Mental Health And Wellness Chatbot

Abstract

This project is a mental health and wellness chatbot. Chatbots are computer applications that exchange messages with a human user. There are many ways to access chatbots, including Facebook, Twitter, smartphone apps, and messaging platforms such as Skype and Discord. These chatbots all follow a general formula. The user can send messages to the chatbot, and it responds with an appropriate message or action. This chatbot was built to run in Discord, a popular text and audio communication platform. Discord supports development of custom bots and was a natural choice for this project. This chatbot has several features, including mood responses, mood graphing, and a therapist search. Each of these features are designed to improve the general well-being of the chatbot users. The target demographic is adults who frequently use computers, since they are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues such as depression (Madhav, 2017). A user study was conducted to examine the user experience. Initial results indicate a positive user experience, but further studies are required to draw concrete conclusions about the chatbot and its efficacy.