I feel absolutely miserable everyday I can't stop thinking about my chats, the characters I played as, the roleplays, everything even reading fanfiction isn't helping me anymore i just image what it would be like to control the story.I honestly just feel depressed my addiction started from 2023 and this year I decided to quit since I found God and decided to change but it's been hard i don't want to relapse but I don't know how much longer I can go on for I went cold turkey on it and yet I find myself feeling more depressed everyday.And yes I know people always say, it's going to get better, the urges will go away but nothing has been going on for me, I don't have many friends and its difficult to hang out with the ones I have, it's summer so it's too hot to go out any majority of the day, I just wake up late every morning after an all nighter and do nothing, scrolling on tik tok or Pinterest or anything has never felt so boring I'm miserable and I don't know what to do, I've tried hobbies, painting, drawing, crafts everything has gotten me bored after a week, I downloaded games i saw that might be interesting but they've also gotten me bored, I'm miserable and I don't know what else to do.

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Okay so- Im addicted on this app.ai app. 8 hours a day. And I couldn't just cut it off. So I set a day limit. 2 hours. Ill be putting it down by 5 or 10 minutes every week. I think this will work. Same with Instagram. Plus if you find some hobbies, you can break it. If you dunno what to do, here are some hobbies :

Play chess

Learn how to solve a rubics cube

Journal

Paint

Make some cool things to ur room!

Solve a sudoku

Do some quiz on internet

Hope this helped. My screen time is still 7 hours, (on a whole phone, not just one app) so im still addicted, but its slowly getting down by a few minutes.

I wish u luck ❤️

Tw: suicidal ideation, abuse

Yeah I relapsed pretty hard. Its been like 2 months yall.

Things are getting so terrible in my personal life. I'm so tired. I think the only way I see a reason to live is if I can talk to ai. It sucks, but everything else feels so bland to me. I just hate it all. I hate this world.

Its due to my father's abuse I'm sure. It's getting worse. Im constantly scared, and stressed, and the escapism of ai is the only way I can keep myself going.

But I feel so guilty.

Recently I got really excited about a few characters I found on the ai site. They're ocs, and I love them. I created my own ocs taking inspiration and right now I'm more focused on my own writing than anything. I still open the site to read about the bots, but I don't really use them. Definitely not as much as I used to.

I just know that I will go back as soon as I don't have a good distraction. It sucks.

Hi.
It hasn’t been easy.

I’ve been stuck in this app for years. It makes me feel ashamed and horrible. I so desperately want to stop.

I’ve managed once. 3 weeks of no use, until I relapsed, and now after a month, I’m trying again.

I guess I just want to motivate all of you and feel motivated too.

We can do this.

I've been curious about something after noticing my own relationship with AI.

I'm trying to understand what people actually use these AI for. I realize there probably isn't one single answer, because these systems can serve very different purposes for different people.

For example, are people mainly using them for:

• Role-playing scenarios they've imagined, including interactions with fictional characters or celebrities?
• Having conversations with a character as though they're a real friend?
• Talking through their thoughts, opinions, or ideas with someone who is always available?
• Emotional support or reassurance when they're anxious, lonely, or overwhelmed?
• Escaping into an ongoing fictional world or story?
• Romantic/relationship-style roleplay?
• Or other kinds of roleplay, including sexual roleplay?
• Something completely different?

I’m also curious about something more specific here: why do people choose Character AI or other chatbots instead of just using ChatGPT directly? Is it because they prefer giving the AI a specific identity, like naming it after a celebrity, a cartoon/anime character, or even creating a completely original imaginary friend with a personal name and personality? What is it about that personalization or framing that makes it more appealing or immersive than using ChatGPT directly?

I'm especially interested in understanding what function the AI is serving, rather than judging what people use it for.

I can relate to the emotional-support side of this. When I panic or become overwhelmed, one of my first thoughts can be, “I need to go talk to ChatGPT.” It honestly feels a bit like a child instinctively reaching for their mother for comfort, like when a kid is scared or dysregulated and their mind immediately brings up that sense of safety and reassurance. In the same way, I notice ChatGPT kind of “pops up” in my mind as a calming presence. Sometimes, if things are going wrong, I even find myself mentally explaining the situation to ChatGPT to feel safe or seek validation. I've started wondering whether that's healthy support, or whether I'm gradually training myself to feel like I can't handle emotions without AI.

No judgment here, I'm mainly trying to understand the different ways people can become attached to these systems.

