ChatGPT as a Quiet Companion
Three Ways AI Has Helped Me Understand My Feelings This Year
Turning to AI for Emotional Support
Several times this year, I’ve found myself turning to an unlikely companion for emotional processing: ChatGPT.
It wasn’t because I was in crisis, or because I thought a chatbot could replace a therapist (I will absolutely write more about this sometime—it’s been top of mind lately as I work on building Workshop and I have thoughts). In fact, there were moments when I thought, “If I had more benefits right now, I’d probably bring this to my counselor.” But therapy isn’t always accessible, and these weren’t issues that felt urgent enough to justify stretching my budget.
Still, I needed space to process.
I was ruminating on these things, having a lot of negative thoughts, small triggers kept lingering, and I was having confusing questions about relationships and in turn, myself.
To my surprise, ChatGPT became a place where I could lay it all out—and in return, I got validation, perspective, and even strategies I could actually use.
I wanted to share this with you in case you’re looking for another container to process something right now. Nothing crisis related, or too significant, but something that left unmanaged, is decreasing your quality of life and sense of wellbeing.
AI and tools like ChatGPT are incredible resources for validating your emotions, offering psychoeducation (i.e. unpacking why you might feel a certain way by pulling in theories and frameworks in psychology), as well as offering strategies for coping (tools, tips, etc.).
So, here are three ways I used it this year:
Three Prompts That Helped Me Most
1. Belonging and Adult Friendships
I was feeling a little bit triggered one day as I navigated some adventures around adult friendships. They can be tough, right?
I really wanted to shrug this situation off, and found lots of ways to reason with myself on why it wasn’t important to keep thinking about this situation and being bothered by it.
But something stung, and I couldn’t put my finger on why it did quite so much.
So late one night when I couldn’t sleep, I shared the story with ChatGPT, and it reflected back to me two insightful realizations. I won’t go into great depth with this, but the takeaways were really useful:
I was questioning my sense of belonging
I also uncovered how my values—community, honesty, reciprocity—were bumping up against the experience
I didn’t need advice on “fixing” the situation but rather some insight into why I felt this way, and a bit of validation that it made sense. The takeaways from ChatGPT offered a shift in perspective that helped me soften the trigger, understand myself better, and detach a fair bit from the emotions I was experiencing.
2. Emotional Support in Pregnancy
Pregnancy is full of big emotions, and I am no exception. Pregnancy tends to bring up big emotions for me too and I know I can feel particularly vulnerable during this time.
At one point deep in my first trimester, I was struggling to feel supported by my partner, despite his sincere efforts.
Instead of feeling angry, resentful, and playing the blame game, I wrote a prompt to ChatGPT as if I were him. It went something like this:
My wife is pregnant and struggling and she needs more from me but I'm not sure what to do or how to be the most helpful. I'm already picking up the slack around the house and trying to spend more time with our toddler so she can rest. I think she needs emotional support and more empathy from me but I’m not sure how to do this best. Can you help?ChatGPT’s response was surprisingly useful. It suggested simple practices—checking in more often, validating my feelings instead of rushing to solve, and practicing empathy in small, daily ways.
My partner is a pretty big fan of AI, so when I showed him, he appreciated the suggestions and actually tried putting them into pay. And it actually kinda worked!
3. Parenting Triggers and Confusion
Parenting brings up so much stuff for us, doesn’t it?
It’s super overwhelming when you feel like you’re supposed to have all the answers, have this “maternal instinct,” or be the perfect mom.
My child’s growth and development into toddlerhood these days has often left me feeling completely at a loss of what to do in certain situations, and this can bring up feelings of shame.
In one of these moments of confusion, I turned to ChatGPT for help. I specifically asked it to help me from the perspective of one of my favourite child and family psychologists. This was really impactful (again—this is that psychoeducation piece)!
This time the prompt was something like this:
Here’s what’s happening [outline the situation]
Here’s how we’ve been approaching it [outline our approach so far]
Here’s where I feel stuck [add problems]
I admire _____ and turn to them for insight into a lot of parenting struggles like this. What would they say about situations like this?
ChatGPT walked me through strategies, phrases, and scripts I could try, all aligned with philosophies I already believed in. It was really helpful… It didn’t necessarily give me “the answer,” but it did expand my toolkit and ease my uncertainty.
What I Learned About Using AI for Emotions
Looking back at these experiences, a few themes stand out:
Validation matters. Sometimes you don’t need fixing—you just need to be reminded your feelings make sense. ChatGPT is actually so good at this. Almost to a fault, actually.
Prompts are everything. The clearer and more specific I was, the more useful the responses became. Adding in my top thought leader with the toddler situation resulted in such a unique response that really resonated.
AI can be a relationship tool. In these situations, it supported me but also gave my partner new language to support us, and both my partner and myself tools to support our relationship with our child.
It’s not therapy. But it’s something. I deeply believe that AI can’t and won’t replace professional human help, but in this application, where I needed some lightweight processing capacity, it filled an important gap.
How Could This Work for You?
In many ways, as I wrote and reflected into ChatGPT, it reminded me of the catharsis I receive when I journal. Sometimes the act of just naming a situation out loud can in and of itself be clarifying.
…Journaling is a beautiful and timeless way to tap into your own inner wisdom and insights, so please don’t replace that practice with AI.
But maybe, if there’s a theme that keeps coming back in that journal time and time again, or you want to step past reflection and into action, you can try sharing some of your insights this way.
Here are a few prompt ideas to inspire you!
“Here’s what’s happening, and here’s how I feel. Here’s some insights I’ve pulled so far. What kind of personal values might be involved in why I am feeling this way?”
“Here’s what I need help with. What are some ways I could approach this, knowing that I have X amount of time a week? If I wanted to habit stack some new practices, what might I think about?”
“If I were supporting a friend in this, what might I say?”
I don’t believe AI can replace therapy, nor should it. But I do think, when used intentionally, it can be a surprisingly gentle support. It has an ability to help validate our feelings, resource ourselves, and communicate better with the people we love. 💗
I’ve known for a while that I’m excited to bring it into my professional toolkit as a future therapist, but I’m also grateful for it’s support personally too. It’s not outsourcing emotional work, just adding another tool to my kit.