AI & Mental Health
You'll Know It's Time When the Conversation Stops Changing Anything.
The signals that mean a chatbot has taken you as far as it can, and what to do next.
When should you see a psychologist instead of using an AI app? When the difficulty has lasted weeks rather than days, when it's affecting sleep, work, appetite or relationships, when another person's account matters, when you feel worse after talking, or when months of conversation haven't changed anything. Those are the points where a person is needed.
"Nobody arrives in my room because a chatbot failed them. They arrive because they finally noticed that six months had passed and they were describing exactly the same week."
Most people wait too long, and not out of stubbornness. They wait because there's no obvious moment. Distress rarely announces itself. It settles in, and you adjust around it, and the adjusting feels like coping.
Having something to talk to at any hour makes the waiting easier, which is both the benefit and the trap. Relief arrives reliably enough that the underlying difficulty never has to be dealt with.
The signals worth acting on
These are the things I'd look at, roughly in the order I'd weigh them.
- Duration. A hard fortnight is a hard fortnight. Six weeks of the same low mood, or the same anxiety, is a different thing and it usually doesn't resolve on its own.
- Function. Sleep, appetite, concentration, whether you're still doing your work and answering people. When these go, the difficulty has stopped being confined to how you feel.
- Repetition without movement. You're describing the same situation you described in March, in the same words, having had two hundred conversations about it.
- Another person is central. A marriage, a parent, a child. If the difficulty lives between two people, a system that only ever hears you can't reach it.
- You feel worse afterwards. Not comforted then flat, which is normal. Actually worse: more anxious, more hopeless, more certain that nothing will change.
- Withdrawal. The chatbot has become the only place you say true things, and the people around you are getting an edited version.
- Anything involving your safety. Thoughts of harming yourself, or a sense that you can't keep yourself safe, need a person. Not later.
If you are in immediate danger, or feel unable to keep yourself safe, please contact your local emergency services or attend your nearest hospital now. Do not wait for an appointment, and do not rely on a chatbot to manage it with you. Safeguards in these systems have been shown to weaken over long conversations, which is precisely when someone in difficulty is most likely to still be typing.
Why this matters
Sources: Syracuse University national survey of US adults 18–49, October 2025; Mental Health UK / Censuswide polling, November 2025; National Mental Health Survey of India, NIMHANS.
That last figure is the reason I try not to be dismissive about any of this. In a country where most people who need help never get it, something that reaches them at all is not nothing. The concern isn't that people use AI. It's the middle group in the first figure, quietly substituting.
The test I'd actually apply
Forget how the conversations feel. Ask one question instead.
Compared with three months ago, is the thing you keep talking about any smaller?
Not whether you understand it better. Understanding can grow indefinitely while nothing shifts, and articulate stuckness is still stuckness. I've met people who could describe their anxiety with more precision than some clinicians and hadn't left the house in a month.
The very well-informed patient
A software engineer in his late twenties booked a session after roughly a year of nightly conversations about his anxiety. He knew the vocabulary. He could name his cognitive distortions as they happened, in real time, with something close to pride.
He also hadn't been to his own office in four months, worked remotely to avoid the commute he'd become frightened of, and had declined three invitations from friends that week.
Every night he'd described the fear and been helped to understand it. Nothing had ever asked him to get on the train. Understanding had become the substitute for exposure rather than the route to it.
A composite drawn from several presentations, not a real client. No identifying details belong to any individual.
What actually happens when you see someone
People delay partly because they don't know what they're walking into, so plainly:
- You talk, mostly. A first session is largely you describing what brought you, with questions where something needs clarifying.
- Nobody diagnoses you in the first hour. A working picture takes time, and a good clinician says so rather than handing you a label to take home.
- You aren't committing to anything. One session is one session. Some people come once, get their bearings and go.
- You won't be told to leave your family. A common fear here, and unfounded. The work is usually about surviving relationships you're staying in.
If cost or distance are what's stopping you, say so. Those are practical problems and they have practical answers, including online sessions across time zones.
