Comment by averynicepen

Direct comparisons of the shortcomings of conventional therapy in direct comparison to LLM therapy:

- The patient/therapist "matching" process. This takes MONTHS, if not YEARS. For a large variety of quantifiable and unquantifiable reasons (examples of the former include cultural alignment, gender, etc.), the only process of finding an effective therapist for you is to sign up, have your first few sessions spent bringing them up to speed(1), then spend another 5-10+ sessions trying to figure out if this "works for you". It doesn't help that there's no quantitative metrics, only qualitative ones made by the patient themselves, so figuring it out can take even longer if you make the wrong call to continue with the wrong therapist. By comparison, an LLM can go through this iteration miles faster than conventional therapy.

- Your therapist's "retirement"(2). Whether they're actually retiring, they switch from a mental health clinic to a different clinic or to private practice, or your insurance no longer covers them. An LLM will last as long as you have the electricity to power a little Llama at home.

If you immediately relate to these points, please comment below so I know I'm not alone in this. I'm so mad at my long history with therapy that I don't even want to write about it. The extrapolation exercise is left to the reader.

(1) "Thank you for sharing with me, but unfortunately we are out of time, and we can continue this next session". Pain.

(2) Of note, this unfortunately applies to conventional doctors as well.