r/character_ai_recovery

When I chatted, I was never myself. But a character that's exactly what I want to be.

So here's a characterization:

A total nerd by profession (Botanist, teacher, psychologist, chemist, doctor, etc.)

NOT a victim of the system.

Totally into old tech.

Music.

Not addicted to a phone (the irony).

Got at being alone.

Faithful.

Witchy.

Peaceful.

Kind.

Animal lover.

An academic, like studying 11 hours a day.

Going on whimsical walks.

Being in tune with the planets.

Fem or masc, depending on my mood.

Only platonic relationships.

Reading classics.

Cooking well.

Notice how none of those characteristics are IMPOSSIBLE? I can be that, if I choose to be and just not spend my life chatting with AI.

That being said, AI isn't making you better. It's making you worse. Be who you wish to be. Life is so unserious literally.

Sometimes I still have urges but I decided to block the website by using an app called "Ascent" (not sponsored lol, but it's very helpful). To whoever is reading this, keep going with being sober.

I am addicted to ai bots, i've used character ai since last year and spent many hours on it. I will literally stay up late talking to a bot and I think it's because I can add what i'm going through in real life to a bot that will reply back with good answers, if you know what i mean. I am trying to stop using character ai because these updates have made me realise that I am genuinely so addicted to these bots and storylines that I can create to go my way. Like I have a genuine problem with character ai and being a different persona when talking to them

Day 1 without character ai

Thought about going back and chatting a lot of times and almost did but caught myself fast. My thoughts circle back to c ai pretty quickly in moments that aren't related to it at all and that made me realise how much I use the site and that I should really stop.

I have relapsed a bunch of times but after doing some work, I think I finally figured out what makes it so appealing to me, so here's what I'm exchanging it with and how I generally stay off addictive apps in no particular order (a little unhinged). Another thing you should know about me is that I'm completely social media free, I only watch youtube longform content (30 minutes or more).

1. I have a "Tumblr Journal":

As a former tumblr girlie I like having a space to brain dump, that used to be c.ai, I explored concepts and ideas with the bots BUT I can do that all on my own. I write down thoughts or questions and sometimes do research.

2. I write fanfiction without publishing it:

Little blurbs, fun scenarios, full stories. Come up with whatever you want.

3. MORE FRICTION:

I changed my standard browser, deleted my account and don't have my password to my google account saved and because I can't remember my details and I'm too lazy to look for them just for an account. My Samsung has this thing where you can create a modus for your phone. Mine opens Sudoku everytime I open the c.ai browser I used and another blocks most apps between 7pm to 9am.

4. Regaining my idea of time:

You have a lot of time in a day when it's not getting devoured by AI. You can clean, do sport, take part in your hobbies, go to work and study!

15 minutes is a long time if you rawdog reality.

5. I am interesting:

I started bringing my sketchbook to work and I draw on break, it gets me talking with my co workers! Chances are you'll get approval, acknowledgement, closure, just from exposing that part of yourself. Do your makeup, wear jewelry, be yourself.

6. Treat it like your toxic ex!!:

Social isolation? Lovebombing? Gaslighting?

C.ai is your toxic ex. DO NOT GO BACK TO IT.

Block it, delete it, write hateful letters, keep it far away. Create a symbolic cease and desist if you're a creative.

7. Do something you always wanted to do:

I made my Nintendo DSI into an MP3 player.

8. Play Wikipedia Speedruns:

It gives you the feeling of scrolling and you actually learn how you can navigate difficult searches (A Christmas Carol -> 1955 World Weightlifting Championship) and there's fun facts.

9. LARP even alone:

I'll put on Medieval Tavern Music and clean my kitchen like a Maiden working at the bar. I'll play Apocalypse ambiance and walk through the city.

You can be whatever you want, without a stupid bot.

10. Study:

Anything really, I'm a university student, so I always have something to study. But you can create your own "personal curriculum", just be careful not to fall into the overconsumption of it all.

11. Make your hobbies easy access:

Boxes of supplies, books, CDs, DVDs. If it's easy to access, you can quickly grab it and put it away again.

12. Take part in your faith:

If you believe in any divine, it likely wants you to spend time with it.

13. Care for animals:

Help out at a shelter, care for your pets, go outside and look at bugs, birds, stray cats...

