AI is diluting your trauma.

AI is making everyone's trauma sound the same, and that is NOT OK!

I don’t take trauma lightly. If you’re going to write about it, it needs full respect. Trauma is something most of us have experienced at one time or another. As a 52-year-old, I’ve had my fair share - both childhood and adult. I choose to only write about the adult part, as I’ve long since healed from childhood. I am lucky, and for that, I’m grateful. Some of you are still in the process of healing, and I sympathize because I know where you are. I was there.

Many of us find writing to be cathartic and the very therapy we need to heal. We force ourselves to dig deep to get those stories out on paper. Our minds are not often ready to revisit what’s been so neatly tucked away - yet we push the boundaries, and finally those feelings make it to the surface, and onto our computer. Once it’s out there, it requires a whole other level of courage to push that “publish” button. As soon as your post is live, it’s an official release into the world. That little part of you, which was once hidden, is now visible to the everyone. Those previously stored-up thoughts and feelings are no longer just accessible to you - they’re public property.

So I ask you this question? Why, after all of that mental work, would you take your story and have AI fucking dilute your experience? Take the rawness out of it? AI strips your story of the unique hell you’ve lived through, and instead, merges it with other people’s hell. Suddenly, your story is no longer yours. It melds with others and now they all sound the same, but not in a good way. Your feelings? Your hurt? Your anger? It’s no longer told in your voice. Go search for a story that is similar to yours - if that person used AI, you’ll see it’s written the same or very similarly to your story. YOU are doing yourself and that traumatized version of you a disservice - because the polished, perfect AI version of your work, has generalized your pain. The same pain that shaped you into the person you are today. Pain sucks, but it has its own special quality. That pain which gave you strength, ambition, drive, and courage - don’t diminish it, it deserves to be heard!

Trauma bonding is real! It provides you with comfort in realizing that you’re not alone. It’s a relief to know, that someone else has experienced a similar situation. If that person is healed, then it gives you hope that you will also heal. If they’re healing like you are, you can share notes and heal together. People will read your work and seek solace, recognition, and comfort from it. For the people who are looking to find comfort from you, as soon as they start recognizing the patterns and the similarities in other publications, they feel betrayed. Stop it! Please!

Today, I read a post that started out very well. Halfway into it, I started to recognize the same phrases used in similar posts, I mean some lines were verbatim! Instantly, I felt a twinge of annoyance mixed with sadness. Why does this bother me so? I can’t really answer that question yet. It’s a feeling I get, like someone is selling me a version of something that’s not quite theirs. It feels like it’s the product of a story woven into with countless others. I know it’s all true, I will never doubt that - but I just don’t know what belongs to you and what belongs to someone else. AI is not a person, and it can’t differentiate.

AI is also not your persona; it will mimic your voice as best it can, but it also draws on its database. You owe it to yourself; you were courageous enough to bring the story to life, you are brave enough to tell it on your own.

In the spirit of keeping Substack authentic, please let us hear your true voice!

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