Anxiety, ChatGPT, AI, Reddit ... and Dr. Google (Episode 108)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 663 Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Hey ChatGPT. Please tell me how I'll know if I'm accepting my anxiety or avoiding it."
"Hey ChatGPT. When I get anxious my vision gets weird. Can anxiety do that? "
"Hello Reddit. Does anyone else feel like ...."
The guys are back after a short break to talk about the use of ChatGPT, AI, Reddit, Google, and the Internet in general in the context of anxiety and mental health issues.
There's no doubt that large language models - software that aggregates extremely large amounts of information found on the Internet and in libraries and huge databases - are here to stay. But while AI bots and engines like ChatGPT are sometimes quite impressive and can even present themselves as human, we do have to be mindful of how we're using these new tools as we work toward overcoming chronic and disordered forms of anxiety.
This episode includes
- A look at how compulsive reassurance seeking, analysis, problem solving, and resources gathering can turn AI or online tools into counterproductive habits
- How the Internet can't ever really know your specific situation or the real details of who you are, and therefore can't answer your recovery questions with any degree of certainty or even safety in many cases.
- How AI engines are being used to create mental health and wellness content targeting engagement, growth, and influence rather than accuracy or usefulness.
- General guidelines we might lean on when trying to use tools like ChatGPT or Reddit to help us in recovery.
If you want to use AI or online tools to help you get better, this episode is probably worth a listen.
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Drew's Substack Is Here
https://theanxioustruth.substack.com
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Struggling with worry and rumination that you feel you can't stop or control? Check out Worry and Rumination Explained, a two hour pre-recorded workshop produced by Josh and Drew. The workshop takes a deep dive into the mechanics of worrying and ruminating, offering some helpful ways to approach the seemingly unsolvable problem of trying to solve seemingly unsolvable problems.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In an age of uncertainty and the chasing the illusion of certainty, a lot of compulsive |
| 0:09.4 | behavior and a lot of sticky behavior ends up at the doorstep of AI. |
| 0:15.4 | But Reddit is a close second. |
| 0:17.0 | People still love to troll through the Reddit forums. |
| 0:18.9 | And I don't mean troll in a bad way. |
| 0:20.0 | I mean, just literally like scroll through them and look. I asked Chad GPT what I should do for exposure. I asked Chad CPT what avoidances. It tells you what you want to hear, not what we need to hear. Either I don't have a therapist or I can't access one, but I got this and this will answer the question. Please tell me more about sleep anxiety. |
| 0:38.0 | A bot will happily talk to you about it. |
| 0:40.6 | So I think we have to be really careful about how we use it and how we train it to help us. |
| 0:46.9 | You have to tell it how to help you before it can really help you. |
| 0:53.4 | Welcome to Disordered. Welcome back to Disordered. After a little hiatus, this is episode 107, entitled Chat, Chat, CheapT, Reddit, and Dr. Google, three of our favorites. I am Drew Linzalata. I am a therapist practicing pre-license under supervision in the area of anxiety and anxiety disorders in the |
| 1:11.5 | United States in the state of New York, former sufferer of anxiety disorders, OCD, depression, |
| 1:16.2 | for many years of my life on and off, but better now, a three-time author on this topic, |
| 1:20.2 | clearly a podcast co-host, General Goofball, pseudo expert, maybe don't know, helpful dude. |
| 1:26.7 | I'm joined, as always, by my esteemed co-host in the UK. |
| 1:31.3 | Hi, Drew. I'm Josh, also known as Anxiety Josh, and I'm a therapist based in the UK. I am the |
| 1:39.6 | co-host of this wonderful podcast. I write books, prance around on social media, and like to talk about |
| 1:46.0 | anxiety and anxiety disorders, which is a joint passion that Drew and I both have. And it's nice |
| 1:52.0 | to be back after a break. If you're someone who doesn't follow up today every Friday and you |
| 1:56.6 | catching up, then that gap probably meant nothing to you. But we're back. Totally meaningless. |
| 2:04.3 | We got a lot of nice messages, though, when we would be back. So evidently people do like |
| 2:08.4 | to listen. Thank you, guys. We appreciate that. Where are you? Those two people that were worried |
| 2:13.7 | that we weren't coming back. So this was your idea, this episode. |
... |
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