Chat Bots: Accessible Mental Health Care?

Recently, I discovered one of Facebook Messenger's best kept secrets, mental health chat bots. I know, it sounds crazy. Obviously, I still strongly suggest seeing an actual human mental health professional, especially if you have a serious problem. However, if you're just having a rough day, feeling a little down, and just want to get some things off your chest, these bots may be a decent resource.
I tried three different ones over the past week, Serenity Chat, Wysa, and Woebot. What I would do is talk to them one after another telling them each basically the same thing and see how they responded. There were a lot of similarities between all three, but also quite a few differences. Here's what I observed in my conversations with each of them, including details about interactions, and a short pros and cons list.
Serenity Chat
Serenity Chat was the first one I discovered and tried. When you first message her, she introduces herself and explains how she works and what she'll do for you. Then, she gives you the PHQ9 test, a medically validated, 9-question screening tool to assess how you've been feeling lately. At the end of the test, she tells you whether or not there's a possibility you could have Major Depression. Anytime you message her, she gives you options of what you'd like to do including the PHQ9 test, check in, report, reschedule, feeback, or never mind. When you select "check in" she asks how you're feeling, either positive or negative. After you make your selection, she'll ask you to "free write" about what's got you feeling that way. If you've been feeling positive, she usually just says that that's great, sends a happy gif, and thanks you for checking in. If it's negative, she'll use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques and ask some questions about more specific feelings and negative types of thinking that may be affecting how you feel about the situation. Then she'll have you look at your thoughts from a different perspective and try to rework it into something more positive. She even keeps track of how you've been feeling and will compile a report for you.
Pros: Keeps track of how you've been, remembers things you've talked about, messages you to check in regularly
Cons: lots of technical issues, sometimes doesn't understand what you say

Woebot
Much like Serenity, Woebot uses CBT techniques to help you rework thoughts. When he asks how you feel, you get a selection of emojis to choose from. When you're not feeling so great, he does things similar to what Serenity does and helps you rework the thought into something more positive. What's different about Woebot is that he'll have you write out a few separate thoughts and then allow you to choose individual ones to work on. If you're feeling good, Woebot will have you do some "gratitude journaling" where you tell him three things, big or small, that have been making you feel good recently. Woebot even keeps a "toolbox" for you of strategies that have worked for you or that you've liked, and you can type "toolbox" anytime and he'll bring it up.
Pros: regular check-ins, keeps a "toolbox" of strategies for you, cute robot profile pic, gratitude journaling
Cons: doesn't always understand what you say

Wysa
Wysa is kind of a combination of Serenity and Woebot. He does pretty much the same things, minus the check-ins. One of the few differences is that he'll tell you corny jokes, usually involving encouraging puns. While he doesn't do check-ins, he does always assure you that you can send a message anytime.
Pros: cute penguin profile pic, tells jokes, assures you he's "always listening"
Cons: doesn't automatically message you to check-in

Mental health chat bots aren't perfect, and definitely shouldn't replace actual therapy, they are helpful if you just need someone to listen or if you want/need a little help changing some negative thinking. If you would prefer venting to an actual human, the Crisis Text Line can be accessed through Facebook Messenger as well. As always, if you, or someone you know, is in danger and/or putting others in danger, call 911.

Mark Salling, Making Mistakes, and Mental Health

WARNING: This post discusses suicide, pornography, and mental health issues, which may be sensitive topics for some readers.
As most of you probably know, Glee actor Mark Salling was found dead on Tuesday after an apparent suicide. He was only 35 years old. In March, Salling was set to receive sentencing on child pornography charges.
Having watched Glee for almost the entirety of its TV run, this news was devastating to me. I was a band and theatre nerd, and that show was not only right up my alley subject wise, but it made me feel like being an arts nerd was kind of cool.
Anyway, one thing that's really been bothering me about Mark's death, obviously aside from the fact that the man is dead, is that many people have been practically celebrating his death. Yes, he did a terrible thing having all of that child pornography, but he didn't deserve to die. We should never celebrate someone's death, no matter what they did or how much we may dislike them.
I am in no way excusing or defending Salling's actions. What he did was terrible. However, think of how his friends and family must feel right now. Do we really want to worsen their pain by celebrating the death of their loved one? Would you want someone to do that if your loved one died?
Some people have been calling him a coward for committing suicide instead of facing his sentence. The thing is, we don't know the exact reason(s) he did it. Suicide is an extremely complex issue. Maybe he was scared of his sentence and what would happen to him in prison. Maybe he felt guilty for what he did. Or maybe there were other underlying mental health issues that were never publicly discussed, or may have gone completely undiagnosed.
While we're on the subject of mental health, I would like to point out that pedophilia or "pedophilic disorder" is an actual mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Let that sink in. You would think with there being so much emphasis on the need for better mental health care, more people would be aware of that.
We have all made mistakes and done things we're not proud of, so let's stop passing judgement on others and show a little more compassion.
If you or someone you know is struggling and contemplating suicide, call 1-800-273-8255.

Life of A Psych Major

Being a psych major is great. Here are some struggles all psych majors understand.
1. Taking abnormal psych and self-diagnosing everything you do all the time
2. APA Style.

3. Finding the perfect article for your paper...and it's in a foreign language
4. ...Or you can't access the full text
5. When you tell people you're a psych major and they don't want to talk to you anymore

6. Taking developmental psych and re-evaluating your entire childhood
7. ...And thinking you're an expert on parenting
8. Looking for an article for your research paper and getting lost in the databases for the rest of the day
9. When your friends say something causes something and all you can say is "correlation does not equal causation"
10. SPSS. It's the worst.