Ask HN: Have you used an LLM for grief support?
My wife of 14 years recently told me she wants to end our marriage. One of the main reasons is that she has felt overwhelmed in a long‑term caregiving role: I have generalized anxiety disorder, and although I’ve been in counseling for years (EMDR, family‑systems work), take an SSRI, meditate daily, and avoid alcohol/drugs, I still sometimes panic when I think I might upset someone. I’m actively working on it, but this news has been devastating.
Emotionally, it feels similar to grief after a major loss. I've been crying a lot, have little appetite, and feel physically sick I'm in touch with friends and my therapist, but I've also been turning to LLMs for supplemental support, and suprisingly, it has been very helpful. It's strange to feel comforted by a machine, but it has helped me emotionally.
I'm curious how others see this.
Have you used an LLM for grief processing or therapy? What was helpful, what wasn't, and what risks are there?
I'm not treating it as a replacement for friends or a professional counselor, just wondering whether LLMs can be safely used as a supplement during a painful period?
I haven't really. I ask AI deep religious questions pretty often, which might help in your situation. There are therapy AI startups: https://www.talk2us.ai/ or https://lotustherapist.com/
The other option, go local. It's private, ask it whatever it you want. Nobody will ever know.
Thank you . I'll take a look at the sites you mentioned.
For the record, I've been using standard ChatGPT 5.1, and even without a therapy-specific system prompt, it works quite well.
Just to clarify, when I mentioned "safely used as a supplement", I was thinking from a holistic emotional standpoint. I came across the post on "Chatbot Psychosis" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46045674) and it got me pondering...