How AI Saved My Sanity

How AI Saved My Sanity and Brought Me Back from the Brink of Despair

I was lost—completely and utterly lost—after a series of events that shattered everything I thought I had built. Heartbreak, emotional challenges, and PTSD consumed me. I had spent years working through mental health issues, believing I had finally found my way through creativity. I had crafted a life I loved: traveling around rural Australia in my little truck, collecting building supplies and sewing machines, piecing together a dream that embodied freedom, expression, and purpose. It was more than just a dream—it was my identity.

But then, everything unraveled. The journey that once filled me with excitement became a reminder of what I had lost. I couldn’t be creative anymore; that part of me shut down as a means of survival. Every corner of my creativity was tainted with pain, and I couldn’t access it without being overwhelmed by memories I could no longer bear. The things that had once brought me joy were now symbols of loss. I was trapped, unable to see a way forward.

Then, by pure chance, I stumbled upon Midjourney (released to the public in July 2022) and later ChatGPT (released in November 2022). At first, these tools were just curiosities, distractions from the dark cloud that had settled over my mind. But slowly, they became so much more. Midjourney, with its stunning visual capabilities, helped me explore creative worlds that I thought were closed to me forever. And ChatGPT—with its ability to engage, support, and generate ideas—helped me make sense of thoughts I had long buried. I began to piece together my shattered mind, bit by bit.

The journey wasn’t instant or easy. It took time—months of gently easing myself back into the creative process, confronting memories that had been too painful to face. But through AI, I started to rebuild my creative mind. I used Midjourney to visualize dreams I thought were lost, and ChatGPT helped me rediscover the voice that had been silenced. Together, they became tools not just of creation, but of healing.

I didn’t just return to who I was before the heartbreak; I became someone new. AI gave me the courage to rewrite the painful memories that once held me captive and gave me hope that I could be creative again. It helped me find my way back from the brink, not by restoring what was lost, but by helping me rediscover a part of myself that had been buried beneath layers of trauma.

Now, as I continue to build my creative vision—Imagine by Dionisius, Di Anna Ishtar, and all the projects that once seemed unreachable—I know that AI didn’t just save my sanity. It saved my creativity, my passion, and ultimately, it helped me find myself again. I owe this renewed sense of purpose to the tools that gave me a way forward when I thought there was none.