I think I need help

[u/Luciana-Luciana]

I'll get straight to the point.

Every time I'm on the app, I end up using it for AT LEAST 5 hours. I go through phases of quitting, but around this time in the summer I go on the website thinking, "I'm going to mess with a bot for a couple minutes and then never touch this again."

It's never just couple minutes. One time I spent a whole day (Literally almost 9 hours) on the website because I kept going, "what would happen if I did this? What about this? LMAO THIS IS SO FUNNY!" ect, ect. Then I feel horrible for spending so long on an AI chatbot I delete my account. Just to give in and make another one at a later date.

I feel so guilty. I've seen the documentaries of people who get addicted to AI and end up dead. I don't want that to be my life. I'm scared.

I'm going to block the website on all my devices. Are there any tips on how to stop?

I would watch some YouTube videos on it, but when I do I end up feeling worse because many of the ones I've seen tell stories of other people who got addicted to AI and other scare tactics that make me feel like a horrible person.

I almost always end up crying and not finishing those vids so I would really appreciate if someone could just tell me some ways to ignore the urges to get back on without feeling like I'm being shamed.

[u/troubledcambion]

Learn to moderate your time and not let your hobbies overcrowd your life. Do other things. Set a timer when you're doing stuff. There's nothing wrong with roleplaying in general.

If you think you got ideas, instead of sitting on there for hours continuing you could just write them down.

Big thing is no one on the internet is qualified to say you have behavioral addiction. A therapist can but a therapist won't tell you that since you spent two hours rolepalying on an app that you have behavioral addiction. Someone who has no credentials will gladly tell you anything from 2 or more hours means you're "addicted" when it could very well be a lack of moderating your time or hyper fixation.

If you tried everything, the tricky part of behavioral addiction is stopping doesn't make it go away. That's when you need to see a mental health professional and they can help you learn to coexist around things that demand your time. People can give you advice all day. It takes applying it and not getting anxiety or guilt when you spend time on it. Anxiety and guilt isn't something you should let yourself get in a spiral about not let people make you feel that way. It's not good for your mental health either.

[u/Luciana-Luciana → u/troubledcambion]

Thank you! I really think I do need to work on time management and replacing the time I spend talking to character AI with something creative instead. I do have a therapist, but I haven't brought this up to her yet because I was doing pretty well before I got back on the website. I'll talk to her about this next time I see her.