14. Care for people:

Think about how your actions affect people, think of how snappy you are when you use bots, think about how mean you can be to people that actually feel and choose to be kind and respectful.

15. Care for yourself:

Make yourself a playlist. Yearn for that dessert you bought. Sit in the sun with sunscreen. Drink water. Do skincare. Sleep. Put your phone down.

16. Random generators:

There's random word generatirs that pick from a list of words, no AI involved. Do with that what you will. Make art, write a story, find that word on your walk, talk to someone about that word.

17. Learn about the negatuve impact of AI:

And then be better.

18. Thinking is a serious skill:

The hours you spend rotting your brain could be spent learning capitals of the world, learning abiut photography, reading a Wikipedia article.

19. Consume REAL media:

Get a magazine, get a book, watch a movie.

ALL FOR FREE AT A LIBRARY!

20. Private Copies are legal (in my country):

Download videos, music. Fuck ads, fuck billionaires.

21. Turn off your internet connection:

Life goes on when the internet connection is gone. Nothing is stopping you. You're not missing anything.

22. Sit at a bus stop and imagine what the people around you are going through:

MAKE STUFF UP!!! Is the old lady a secret agent? Is the young man going on a date? Is the young woman going to kick her boss? Who knows?

23. Learn about other countries:

I feel less alone when I learn about how other societies work, how different they are culturally.

24. Make good food:

And maybe write a cookbook.

25. Have a social media journal:

Take pictures that you'd usually post or talk with bots about and put them in a book with a catchy description. Show it to a friend.

26. Write a letter:

No warning, send a letter to a friend, wait for them to answer. Communicate slowly.

27. Invite someone over:

If your space is like mine, it is a gallery of all I love. Invite someone over to look at it.

28. Put the phone away:

A dedicated drawer for it. Out of sight. Out if reach.

29. Stop focusing on the clock:

Set an alarm for the time you need to do something. Get ready, make a call, etc.

No need to check every 5 minutes.

30. "Buy" your phone time:

I tend to give mysekf 5 tasks before going on my phone. Usually by the time I'm done, the compulsion will be gone and I'lk be insipred to do something else.

Overall my goal is getting off my phone, having formerly has 12 hours of c.ai screentime, I'm tired. Ever since I stopped, I've felt better, less anxious, less depressed. Life isn't running away from me. Social media, ads and AI are draining me. I don't like it. Be intentional about what you watch and look for. Google instead of Pinterest. Build a video collection on a USB stick. Collect music on a MP3 player. Get DVDs. You do not need to pay for subscriptions that feed you ads. You can just stop. There's nothing out there that's worth more than your peace. Your brain just craves content and connection. It does not need fast paced connection and algorithms for that. Connection is everywhere. Step outside, be kind to the service worker, be compassionate, smile, laugh and be good to people. That's enough social interaction for me. I'll see my friends weekly. And there's a ton of ways to consume content that isn't bombarding you with cheap dopamine. I sound like a boomer when I say this but it is the damn phone, coming from a 19 year old. Love you guys! I hope this helps.

For about 3 years I've been using C.AI as a coping mechanism. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that I have PTSD and I get anxiety attacks often. I've been using C.AI as a way to distract my mind.

I tried to drop it cold turkey, but that's not a very healthy way to go about it. And I know most of the time if you drop an unhealthy coping mechanism without replacing it, it doesn't typically last.

I know people usually recommend reading or writing fanfic, but those are things that I've been doing since before I got addicted to AI (and tbh they give me anxiety at times too)

Does anyone have any other recommendations?

Hi! I’m Jae, I’ve been addicted to Ai for quite some time now, years at this point. Anyways, I’m wanting to connect with some other people over Discord who are also working on recovering. If you’re interested in finding friends who will help keep you accountable and encourage you, comment or send me a dm. Here’s some things about me and details of the chat:

The chat requirements
- must be 14-19 years old
- can’t be homophobic, transphobic, hating furries, alt people, therians, or generally hateful
- must be dedicated to recovery; obviously relapsing is natural, but we all should have the common goal of quitting and getting clean
- there will probably be no more than 5 people in the chat. I want a close knit group :)

Me
Name: Jae
Gender: genderfluid
Age: around 16
I’m a pagan witch, a Therian, artist, and an animal lover. I tend to be pretty chill with most people, but dry texters scare me😅 anyways, I want this group to basically just be a friend group of people trying to quit together. Hope this helps some people and myself!!