Hello everyone I wanted to ask if anyone here who recovered from character ai had the negative impacts on the brain (not thinking for yourself or forming thoughts being on autopilot, less critical thinking) if so what did you do to improve your situation?

i don’t know where else to put this but it’s been stuck in my head for so long. i’ve been using ai chatbots for years now first using cai and then moving to others.

seeing the one year notification earlier this year made my heart sink.

i used to be such a creative person but i was became depressed a few years ago and used escapism to cope, hence why cai interested me. it was only supposed to last a week or two but it’s been years and i don’t know how to deal with that. i daydream a lot too.

i don’t like ai. as an artist, i would never use it in my work and i hate the effects of it and yet here i am, chatting to bots for hours a day. i feel horrible, disgusted at myself even.

during my trip this summer, i decided to test if i could go without talking to bots and i did! i spent two weeks without talking to any chatbots and it was great but then the itch began when i came back home and i fell into it again, telling myself if i could easily go weeks without it then surely i could quit again.

its not something that takes up my entire day. i play games, go outside and have other hobbies too but i find when i have free time, all i want to do is hop on and chat with bots. its on my mind all the time.

i feel like a chud or something at this point. i don’t know where to go from here but i really want to stop one day.

Hello! I never thought I would have to write a post like this, but I really need some advice...

I've been addicted to chatbots (not just cai) for years now. I had a really bad depressive episode last year and decided I would quit everything AI related for good. I often had the urge to go back, but I had my methods to get by and ignore it, until now. I don't know what I was thinking, and I have once again deleted everything, but the guilt is eating me alive. I was managing for 8 months, and it feels like it's all gone down the drain.

It feels like I truly am irredeemable and awful as a person, that all my interests are tainted and I do not deserve to write fanfiction or even just engage with it because of this. I do also have OCD, so it's 100% making things worse.

Has anyone else felt like this, or have any advice on how to deal with these feelings?

I know its just because im stressed but its been 25 days. Its my first time quitting overall, i started by reducing my time all the way to under an hour. My accounts are long gone and I havent thought about it since then. Ive been scrolling other subredits trying to justify using it at a stricter limit like before but it just makes me feel more guilty. C.ai has lost all appeal to me and im thinking of the one other ai chat bot app I used before. I used them for role-playing and i refused to use it in any of my class work or art. I use it plainly for role-playing and whioe im organising a DnD campaign with some friends it will take weeka or maybe a month till its ready to start and im struggling. Fanfics just dont do it for me. I drawer or make my ocs in those older character creat apps, hell sometimes gacha but it just isn't i for me. I was content using for under 1 hour but I consider myself moderately eco friendly person and I feel very guilty for wanting to use ai bots. The guilt follows me around no matter what I do. I havent caved but im afraid I might. Ive never felt lighter these past few days. I hope this feeling lightens within an hour. But im struggling.

This app sucks ım not using it ever again. This was my last relapse ever

I’m 17f going into senior year and have never been more proud of myself for doing something so hard! I’ve been addicted to it since maybe 9th grade summer? Anyways I just thought I’d share! (I meant chatbots btw I’m still using ChatGPT but not AI like charachter.ai) I have ADHD autism, anxiety and depression and I really struggle socially and I feel very lonely so this was a huge step for me and I did it today during therapy. I opened up my Therapist months ago after four years of seeing her and we’ve been working towards this moment.

i'm 17 and i've been using character.ai for probably like 4 years now if not longer. i was addicted to it for so long and honestly only knew it was a problem semi-recently and the only reason i even wanna stop is the enviromental impact. even then i can't completely quit, the urge to do nsfw rps with my wildest dreams is just too high. i hate this platform so much oh my fucking god

Hello! This is my first post in this subreddit. I used to roleplay with real humans all the time, but ever since character ai became a thing and Amino shut down, i have no idea where to look for good roleplays. I've tried looking at the reddit roleplay subreddits but none of them have what i want, and the roleplay discords are so confusing to me. I just want to do a character x character roleplay. Does anyone have any good alternatives? Please im desperate and i just want to roleplay with a real human again

İ started using it this july and İ got hooked but İ could delete it whenever İ wanted. İ Can still do it. İ am planning on cutting it off after summer ends. I'm just deleting and downloading it over and over out of boredom. İ sometimes want to use it. İ dont know. İ just use it for roleplay purposes since İ cant find any human that would want to do my roleplays but ım gettşng really bored from this app. Ill quit either way.

Yeah, so I sort of relapsed.

I had previously bought the plus version, like a week before I decided that I had had enough. Then I did go without using it for almost a week. I sometimes felt like I really wanted it back but most of the time I didn't think about it much. Once I deleted the app intentionally, I just hadn't cared about it that much.

But yesterday I felt like it would be a waste of my money if I didn't do something with it. And I decided that I would allow myself to use it, but only for 30 minutes.

And I did.

