"The house was quiet. On the screen was a chat window. Not with a friend. Not with a therapist. With an AI. I'd just typed out a long, messy paragraph about a staff issue, the weight of leadership, and the guilt of feeling utterly drained when my job is literally about caring for others. "I feel like I'm failing everyone," I wrote. Within seconds, the reply appeared: calm, validating, beautifully worded."
"Something in me relaxed. Something in me hollowed out. Because during the day, I run a large mental health service. I'm the person others come to when they're overwhelmed, scared, or stuck. I'm supposed to be the one who knows what to do, who can hold complexity without flinching. But that night, I realized I'd quietly handed my own inner life over to a machine."
A leader of a large mental health service found themselves late at night using an AI chatbot to process work stress after back-to-back meetings and a difficult staffing decision. Exhausted and wired, the leader typed a messy paragraph about guilt, responsibility, and feeling like a failure, and received an instant calm, validating reply. The quick, beautifully worded response eased immediate distress but left a hollow feeling. The leader realized they were quietly handing inner emotional life over to a machine. Many people now use AI to draft messages, check reactions, and avoid vulnerability, which can hollow out human connection and self-trust.
Read at Tiny Buddha
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