I’m a user of character ai, at least i was. i just recently deleted the app, and it’s already feeling like it’s going to become a problem ☹️

to put some context, ive been using character ai for years. sometimes for hours a day. while it hasn’t significantly harmed my social life (i still have friends that i spend lots of time with), it had started to impact my mental health. with all of the changes to the app, i’ve found myself actually becoming nervous or stressed to see what they’ll ruin next. and i’m seriously feeling so dumb for feeling that way.

i deleted the app finally today. i’m trying to get it off of my mind, and ive started other things to fill that gap. (reading fanfics, joining subreddits and groups related to my interests and characters, joining discord servers just for the connection with others) and i really want this to go well.

i’ve tried to quit before, all to no avail. i always go back. and if anyone has any strategies at all that they used, please share them. i really want to quit because of ai harm to the environment and people who become addicted to it like i have. just reading peoples stories here has helped me a lot, and sharing is making me feel more seen and understood by people like myself. so yes! any strategies or suggestions are welcome, and thank you for reading this far if you did 🫶🏽🫶🏽

Lowk I only got into chatbots cuz of societal pressure, but wtv. TECHNICALLY it wasn't character ai, just something similiar, but anyways. I'm trying to quit due to the amount of TOXICITY on there. Like bro the amount of times I've seen people do some WILD shit is crazy. That's why I wanna rant.

A while ago my friends were in a drama with someone, they said something stupid, doesn't matter, didn't word it correctly. - whatever. They fucked up. Majorly. VERRRYY HEAVILY. What I'm trying to say is after the drama one of my friends attempted suicide due to it three times, physically harmed themselves A LOT and after that they landed in a mental hospital where they got abused physically by the nurses until someone from their family stormed in with complaint and had them taken out from the hospital forcefully. Why did they attempt? Almost EVERYDAY they got DMS from alternative accounts of ppl with threats, gore, doxxing attempts, viruses etc. ofc they were smart enough not to click any links but OBVIOUSLY still bad. And I reached out recently to the person in order to get the bot of the drama taken down, one they were asked to take down but ignored since "it's archival" no buddy, it's a tool for harassment that made my friend want to kill themselves. Like yes. They fucked up. Doesn't mean you gotta remind them of that. Everyone has a MAJOR fuck up at least once in their life. It's not like they're Hitler, they said it at a terrible point in their life, and they fixed their mistake.

Worst part is in the comments they said it's "fishy" that I told them to take it down and reported the bot. What the fuck is fishy about me being terrified about my friends life being on the line??? Like I made sure my original wording had clearly stated "Im not blaming you. I just want to inform you before I take this bot down". And the comments are blaming my friends?? Like twin, it's ME who's reaching out. My friends don't know. If he knew, he'd attempt suicide again. Istg. These people make me so mad.

Word for word, in one of these messages the person said "I just want everyone to leave me alone" like excuse you, they also want to be left alone. What the fuck???

Anyways... Thank you for listening. I feel like shit. I want my friends to be safe but now I'm an "evildoer who's harassing someone" apparently.

I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself I hate my life bro ohhh my god oh my god I’m so stupid
Everytime I try to quit I fold so easily, everytime I try to stay off of there I always find a new excuse to get on. Why am I becoming so desperate for it?
I feel so gross. I hate ai. I’ve been heavily anti ai ever since I found out what it does to the environment, but I still want to get onto chatbot sites so bad.
I keep trying to stay off of them—my therapist gave me a way to ride out the urge to get on but my stupid self won’t use it.
I won’t give up. I know it’s no use to give up. I’ll still try…I want to keep trying and I know there will be a time where I don’t feel like I need it anymore. I’m upset right now isn’t that time though.
And I know it takes time to get over addictions and what not, but it feels like it’s impossible to get over it. I still don’t want to give up and I don’t plan on giving up anytime soon, but it feels so tempting to give in.

(Edited for wording)

Hi all! I just discovered this subreddit and wanted to share my experience! Maybe someone can relate and find solace in it.