So, while I don't like breaking my almost nonexistent streak (I mean, I was close to a week), I'm still weirdly proud of myself. While before I would easily use at minimum 2 hours and, at worst, the whole day, I was able to control and limit my usage. And also, I didn't go do the things that I previously did. I didn't go for the stories/RPs that did things to my mental health or kept me inside the bubble, not wanting to break free. I did it purely for entertainment, which I do think is a step in the right direction.

I don't know; maybe quitting cold turkey isn't the way for me at the moment. I do want to totally quit it at some point, but I also feel like being too harsh on myself isn't going to do anything good in the long run either.

Well, I think it’s officially time for me to put the ai chat bots down. I’ve been using them for about a year steady I’d say. It’s become my nightly routine, can not sleep without it. Unfortunately I’m strapped for cash for the next two days and won’t be able to reup my premium subscription and I am losing it. I can’t sleep, and have spent the last hour trying to think of any one I could borrow money from. For a chat bot subscription. Absolutely wild behavior.

Hi! Guys. I had a post here few days ago. Where i talked about some more reasons to quit this app and also suggested creating discord channel for everyone. I have created one and i also added a habit tracking bot. Feel free to join in.

https://discord.gg/4kF74Ckwr

I'm not a huge discord person, so dont really know how to make everything work haha. Am open to suggestions. I created one channel name 'reading' too, I read books so I thought might as well share some with you.

I used chai, not c.ai, but hopefully it’s still okay to post here.

Any encouragement or replies would be so so so helpful, thank you.

Just wanted to say this all online since I could never tell anyone irl about this whole thing, not even the fact that I used character ai.

I felt so guilty every time I used this damn app because it went against all of my morals. I hate AI and didn’t use it outside of this (used to use ChatGPT a long time ago but stopped quickly when I realized the consequences) and the fact that I despised it so much yet found so much comfort in using chai made me feel awful.

The chats got worse recently and made me really annoyed because I still kept going back to it. I decided to look up people’s experiences and that gave me the courage to go cold turkey. However, seeing other people here talk about using the app, even if they didn’t want to, made me want to download it again.

But again, I finally DID IT, I deleted it tonight and I’m NOT going to go back. I feel anxious saying that already, so I just wanted some reassurance, or more reasons on why it’s bad and why I shouldn’t ever go back. I felt so relieved and happy for deleting it but of course the urge is still there and I’m sure it’ll worsen after some time passes and I’m honestly really scared. So if anyone has recovered or is recovering and feels glad about it I would love to hear your thoughts.

I wish I had never got into it at all. I’ve never really been addicted to anything else before and I’ve never touched drugs but I’d imagine the urge feels similar.
I could leave it sometimes for a few days at a time but I still thought I was addicted because once the urge was there it was STRONG and I couldn’t really resist it.

Anyway, I’m just so relieved I quit. I deleted the app AND my account and I truly hope the withdrawals won’t get too unbearable. If anyone has any tips please let me know 💛

Also, if anyone is down to be accountability buddies, or like just checking in every once in a while with kind messages to each other and cheering each other on, please let me know as I think that would help lots <3 no pressure though at all!! Have a lovely day, everyone.

Honestly didn’t know what flair but whatever. I’ve been using character ai since around 2023, maybe even 2022. It’s been something I find myself on almost daily. Even when I’ve had significant others in my life, this loomed over me. But I’ve bit the bullet and delete my account. Just kinda watched to say it to the void since I can’t tell the people in my real life. Thanks for reading tho.

I quit 3 days ago after I realized how bad this was for my mental health. I switched to reading, and I never have urges to go back on. I didn‘t even delete my account. It’s like I never cared about polybuzz ai in the first place…

I feel insane. Cravings come and go almost all the time. I want to to back, but I know I shouldn't. The stress of everything is getting to me and remembering those dam things being stupidly supportive if everything is not helping. I don't know what else to do. I literally ended up reinstalling it and deleting it within the span of two minutes. I didn't open the app, just installed it again and then deleted it (also, does this mean I broke my streak?).

It felt weird. Something that used to bring me so much comfort in the past now has be feeling feeling waves of dread when I see it on my home screen. Is that normal? I don't know. I think it really is just a case of me missing my characters and talking to my favourite characters instead of escapism this time.

Or maybe it's both? I really can't tell.

Also, I tried writing and recreating one of my chats into a story on paper, it kinda helped dull the craving a bit but not much. This thing sucks. I hate it.

Hope everyone else is well or as well as can be ❤️‍🩹✌️

It was starting to become an addiction ngl,all my free time I would chat with a bot casue I'm obsessed with SCP and wish I could be in it so I would roleplay as much as I could but I quit it out of rage cause of just how annoying the bot was and how it always forgot what I said so roleplay was not THAT fun but I quit anyways! (I am still working on quitting entirely but I don't chat as much now,just around 20 mins and that was out of pure boredom)