Why are we turning to ChatGPT instead of a therapist?

More people are using AI to talk through anxiety, relationships and deeply personal worries. But what is it about a chatbot that can feel easier than sitting opposite a therapist and what might that tell us about the barriers that still stop people seeking help?

There are some things we find surprisingly difficult to say out loud.

“I’m anxious all the time and I don’t know why.”

“I think my relationship is falling apart.”

“There’s something that happened years ago that I’ve never told anyone.”

Increasingly, some of those thoughts are being typed into AI chatbots.

And research suggests we may be remarkably willing to open up to them. One 2025 study, published in Science Direct, found that people were just as willing to disclose personal information to an AI as they were to a human researcher. More recent research looking specifically at conversations with AI-based digital personas found people discussing anxiety, depression, negative emotions and their need for support.

That doesn’t mean AI has suddenly replaced the therapist’s chair but it does raise an interesting question: Why can telling a machine sometimes feel easier than talking to another person?

Psychotherapist Terence Watts believes part of the answer may be the fear of judgement.

“People can be very reluctant to tell another person what is really going on, especially if they feel embarrassed, ashamed or think they might be judged. Typing it into a chatbot can feel safer because there isn’t another human being sitting opposite them.”

Why AI can feel easier

Talking about our mental health requires vulnerability.

Even with a trained therapist, someone may worry that their problem sounds trivial, embarrassing or irrational. They may not be sure where to start or concerned about what they will be asked to reveal. 

AI removes some of that interpersonal pressure.

There is no awkward silence. No raised eyebrow. No worry that you are taking too long to get to the point. You can write something badly, delete it, rephrase it or approach the same worry from several different directions.

Watts describes this as removing a “threat to integrity,” the fear that saying something out loud might alter how another person sees us. With AI, there is no embarrassment, disapproval or risk of feeling judged by someone whose opinion matters to us.

Research into human-chatbot interaction has also highlighted perceived lack of judgement as one reason chatbots can feel appealing for mental health conversations, even though they lack the genuine empathy and emotional understanding of another person.

AI may also help someone organise their thoughts or rehearse a difficult conversation, but it’s not a therapist. It does not truly understand a person’s history, read subtle emotional cues or exercise the professional judgement and responsibility expected of a trained practitioner.

Perhaps the more useful question, then, isn’t whether AI should replace therapy. It is why therapy can sometimes feel harder to approach.

Is disclosure part of the problem?

For some people, one of the biggest barriers may be the belief that therapy requires them to reveal everything.

There is a familiar cultural image of therapy as sitting opposite a stranger and recounting painful childhood experiences, embarrassing thoughts or deeply private events in detail.

That can be enough to make some people decide they would rather not start. But not every form of therapy requires that level of disclosure.

BrainWorking Recursive Therapy (BWRT), developed by Watts, is described as a “content-free” therapy because the client does not necessarily have to tell the therapist the full details of the issue they want to work on.

The therapist needs to understand the problem being addressed and the change the client wants, but personal details can remain private.

For someone dealing with an experience they feel ashamed of, embarrassed by or simply do not want to describe aloud, that can be significant.

As Watts explains: “People sometimes assume that getting help means they have to tell a therapist everything. With BWRT, that isn’t necessarily the case. A person can work on an unwanted response without having to disclose every detail behind it. They need to know what they want to change and how they would prefer to respond instead.”

And that creates an intriguing link with our willingness to talk to AI. Perhaps sometimes the barrier isn’t a lack of desire for help. It is the fear of what asking for help might require us to reveal.

What can therapy learn from ChatGPT?

The answer isn’t to make AI our therapist.

But our willingness to tell a chatbot things we struggle to tell another person may be revealing something important about what stops people asking for help in the first place.

For some, it may be cost or access. For others, it may simply be the vulnerability involved in sitting opposite another human being and saying something they have never said aloud.

That is worth paying attention to.

Therapy does not always have to mean revealing every painful detail of your life. Approaches such as BWRT can allow people to work on an unwanted response while keeping deeply personal information private.

Perhaps that’s the more interesting lesson from our growing tendency to confide in AI.

People may not be looking for a machine to replace human connection. They may be looking for somewhere they can begin without feeling judged, exposed or forced to say more than they are ready to say.

And if a chatbot feels easier to talk to than a therapist, perhaps the question for mental health care isn’t simply “Why are people turning to AI?” it’s “What would make it feel easier for them to turn to us?”

About the author

Terence Watts is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, author and founder of BrainWorking Recursive Therapy (BWRT®), an approach now practised by trained therapists in more than 20 countries. Drawing on decades of experience as a psychotherapist, Terence has written extensively about anxiety, emotional wellbeing and the way our earliest experiences can shape our responses in later life. His recent books include Anxiety Gone!: with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy® and Ageing Well, Living Longer: The BWRT Route to Vitality. Find out more at www.bwrt-professionals.com