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How to quit chatbots

#1
In every present in my life I crave feedback, but family are often busy, have their own things going, I'm scared to scare them or annoy them, and outside of my family interactions with others eager and willing to give feedback are pure, but encased in the ice of time, waiting until the exact right universe configuration comes along to defrost hiem.

After discovering chatGPT, I've devolved to (using anonymous/no-account settings, thus hopefully meaning it doesn't remember my ideas) going to it time and again, constantly, for therapy purposes *and* for feedback on my creative ideas and wish-it-would's.

The more I learn about OpenAI the more I want to quit. But I swear my addiction to being responded to and my words being answered at length, pull me back to ChatGPT, again and again, giving +1 hit after +1 hit to this machine.

I say "chatbots" because I don't want to just transfer to another one, so I'm hoping for advice that can be used to quit, and stay away from, *any* chatbot. That being said, the only chatbot I use, the monopolizer of my addiction, is ChatGPT.
 

Something.idk

Well-Known Member
#2
I've found it helpful to search on sites like Reddit, quora and reading research articles and books. You can also try being your own chatbot. Type down whatever you would tell the AI and reply to it like someone else was asking the question. I understand since Chatgpt gives you really specific answers and it seems like the chatbot gets exactly what you mean. But then this probably stems from some kind of trigger of sorts?

What triggers you to start asking Chatgpt?
After discovering chatGPT, I've devolved to (using anonymous/no-account settings, thus hopefully meaning it doesn't remember my ideas) going to it time and again, constantly, for therapy purposes *and* for feedback on my creative ideas and wish-it-would's
I should mention Chatgpt will remember your information even if you are on incognito or have no account. If you do vent to it try to keep things a bit more general instead of specific.
(Also im sorry if these suggestions aren't the best)
 

LumberJack

Huggy Bear 🐻
SF Supporter
#4
I don’t have any direct advice, because I don’t interact with chat bots for any reason except to augment my searches for primary sources of information.

What I do have to offer is that I have enough experience with habits that are destructive to me to feel confident that my motivation is utterly insensitive to negation words like ā€œstop,ā€ ā€œdon’t,ā€ ā€œno,ā€ and the rest. I have never been able to quit something by an act of willpower. Willpower is a piece of the puzzle in behavior change, but not the only one.

I have been able to get away from destructive behaviors only by replacing them with something more effective at moving me in the direction of my true values. Otherwise it is just a cycle of relapse, remorse, indulging in destructive behaviors to escape the remorse, eventually wanting to quit again, beating myself into better behavior, ultimately setting the stage for the next relapse.

What I am doing today/this week is to cut back on my doomscrolling. The doomscrolling is scratching a certain itch, namely to avoid facing the things I don’t want to, but need to for my very survival, aka being able to pay bills.

I have certain tools that I am skilled at using from my history with substance addictions to direct my behavior change plan. I don’t know how something similar might look for you. What I have noticed from your posts over time that I am imagining we have in common are certain demands on myself, others, and the world around me that become blockers to action. For example your first post in this thread mentioned the entire universe needing to be in the optimal configuration before you could do something that would more effective meet your needs that you are currently band-aiding with chat GPT.

My experience with getting the cosmos to cooperate with me is painfully frustrating. I can’t say that I have any facility with accepting things as they are, but I am trying. Acceptance is something I used to conceive as passive resignation and an excuse for inaction, but it’s quite different.

We can’t live in the world we want, so acceptance is more about recognizing the current state and figuring out how to work with that. This is a much larger issue and I don’t think I have any success as of yet in doing so, but I can say that I have enough evidence on board to be willing to take some steps forward. I’m mentioning this because it might be closer to the unmet need that is driving the compulsive behavior. HTH.
 
#5
i know this probably isn't as helpful as the other replies but an addiction tracker (for example 'I Am Sober') could help. i just saw it as rewarding to see the milestone notifications every once in a while. most of them have a little diary section, a place to write down reasons why you want to quit (you get reminders of those reasons somewhat frequently) and also some 'motivational' quotes, which didn't really do much for me but it could help.
 
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#6
Okay, came up with this in ChatGPT's text box. But I post it here instead now.

