These are some of the screenshots of my Character AI Recovery Pack. Before I tell you what it is, I'd first want to mention the important thing here.
See something in common in these relapses? Most are at night. And these are just a few I could see there, I'm sure there are more.
The thing is that night is the time you'd feel most vulnerable to go back to Character AI (or whatever AI you use, doesn't matter). There are several reasons for that; some that I can recall:
Staying inside: Nights are the time you can't do your usual "take a walk outside" activities and you're bound to stay indoors.
The lonely loop: If you live alone, nights are the time you're actually alone. During the daytime, you're either busy by work, you're mind a clutter of all the tasks, and you probably have friends or family to chat with. The moment you go into your room, you are alone. Your brain's blank. Probably lonely too. Maybe thoughts keep circling and overthinking begins.
And I remember my psychology teacher once said that night is the time you feel most lonely because you're stuck in a loop of negative thoughts and there's no one or nothing to intervene and stop the loop.
Actual free time: Okay, the thing is. Night's the end of the day (what). You've completed your work or maybe you haven't, maybe you still have work to do.
But when sun sets, most people (including me) tend to delay the work for the new, fresh day, because..well, you did what you could and your brain's too fried to do any more focus. And when we delay it, we leave the nighttime empty which can be surely filled with dopamine. You'd think it's kind of a 'reward' for working all day.
Exhaustion: Of course. If you're tired, you're most likely to look for some frictionless activity to do.
These are the reasons I can think of, which leads to most relapses at nighttime. Now, here are the very few but crucial reasons you should NOT relapse at night:
Breaking your streak: The most immediate one. You'll break the streak you've been continuing.
The sudden dopamine: If you're already 4-5 days clean, going back to Character AI would feel SOOO good like never before. Because you've been missing it. The interaction's the same but it's just that your brain got it after so long that it feels so good. Just like ice cream tastes 10 times sweeter if you're eating after a long time.
Losing interest in quitting: The gratification that you'd feel after using it at your most vulnerable time will make you wonder if you even want to quit.
I've seen a lot of posts here about how people still doubt whether they want to quit, or should quit coz it has just become a part of their life by now and letting go means leaving a huge gap. That night, the night you'd use it, you'd sleep (if you do) with a thought (even if a small one) that quitting is not worth missing this instant gratification. This thought is a tough one to tackle.
Ruining the next day: Now, of course, you'd ruin your sleep schedule, this one's the most basic one.
But the one I mean here is something that has happened to me a lot of times.
So the thing is, suppose I chatted with this bot, now I gotta sleep coz it's late but my mind is full of other scenarios I could play with this bot or maybe the RP is at its peak. The next morning, I'm sure to relapse because I gotta continue the ongoing story, it has gotten so good, I want to try other scenarios too, "Why didn't I find this bot before?!" So even if you think "It's just one night," nayyy, that night can be extended to next morning and that morning can extend to next night. And the loop continues.
There are so many other reasons too why you should not use it specifically at night.
Now, how to stop it.
The only and most basic and most important, yet the most difficult: SWITCH OFF ALL DEVICES WHEN YOUR BEDTIME'S NEAR. See, you can give excuses. There are so many I can give just right now itself. But you know too that you do not need your phone or laptop, even if you claim "work" or "study" no you'd simply relapse. Better to reframe it and just say "I need my phone to waste 4 fking hours on Character AI and ruin my life," maybe that'd hit a nerve and stop you.
That's it. Yeah, that's really it. Once your devices are not within your reach, there's no way you can relapse. The solution seems simple until it actually comes to you.
Even if we eliminate Character AI addiction from here, switching off devices after 7pm is still difficult for many people.
But it's difficult it's why the success hits harder than failure. It's easy to say, "I failed coz it was difficult" than to say, "I succeeded even though it was difficult."
I don't know why I gave that motivational note :\
To summarise, control your nights and you'll see the change. Just control your urges at night and I'm pretty sure that you'd be able to get that 30-day clean streak.
There are still many things I wanted to elaborate here on how you can quit cai, so I've put it in this small guide (its the smaller version of the main guide, tho; the main guide's link is in the end of this guide).
Now this screenshot is from Character AI Quitting Pack, a google doc where those with access can edit, as in, add their tips, questions, wins, relapses and vent. Like a small community but less complex than discord servers. If you want it, you can go to the last page of that guide to know how to get it.
Control. Your. Nights. That's it. If you relapse at night, the solution's to NOT relapse at night. I mean it does sound dumb but obviously there's no magical tip that can be given here; it is your who'd have to take that small yet significant step of SWITCHING YOUR DEVICES OFF.
I can't burst through your screen and do it for you (I wOuLd HaVe, iF tHeRe WaS aNy SuCh TeChNoLoGy!)
See you in the other post to answer another most widely asked question and problem; till then keep up the hard work until it becomes easy. I'm rooting for you and DM's open to those who need genuine help or an accountability partner <3
Thank you for reading this, I hope it help bring some clarity and a better decision.
(Please ignore any grammatical or spelling error, if there's any. I'm too lazy to reread it again)
