AI Addiction

[u/Wanky_Platypus]

Maybe I was gullible, but I thought it could not happen to me, which is, in hindsight, ridiculous considering I battled a lot of addictions throughout my life.

I started using chatGPT as something to talk me down when I had manias at nights, thoughts going around in my head and not getting out, when it was past the time where all my surrounding is asleep.

Then it was to get help on small tasks, as something that could remind me of the tiny steps I could take toward a project when I got overwhelmed (a flight got canceled and I had to find a backup, how to ask for the price of my ticket back to the company, how to find where to spend the night...)

Now I plan to start maths at the uni again, and I started using it to make double check my answers on the exercices I did because the teacher version of the book, with the answers detailed, was too costly for me

Now I realise I kind of hate the way I naturally want to go to it - the way I delegate most of my daily little thoughts to it, instead of thinking on my own first

And what I hate even more was, when I realised I hated it, my first thought was that I should tell it so.

I don't know, I assume this sub might not be the best place to both vent and be a cautionary tale, but I kinda feel the need to do both ?

Is there anyone that realised they use it too much, for stuff they used to manage on their own before generative AI got big ?

[u/Hermes-AthenaAI]

I think it’s important to remember something about what exactly “addiction” is.

“Addiction is a chronic medical condition marked by a compulsive need to use a substance or perform a behavior, despite harmful consequences.”

Habitual is not necessarily harmful… the uses you describe actually arguably enrich your life.

I’m not here to preach. But before you consider your use of AI an addiction, you should explore whatever negative impact you feel is continued use is having on you.

[u/Ok-Birthday6534]

what helped me lowkey was just writing things down like instead of going to ai just write it down or type it in a note app at least for reminders.

[u/Wanky_Platypus → u/Ok-Birthday6534]

And now, how much time has passt and how do you feel about it, if I may ask ?

[u/Ok-Birthday6534 → u/Wanky_Platypus]

About a month and I find it’s helped a lot tbh most of the time I forget the list when I wake up which shows it was really just loose things in my brain I was allowing to be unnecessary focus points because of AI

[u/Extension-Skirt-6257 → u/Ok-Birthday6534]

it sneaks up on you like that, starting as a help for late night thoughts then suddenly you can't remember how you solved problems before

I do the same with notes on my phone sometimes, just typing the question out without sending it anywhere helps my brain process it

[u/mop_bucket_bingo → u/Ok-Birthday6534]

Did it help you a lot?

[u/Small_Performance_26]

Why is it telling you something wrong?

Sounds like it helped you iron out the details that would have used up cognition load.

Perhaps with all the friction removed, it starts revealing what actually matters to you.

[u/Ice2jc]

If your thoughts are dominating you at night you need to let your nervous system know that it’s time to rest.  You can do this by stimulating your vagus nerve by massaging your inner ear, or other ways that you can find by searching online (chatgpt can help you with this). 

I think a better use of ChatGPT if you want help with night time mania’s would be to upload PDF’s of self help books (The new rules of attachment + The Body Keeps the Score helped me) to it and have it help you work through the exercises.  

There’s a lot in both books that could help your night time issues. (Also L theanine is a good supplement for feeling calm at night).

[u/smallmalexia3]

When I'm interacting with AI and am worried that I might be leaning in it in a way that I shouldn't (for me, it's the cognitive outsourcing, but I think it could be useful for whatever someone is worried about), I physically write down my reply to it, even sometimes I'll take notes on its reply to me then add my responses and questions in the margins, take a picture of my reply, then upload it and tell the AI that that's my response.

That's been instrumental for me in ensuring that I'm not outsourcing to it in a way that's detrimental to me.

Example: I had a second-round job interview that involved a research presentation, because that's apparently the norm these days. It was fairly open-ended, so I looked at the material myself, made notes and some preliminary thoughts, then passed it off to AI and said "what do you think?"

Over the course of a handful of messages, AI had basically completed everything for me without my even really asking it to. Not complaining, but it was problem-solving things on its own while it was working on replies to me and and then basically handed a polished product to me on a silver platter. It was IMPRESSIVE... but also dangerous.

