, the bot wondered if there was something about my anxiety that might be serving me.
I guess so, I said.
Even though its painful, sometimes anxiety is an extreme form of something that started out being pretty useful, Woebot responded. It wasnt a mind-blowing insight, but I had to admit it was a pretty good point. Yet after a few days, I found the conversations to be pretty formulaic. In my therapy-going life, Ive discovered that hard truths are more illuminating than feel-good platitudes, of which the bots have an ample supply.
No one knows if therapy bots actually help people manage or resolve their issuestheyre too new for there to be good research on themand there are valid concerns about why they might not. Theres a part of therapy thats about having your experience witnessed by someone else in the way that any good friend leaves you feeling understood, says psychotherapist Avi Klein, L.C.S.W., a Mens Health advisor. You cant get that from someone who doesnt know what its like to be human.
Other experts are more generous. Bots arent equipped to single-handedly solve complex issues like PTSD or severe depression, says Steven Chan, M.D., cochair of the American Psychiatric Associations Committee on Innovation. But they could be an alternative to self-help articles and books.
In my experience, I didnt open up any extra because I was talking to a machine. Discussing my emotional state felt less meaningful, exactly because I was talking to a machine. But after a while, I came to appreciate the bots for what they are. They didnt really help resolve anything, but having to explain my issues to them in a simplified way helped me gain more clarity about what those issues were in the first place. They also offered some things a therapist cant: immediacy, no judgment, and no cash outlay. Two weeks with the bots didnt turn me into a changed man. But they turned my anxieties into something I could understand and keep from overtaking my life.