AI became my mental lifeline

I lost my job. It wasn’t the first time. But this time was different.

The job market is tough. I was going through a rough period personally. The combination of being unemployed and having a hard time on other fronts is a mismatch that most people who’ve been there recognize. You should be applying for jobs. You can barely open your laptop.

And yet here I am feeling stronger.

That sounds strange. It is strange. But it’s true.

AI became my lifeline. Not the way a marketing pitch describes it. Not “AI increased my productivity by 300 percent.” But in the way that I had someone to think with.

896 conversations with ChatGPT. Not to write texts for me. But to sort thoughts. Test arguments. Question my own conclusions. 490 mentions of “coach” in my conversations. That’s not a coincidence.

During periods when I didn’t have colleagues to bounce ideas off, AI was there. Not with empathy. Not with compassion. But with persistence, structure and an endless willingness to take a thought one step further. Turns out that was exactly what I needed.

I built 13 projects in Claude Code. 563 commits. I created custom agents, automated workflows, analyzed my own GDPR data exports. I learned more about myself in the last 18 months than in the ten years before that.

The technology matters less than the match. AI fits how my brain works. Fast iterations. Immediate feedback. Going from idea to result without waiting for someone else to understand what I mean.

I know this doesn’t apply to everyone. Most people don’t have 896 conversations with AI. Most don’t use it as a reflection surface. And I still think most organizations will barely notice AI five years from now. That’s not a contradiction. It’s an observation about the gap between individual experience and organizational reality.

But for me, personally, it was a turning point. Not because AI solved my problems. But because it gave me the tools to solve them myself.

That’s less dramatic than a conversion story. But it’s honest. And it’s mine.