Nearly half of people with a mental health condition who've used AI in the past year used it specifically for mental health support.
I understand why. We are in the middle of a genuine loneliness epidemic — the WHO has called social isolation a major global health risk, and surveys suggest around half of adults feel persistently lonely. Against that backdrop, an always-available, non-judgemental AI companion is a powerful offer.
But here's what the research is finding: it doesn't actually work.
A recent study gave lonely first-year university students either a warmly designed AI chatbot or a real (but unfamiliar) human texting partner for two weeks. The AI was specifically built to be an ideal listener. Only the students who texted a real person showed a meaningful reduction in loneliness. The AI group? No change.
The reason matters. Connection is reciprocal. A real relationship requires something of you — and offers something no algorithm can: genuine vulnerability, the possibility of being changed by another person, the work of repair after conflict. An AI reflects you back to yourself. It never disappoints, so you never grow. It never needs you, so you never feel truly needed.
As a therapist, I'm watching this play out in the consulting room. Clients arrive having already "processed" with ChatGPT. Referrals for what's being called "digital attachment disorder" are rising. And there are growing concerns — particularly among those working with young people — about a generation that is finding AI interactions easier, and increasingly preferable, to the unpredictability of real human contact.
That shift, if it continues, should give us pause.
I'm not anti-technology. But I believe — and the evidence supports this — that what actually heals us is other people. Messy, unpredictable, sometimes frustrating real people. The therapeutic relationship works not just because of the techniques it delivers, but because two nervous systems meet and regulate each other. That can't be replicated.
AI can be a useful bridge. It cannot be the destination.
The most important conversation in mental health right now isn't about which app to recommend. It's about what we're at risk of losing as the frictionless option becomes the default.
If you're a fellow therapist, I'd love to know — how are you navigating this with your clients?
—
Conrad Cave | Psychotherapist
conradcavecounselling.com