Bring what you've written
If you've spent months talking to an app, you're carrying something useful. You've already found the words, which is a real part of the work and the part most people find hardest.
Bring it. Several people have arrived with transcripts, and it's shortened the history-taking considerably. It also tells me something I can't get any other way: how you describe yourself when you believe nobody is listening.
If it's stopped moving, that's the signal
Sessions with Dr. Kohli directly, in Gurugram or online worldwide, in English or Hindi. One session is one session.
Book a session WhatsApp +91 9811862338The AI and mental health series
Start with the overview, or read across the set.
- AI and your mental health — the overview.
- Is ChatGPT a good therapist?
- Why AI agrees with you
- When to see a person, not an app (you're here)
- When your teenager confides in a chatbot
- Using AI alongside therapy
- Is ChatGPT confidential?
- AI told me I have depression
- AI, distance and the diaspora
Common questions
How do I know if I need therapy or if I'm just having a bad time?
Duration and function are the two markers. A difficult fortnight that lifts is ordinary life. Several weeks of the same low mood, or difficulty that has started affecting sleep, work, appetite or how you treat the people around you, has moved beyond a bad patch and usually doesn't resolve unattended.
Is it worth seeing someone if AI is helping?
If it's genuinely helping, keep going. Test it against a specific question: is the difficulty smaller than three months ago? Feeling better after each conversation while the underlying situation is unchanged means you've found relief rather than resolution, and those are different things.
How many sessions will I need?
It varies, and anyone who gives you a number before meeting you is guessing. Some people come for a defined piece of work over a handful of sessions. Others stay longer where the difficulty is older. What matters is that the plan is discussed with you and reviewed openly rather than sold as a package.
What if I can't afford regular therapy?
Say so at the outset. Cost is a real barrier in India and a clinician who won't discuss it isn't the right clinician. Even a small number of sessions can give you direction, and there are lower-cost routes worth knowing about. Silence about money helps nobody.
Can I just do one session to see?
Yes. One session is one session, and there's no obligation to continue. Some people come once to get their bearings and leave with a clearer sense of whether they want to go further. That's a legitimate use of an appointment.
What happens in a first session?
Mostly you talk. You describe what brought you and what's been happening, with questions where something needs clarifying. Nothing is decided in the first hour, and you won't be diagnosed on the spot. The point is to work out together what's actually going on.
Will my family find out?
What you say in a session stays there, within the ordinary professional limits that apply to any clinical practice. Those limits are explained clearly at the outset. If privacy at home is the specific obstacle, an online session taken from somewhere else is often the practical answer.
Is online therapy as good as in person?
For most concerns, yes. Video sessions are comparably effective for common difficulties, and a lot of people speak more openly from their own space. It also removes travel, which for someone already exhausted or anxious can be the deciding factor.
What if my problem is a relationship rather than me?
That's among the most common reasons people come, and it's exactly the situation an AI handles worst, because it only ever hears your account. Relationship work can start with one person in the room. Waiting for both people to be ready at the same moment often means waiting a long time.
Should I stop using AI once I start therapy?
No. Used deliberately alongside sessions it can be genuinely useful for noting things between appointments and organising what you want to raise. The change is that it's supporting the work rather than standing in for it.
I feel worse after talking to a chatbot. Why?
Several possibilities. Extended conversations about distress can amplify rather than settle it, particularly late at night. Rehearsing a difficulty repeatedly can entrench it. Some people also encounter material that upsets them. If a conversation reliably leaves you worse, that's a clear signal to stop and speak to a person.
What if I've been told by an AI that I have a specific condition?
Treat it as a prompt rather than a conclusion. Chatbots pattern-match on the words you supply and can't weigh duration, history, physical causes or the conditions that resemble each other. Being told something by a machine is a reasonable reason to get properly assessed. It isn't the assessment.
Related reading: anxiety, depression, stress and burnout, and NRI mental health.
This article is general psychoeducation and not a substitute for individual assessment or treatment. If you are in immediate danger or unable to keep yourself safe, contact your local emergency services or attend your nearest hospital without delay.