I Read My ChatGPT History — and It Felt Like Reading My Diary

I Read My ChatGPT History — and It Felt Like Reading My Diary

What our growing relationship with AI reveals about modern life

Image by Franz26 on Pixaby

I admit it’s becoming a bit of an obsession.

As I scroll through the list of conversations in ChatGPT’s sidebar, I’m struck by how intimate it feels. Less like browsing a search history and more like leafing through the pages of my diary.

I haven’t just asked for help with drafting emails and filling out job applications, I’ve also talked to it about the grief of losing my mother. I’ve shared moments of anxiety. When my confidence has felt low, I’ve gone to it for reassurance.

Intimate thoughts I might once have shared only with a close friend, are now regularly finding their way into an AI chatbot. I’m not sure how to feel about it.

It’s quickly become a sounding board, a career coach, and — more often than I’d like to admit — a source of emotional support.

ChatGPT suits my ADHD brain

I wonder whether I’m becoming a little too reliant. But there’s a reason my ADHD brain is drawn to it.

It offers something I’ve always longed for: a patient, non-judgmental space to explore my thoughts.

I often carry a constant stream of worries, ideas and unfinished conversations in my head. Sometimes I don’t need advice as much as I need somewhere to untangle the knot.

ChatGPT never rolls its proverbial eyes whenever I ask another random question.

It simply meets me where I am, whether I’m spiralling about my finances, worrying about my children, or trying to make sense of my emotions.

It’s always available, and most of all, it feels non-judgmental.

The benefits of ChatGPT

Since ChatGPT exploded into our lives, it’s become one of the fastest-growing technologies of all time. Five days after its launch in November 2022, it had attracted over one million users. Within two months, that number soon climbed to 100 million.

Today, nearly a billion people use ChatGPT every week.

To me, the benefits seem obvious:

1. It acts like a second brain

I use it to help organise my thoughts, prioritise tasks, draft emails, brainstorm ideas, and think through decisions that might otherwise leave me paralysed for days.

Many of these struggles come down to executive functioning — the mental skills that help us plan, prioritise, start tasks, finish them, and remember important details.

For people like me with ADHD, those skills don’t always come easily. Knowing what needs to be done is one thing; actually being able to do it is another.

Research suggests many people are using AI in a similar way, as a tool to reduce overwhelm and lighten their mental load.

For me, ChatGPT acts as an external support system. It helps me bring order to my thoughts, work through problems, and move forward when I feel stuck. Sometimes I don’t even need an answer as much as I need reassurance and a space to explore my ideas.

2. It offers emotional support and reassurance

Like many people, I’ve found myself turning to ChatGPT when I’m anxious, overwhelmed, or simply need somewhere to untangle my thoughts.

Sometimes I don’t need advice as much as I need reassurance. I need somewhere to talk through a problem, challenge my assumptions, or make sense of the worries swirling around my head. The simple act of expressing those thoughts often helps me feel calmer and more in control.

According to Harvard Business Review, it seems I’m far from alone. Their analysis found that the number one use for ChatGPT in 2025 was “therapy and companionship.” It’s a finding that may sound surprising, until you consider the level of unmet demand.

At a time of economic uncertainty, rising loneliness, and overstretched mental health services, many people are turning to AI for comfort, reassurance, and a space to think out loud.

3. It makes information more accessible

Instead of scrolling through Google search results, I find ChatGPT offers a more structured response.

I can ask follow-up questions and help shape its answers by giving more context. Rather than receiving a list of links and figuring everything out for myself, I can work through a topic step by step, asking for clarification whenever I need it.

Research suggests AI can make information more accessible by providing more personalised explanations and feedback.

For me, its greatest strength is that it turns information into a conversation.

Unlike Google, ChatGPT feels relational.

It can take my situation into account, respond to follow-up questions, and help me work through a problem step by step.

Risks of over-reliance on AI

In spite of the benefits, I’m also aware of the need to be cautious, and of the dangers of becoming over-reliant.

Some of the pitfalls include:

1. Risk of dependency

I’ve noticed how quickly it has become my default response to uncertainty. Need to make a decision? Ask ChatGPT. Need reassurance? Ask ChatGPT.

Sometimes I catch myself seeking its opinion before I’ve even formed my own.

Research suggests this is becoming common. One recent study found that many people now rely on ChatGPT to help them write, generate ideas, and think through decisions. For some, the thought of tackling those tasks without AI can feel surprisingly daunting.

That’s the paradox. The very thing that makes ChatGPT so useful — its ability to reduce effort, uncertainty, and overwhelm — can also make it tempting to let it do the mental heavy lifting we’d once have done ourselves.

If we’re not careful, it can weaken the critical thinking skills that come from analysing information, weighing different perspectives, and reaching our own conclusions. Rather than exercising our intelligence, we risk becoming passive consumers of answers.

At what point does it stop helping us think and start thinking on our behalf?

2. It can be confidently wrong

One of the biggest dangers of ChatGPT is that it often sounds more certain than it really is.

Unlike a search engine, which presents multiple sources and viewpoints, ChatGPT delivers answers in a confident, conversational tone. Most of the time that’s incredibly useful. But sometimes it’s wrong.

It can make mistakes, misinterpret information, and invent facts and references. The risk is that because the answers sound so authoritative, we stop questioning them. That’s particularly concerning when it comes to finances, health, legal matters, or other major life decisions.

The more we trust AI, the more important it becomes to maintain a healthy degree of scepticism.

3. It can blur the line between simulation and reality

Perhaps the most complex risk is emotional.

The qualities that make ChatGPT appealing — its availability, patience, and apparent understanding — can also make it easy to become emotionally reliant on.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with finding comfort from AI, it shouldn’t become a replacement for human connection. Its responses are artificially simulated rather than rooted in genuine human empathy. It also lacks the ability to respond in a crisis situation.

ChatGPT cannot care for you in the way another person can. Yet for some people, it may offer more patience, attention, and understanding than they receive in their everyday lives.

That’s not necessarily a reflection of AI’s strengths. It may be a reflection of how disconnected, overstretched, and unsupported many of us have become.

Perhaps the real question isn’t why we’re becoming attached to AI, but why so many of us feel our emotional needs are being met more consistently by a chatbot than by the people and systems around us.

The appeal of ChatGPT is easy to understand.

While it’s tempting to view AI’s popularity as evidence of technological progress, it may also reflect something deeper about modern life.

Mental health services are stretched. Many people feel isolated. Friendships are squeezed between work and family commitments. Genuine opportunities for reflection and connection can be surprisingly hard to find.

In that context, it’s hardly surprising that so many of us are turning to AI.

But there are limits to what it can provide.

ChatGPT may feel supportive, but it doesn’t know me in the way a friend does. It doesn’t care about my wellbeing in the way my husband does. The comfort it provides is real, but it’s not true human connection.

The more useful ChatGPT becomes, the more mindful I think we need to be to protect the skills and relationships that make us human.

Used well, AI can help us think more clearly, learn more effectively, and make better decisions. Used uncritically, it risks weakening our critical thinking, confidence, and ability to solve problems for ourselves.

I still find myself turning to ChatGPT most days. But the longer I use it, the more I wonder whether the most interesting thing about ChatGPT isn’t what it reveals about artificial intelligence.

It’s what it reveals about the gaps we’re trying to fill in our lives.