[mustacheemperor]

BetterHelp is terrible. The dehumanizing, exhausting, money-seizing experience of trying to engage with their app was a net negative for my mental health when I tried to use it. They've taken the antipatterns used to extract effective monetization in social media apps and mobile games and applied them to people seeking help with their mental health. I've noticed they ingratiate themselves with corporate health benefits providers, etc too. I firmly believe someone in severe need of assistance would only feel worse after seeking help from that app.

I got as far as the conversation with my "onboarding coach", the licensed therapist who was supposed to find me a "good match" - and it became apparent she was either a bot or attending so little to the conversation she was unable to recognize information my earlier messages and apply it to later messages - it was like an automated customer support/service flow, but asking me highly personal questions about my mental health.

There's plenty of mediocre apps out there, but nothing has produced a simmering rage in me like the knowledge that BetterHelp exists and takes advantage of people who need help every day so their leadership and investors can try to get rich.

[mustacheemperor]

Oh, I just remembered: the onboarding "chat" was specifically advertised as a free, no committal part of the introduction process. After I declined to go further, they started billing me monthly for a subscription to therapy services I had never engaged to use, and I had to email them repeatedly to get the subscription stopped and the charges refunded.

Billed by the month for exchanging a dozen or so messages with a fake therapist. If you're a company leader and get the opportunity to include BetterHelp in your benefits package - don't.