Did it heal me? Sunday mid-day tests therapy sessions with a new AI chatbot

Many of us have had those moments when we asked AI chatbots questions that we wouldnrsquot dare ask even our closest friends Those doubts we always struggle to voice With neural language models evolving to impersonate anyonemdashfrom politicians to actors to teachers even mental health professionals MHPs this connection with GenAI has only deepenedThe mental health market in the domain of GenAI has grown rapidly since 2022 with around 450 mental health chatbots globally as of August 2024 Platforms like Wysa Earkick and Limbic Access and many others are used by thousands daily Some are FDAapproved and have been trained by licensed MHPs while others rely on large datasets fed to themYet all of them have takers offering options from personalised cognitivebehavioural therapy CBT advice to simple stress relief tipsIndia now has its own AI therapist Healo developed by IIT Bombayrsquos health tech startup Infiheal Infiheal launched its flagship product Healo in August a mental health chatbot trained by a team of over 20 psychotherapists psychologists and mental health professionals Since then it has quickly gained traction not just in India but in 80 countries such as the US the UK Canada Indonesia Brazil and moreAs a nation categorised in the Low and MiddleIncome Group Countries the cost of traditional therapy remains prohibitively high here Healo priced at R59 a month is a step towards democratising mental health care even though it may lack the depth of human touchCurious about Healorsquos potential this writer decided to take some test sessions with it over a week seeing for himself how the latest in AI therapy technology could helpSrishti SrivastavaI have attended just one real therapy session with a human a decade ago which cost me R3000 for an hour Honestly after paying that money I left the room with more trauma than I had walked in withThe therapistmdasha renowned one with celebrity clientsmdashsat in front of me doom scrolling on his phone as I shared my symptoms which I thought might be linked to dissociative disorders After about 10 minutes of no eye contact I gave up and stopped talking ldquoHmmmrdquo my therapist responded as he handed me a form ldquofor further testsrdquo and I walked outAs a student who had saved up pocket money for this the experience left me both broke and frustrated After that I gave up on therapy altogether relyingon WebMD and Google to selfdiagnose Fortunately my issues were manageable without any grim consequencesTherapy is a privilege and finding the right fit an even greater one Most friends who have sought therapy say it can take months even years to find the right fit and to see real progress A close cousin of mine who has been in therapy for over a decade says ldquoIt costs lakhs time energy and investment in yourself if you want proper healing And even then it is only accessible in bigger citiesrdquoWith this history in mind I was curious to try Healo For the price the AI therapist promised a lot My first impression of the interface was reminiscent of a rsquo90s video gamemdashbasic and retro and easy enough to navigateI decided to start with the same symptoms I had mentioned to my reallife therapist back in 2014 Within a few exchanges Healo suggested that what I had described could indeed be linked to dissociation To compare I pulled up ChatGPT a more generalised language model and asked it the same questions ChatGPT provided me with a response that was helpful but felt more generic lacking the formerrsquos depthHealorsquos answers seemed more tailored to therapeutic needs as in what should be done to deal with it and how common dissociation isWith each answer Healo crossquestions further to know more accompanied with ldquoHowwhat do you feel about itrdquomdashan aspect ChatGPT lacksA day later I asked Healo a fresh set of questions for instance when I asked about behaviours that might come across as rude or damaging to relationships it offered suggestions on recognising negative patterns in reactions of others around me and acting on my choice of words accordinglyHonestly I had not expected this from an AI bot which was pointing out distinctions between my intentions and othersrsquo perceptionsI believe the most valuable aspect of using an AI chatbot as a therapist is the absence of judgment Since it is a set of codes I am speaking to I felt freer to ask questions I might hesitate to bring up with a human And the humanlike prompts give a sense of ldquotalkingrdquo to someone which can be comforting But as someone with limited experience in real therapy I canrsquot say how Healo compares to a longterm therapist relationship but it for sure offers a feeling of releaseMy biggest traumamdashlosing my petmdashwas something I discussed with Healo for over two days While I am far from making peace with it talking to Healo felt like giving my friends and family a break from my grief Knowing itrsquos just a machine I didnrsquot worry about burdening it with my emotions which is a major plus in my viewAnother unexpected perk is the ease of access It is always available on my phone my office PC and my personal computer at home as well One Sunday evening I spent an hour talking to Healo about a past relationship that fell apart which had a similar feeling to the early 2000s latenight chat on Yahoo Messenger Though not offering complete solace yet good enoughIt may not be a substitute for human therapists particularly in cases where indepth treatment is needed But for many Healo could be a bridge to formal therapy It breaks the stigma associated with mental health It may be too soon to vouch for how well it will diagnose you but it will listen and offer insight in a way that many people never get the chance to experience due to high costs stigma or lack of access to mental health careFrom the makerSrishti Srivastava founder of Infiheal explains her goal behind creating Healo was to break the stigma around mental health and make therapy accessible to all ldquoMany people may worry about the privacy of questions they ask Healo but they should remember that even if they create an account their conversations remain anonymousrdquo she saysWhen asked if Healo responds to sensitive trigger words like suicide or sexual assault Srishti says ldquoYes However instead of any human intervention from the company the system is designed to ensure that appropriate mental health resources and contacts are immediately provided to the person A system in place alerts our backend operations that a trigger word was typed but user anonymity is always protectedrdquo