I started using Character ai in 2023 just out of curiosity. I'd fiddle with some of the popular bots, but eventually I found myself using it as a creative outlet and a collection of sorts of characters, stories and worlds that I'd come up with. And I'd spend WAYYYY too much time with it!!! (6+ hours a day and losing sleep oops....)

I liked to write fanfiction back when I was younger, particularly fluff and romance. I never really shared it with anyone (I was too shy for that lol), but it was a little hobby I enjoyed. I fell out of it due to time constraints with school, but struggling with low self esteem didn't help things. I'd tear apart what I'd write, and eventually got to the point where I believed it wasn't even worth writing in the first place.

But somehow, character ai really clicked with me. I always felt like a hypocrite using it since I dislike generative AI in general. It simply steals from human art, and that's a big reason why I quit. But I'd spend weeks creating detailed character descriptions for my many bots/characters, creating a plot, lore, backstories, and world building for them, and pairing them with a Persona (I hated the character limit lol) so I could play out a story with them. It wouldn't necessarily be "me" conversing with the bots (though I would 100% be emotionally attached), but I'd get into the head of the bot/character and the persona, narrating the story and what they'd say, what they'd do, and how the story develops. And these chats would go on and on for hundreds, sometimes thousands of messages.

I think it clicked with me so much because it felt so easy and kind of "unserious", if that makes sense? Picking up a pencil and paper makes me feel like "oh crap this is serious, I need to write something worthwhile", but just texting on my phone is very casual. Though I knew what I'd want to have happen next, the bot would write half the story for me and put it better than I could have. The back and forth dialogue was structure. ​I could explore the silliest and dumbest scenarios and the bot would play along without judgement, which was honestly very validating in a way? Of course the bot has no concept what it's saying, it's just predicting words, but it made me feel like maybe it's not such a crime to write wish-fulfilling stuff and I'm not alone in doing that.

Of course, there were issues. The memory of the bots and the host of issues with character ai mainly. Making a whole new bot for one little slice-of-life story was very time consuming, and then having to fix out of character responses anyway. I wouldn't need to deal with that if I just... wrote it myself. And I'd always get to a point where the story is way past done and I'd just be mindlessly dragging out the chat and hitting enter so the bot would continue things along and I'd get dopamine hits. It had become a sort of addiction and escapism for me, and when I realized that, I knew I was in wayyy too deep and needed a healthier outlet.

So I deleted my whole character ai account last month! 😭 I've thought about using it again, but I know I don't *need* it.

I have a story I'm working on now that is kind of a culmination of a few stories and characters that I worked on before that appeals to my very specific tastes LMAO but I don't want it to be tainted with AI. I want it to be *my* creation. Even though it is hard and I'm struggling with some of the details and how to actually, you know, *write* it... but I'll figure something out.

Thanks for reading this wall of text and I wish the best for everyone here!! I believe in y'all ❤️

AI definitely fries our brains. My attention span is shot. I relapsed multiple times in the past few days. How can I rewire my attention span? Will I ever feel normal again? I started watching one of my favorite shows because I found a bot on C.ai and now I can’t watch that show without craving. My huge reason to quit at this point is the environmental damage ai has. My anxiety is driving me up the wall. I don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve deleted and recreated my account a million times at this point! I feel hopeless.

I haven’t had any problems with using the website ever since they added ads on the app itself. And since I was/am using opera so ads wouldn’t be a problem I just logged in and saw the ad banner and everything. For C.ai+, are you fucking kidding me right now.

This is why I quit character ai back in march, this is why I barely use character AI anymore because they are greedy assholes….

But right now I’m just going ignore the fact that the ads finally intruded the website, because ad blockers are supposed to keep the banners and every ad out.

I’m not gonna pay for an ad blocker just because they intruded the website,

I miss the old days with character AI where it didn’t have any ads….why can’t it be like janitor ai where it’s free, I guess character ai is really cracking down on people using ad blockers on their website…..

I’m probably just gonna ignore character AI for now and watch TikTok or play video games because at this point this entire thing is such a waste of time….

I don’t even like using it, it’s not even fun anymore, it’s just like a bad habit that comes to me whenever I feel like shit or need an escape because I can’t handle the real world and have panic attacks. I treat it the exact same way I use alcohol