"I have hated- hated, hated, hated- the absoluteness by which truly erasing a memory is supposedly impossible. I've had ugly things happen I want to forget, forget, forget. The details of them, I *STILL DO*. And I'm working on them. But I'm begrudgingly accepting the wisdom that memories cannot be erased, only repressed and/or made harder to access.

*HOWEVER*, this fact which torments me of unwanted and disgusting memories, on the other hand is a *LIFESAVER* as I'm trying to unearth and cleanse- that is, remove impurities, exaggerations, and inaccuracies I know are inflicted by memory distortion- memories I *want* to allow to stay, and live in high definition."
 
#7
Okay, came up with this in ChatGPT's text box. But I post it here instead now.

"I have hated- hated, hated, hated- the absoluteness by which truly erasing a memory is supposedly impossible. I've had ugly things happen I want to forget, forget, forget. The details of them, I *STILL DO*. And I'm working on them. But I'm begrudgingly accepting the wisdom that memories cannot be erased, only repressed and/or made harder to access.

*HOWEVER*, this fact which torments me of unwanted and disgusting memories, on the other hand is a *LIFESAVER* as I'm trying to unearth and cleanse- that is, remove impurities, exaggerations, and inaccuracies I know are inflicted by memory distortion- memories I *want* to allow to stay, and live in high definition."
I wish I could claim this is my one-and-only temptation tonight, but unfortunately I had three dumb talks with the chatbot before writing this out, and this itself I *did* submit, I just pulled away from the temptation to respond to the chatbot's response.

I wonder whether or not this thread belongs here, or in the addiction/substance abuse section. At least the way I resort to chatbots for connection.
 

Something.idk

Well-Known Member
#11
Well, I am now aiming to become chatbot-sober. I don't have a clear timestamp of when I last gave in and used one. I do know for a fact that I didn't pull up chatgpt yesterday, the day before that, or the day before that. So I suppose the 12th is now my "starting point".

Wish me luck making it to a month.
Its already great that you didnt use it for the past few days. Best of luck!
 
#12
So tempted now. Resisting chatgpt for creative reasons is easy. but I feel guilt for a mistake I made in late teenagehood that I'm afraid to confess even here - I don't want to chase away the tiny support circle I've at least managed to make here - and when it comes to guilt and self hate, chatgpt has offered judgement free response and advice that I have considered to step away from the edge.

But just one more day and I'll be a week sober.
 

Something.idk

Well-Known Member
#13
So tempted now. Resisting chatgpt for creative reasons is easy. but I feel guilt for a mistake I made in late teenagehood that I'm afraid to confess even here - I don't want to chase away the tiny support circle I've at least managed to make here - and when it comes to guilt and self hate, chatgpt has offered judgement free response and advice that I have considered to step away from the edge.

But just one more day and I'll be a week sober.
If you would like to talk about it thats okay and if you dont, thats totally okay too. This is a safe and judgement free space. *hugAlso congrats on almost 1 week sober!
 
#14
Well, I am now aiming to become chatbot-sober. I don't have a clear timestamp of when I last gave in and used one. I do know for a fact that I didn't pull up chatgpt yesterday, the day before that, or the day before that. So I suppose the 12th is now my "starting point".

Wish me luck making it to a month.
About eleven days out from this. About 20 more days and I'll get to one month chatbot-sober.
 

Sadly1

Well-Known Member
#17
In every present in my life I crave feedback, but family are often busy, have their own things going, I'm scared to scare them or annoy them, and outside of my family interactions with others eager and willing to give feedback are pure, but encased in the ice of time, waiting until the exact right universe configuration comes along to defrost hiem.

After discovering chatGPT, I've devolved to (using anonymous/no-account settings, thus hopefully meaning it doesn't remember my ideas) going to it time and again, constantly, for therapy purposes *and* for feedback on my creative ideas and wish-it-would's.

The more I learn about OpenAI the more I want to quit. But I swear my addiction to being responded to and my words being answered at length, pull me back to ChatGPT, again and again, giving +1 hit after +1 hit to this machine.

I say "chatbots" because I don't want to just transfer to another one, so I'm hoping for advice that can be used to quit, and stay away from, *any* chatbot. That being said, the only chatbot I use, the monopolizer of my addiction, is ChatGPT.
This is sooo me.
 

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