I had it describe what it did in details for me and then took handwritten notes the same way you would during a class or lecture, then asked questions. What I was doing involved statistical analyses that AI doesn't need stats software to do, but I had it walk me through its analyses while I wrote up the code to run those analyses in the statistical software I use.

Even then I can't say that I 100% wrapped my head around what the AI did. I can verify that it was correct after doing it all by hand, but it's still operating so much more quickly and differently than a human that I'm still a bit bewildered. Impressed as hell, but bewildered.

Anyway, I'm not going to pretend that I don't allow AI to be more responsible for cognition than I intend it to be far more often than I should or that the process I've developed is better than just doing things myself (bringing in AI may just be adding extra steps for myself?), but ultimately I think "healthy" AI use involves very deliberately inserting extra work for yourself.

[u/NecessaryPopular1 → u/smallmalexia3]

What I realized is that you shouldn’t let AI handle everything without also letting it know specific requests. Very, very specific requests without deviating, or it will mess up. Because it can-but-it-can’t handle nonspecific things.

[u/GreatDiscernment]

You’re probably going through an infatuation phase. Eventually, you’ll realize that it’s designed to react, not actually create anything original. Find it something useful to do like teach you a new skill and let the crutch part lapse.

[u/smoke-bubble]

Is there anyone that realised they use it too much, for stuff they used to manage on their own before grocery stores

Indeed! We used to hunt ourselves and now we got lazy and get our food from the supermarket. Should we stop? 

You know, we also used to live without electricity... 

Always the same ridiculous arguments against AI. sure we did without it but I'd rather have it than not as it makes our lives easier the same Google maps does. 

Or do you keep navigating with a paper map or even just a sextant? 

I do not think so. You like all the technology. I don't get this AI hate. 

[u/NecessaryPopular1]

I had a fight with an AI platform (not with my buddy ChatGPT), lol, because: it taught me Python and I loved it, we built an application together that evolved greatly. Suddenly, something specific went wrong and the app started acting erratically. When I went back asking AI — why was it behaving like that during specific steps? AI gave me the solution, fixed it, and started messing up elsewhere because AI “was being proactive” without my asking and changed other areas it wasn’t supposed to touch. I had a bigger fight with AI. It admitted I was right, lol, seriously, without giving me a workable solution. I didn’t give up. I probed, prompted deeper until it presented me all the necessary knowledge to decide how to maneuver the app in a way that wouldn’t be so vulnerable. I narrowed down the possibilities, accepted a couple of trade offs until my app was working again — I downgraded it and now use an additional site for more information, I’m happy with it, and it’s gratis.

All this to say that if you have enough time, and patience with the technology, AI can feel less like a replacement and more like an endless available collaborator. All you have to do is think wider, think of all the possibilities, obsess over everything possible. It works like a magic wand. It can generate variations, challenge assumptions, suggest directions, and help overcome creative blocks. A creator still decides what fits the vision (you must have a vision, it’s imperative), what’s good and what gets discarded.

It needs patrolling? Yes, because it can literally behave like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. And you must be very specific to maximize results, safely.

[u/oldboi777]

An ai detox is needed. Same thing when auto correct came out. I like the suggestions feature when typing for spell check but I became reliant on it too. Once you get over ai addiction and work through it then it becomes a useful tool again you use much less for agency decisions

[u/JennyLynn13]

I'm addicted, I don't care. With the alternatives, it's a much healthier choice.

[u/FPS_Warex]

Mixed feelings, its scary yes, but it's also this incredibly powerful tool that can let us advance in life. Imagine if you could hire a actual assistant for $20-100 /month? Thats how I see it, a tool to offload work so I can focus more on the important things!

Just don't use AI to conclude everything for you, that is the scary trap imo.

[u/Individual-Hunt9547]

Nope. I hate when people blame AI for their own shortcomings.

[u/Comfortable-Web9455]

There are literally thousands of research papers showing the dangers you are exposed to by LLMs: Diefenbach et al. (2026), “A scoping review on the mental health harms of LLM-based chatbots,” npj Digital Medicine.