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Fyodor
Fyodor

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I have created a small anti-depression script

I read this wonderful book by Elizabeth Gilbert called Eat, Pray, Love. Insightful, not to say more. And there are these chapters about her fighting with Depression and Loneliness which many of us can relate to (myself included).

Specifically, Elizabeth shares the piece on her journaling, or rather chatting with herself. How it helped her to get out of the pit of despair and kick away the internal demons.

That pushed me to drop a quick script to try to do the same in my terminal (because I'm a developer, or rather because I don't have a notebook around).

And it actually worked. And that helped me. At least today.

So I decided to share it here, as I noticed this new March tag yesterday. Maybe it would be of some use for someone.

I mean, probably that's bloody stupid, both the idea and definitely the code, but for some reason it works. And as the terminal is apparently not the most positive place to be in the world, this script may make it more acceptable sometimes.

Cheers ๐Ÿค—

GitHub logo fyodorio / chat-with-yourself

Healing self-talk through Node-based CLI

Chat with yourself

Getting started

  1. Open your terminal app
  2. Install Node.js (or Bun, or Deno, or whatever JS runtime you prefer) if it's not there
  3. Clone this repo with git
  4. cd chat-with-yourself
  5. Run:
node chat.js
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

You'll need to enter two names for the chatting persons and start the chat. When you want to stop chatting, enter byebye and the script will stop execution. The resulting chat text will be saved as a markdown file in the root folder. (The generated files are gitignored by default.)

Supports different languages (well, some at least), and emojis ๐Ÿ™‚

Inspiration behind the project

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love, Chapter 18

Or, rather โ€” here I am. I am in Rome, and I am in trouble. The goons of Depression and Loneliness have barged into my life again, and I just took my last Wellbutrin three days ago. There are more pills inโ€ฆ

Top comments (29)

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valeriavg profile image
Valeria

First of all, not stupid at all! Journaling is a pretty solid mindfulness technique and you made it fun and nerdy (itโ€™s a bloody good thing in my book).

And most importantly: are you okay? You know where to find me if you need some random person to talk to about anything ๐Ÿ™

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

Thanks a lot Valeria, and I truly appreciate asking โค๏ธ It's grand, unless reading Elizabeth Gilbert is not a sign of something damn serious ๐Ÿ˜…

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valeriavg profile image
Valeria

Awesome! ๐Ÿคฉ I donโ€™t think so, but I read her too, so better check ๐Ÿ˜†

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peterwitham profile image
Peter Witham

This is a great idea, and sometimes we need to talk to someone regardless of their reality status (it's a joke). Just letting it all out is the way to go.

I'm glad to hear it helped you, and I'm sure it will help others. We are here for you and all those who need it. We all have times when we need a moment to fall apart and build up again (guilty as charged).

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lotfijb profile image
Lotfi Jebali

i will contact you, i have ideas for this project ;)

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

Sure, thanks ๐Ÿ‘ I mean, I hope that's not OpenAI integration ๐Ÿคž๐Ÿ˜…

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alxwnth profile image
Alex

A beautifully simple concept, I like it!

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lilxyzz profile image
Travis

Thank you for creating, Chat with yourself, @fyodorio! This is an outstanding and powerful tool, in my opinion. I'm sure it will come in handy for me when times are hard. I must have forgotten to comment but I have already sent over a โญ๏ธ

Thank you again!

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

Thanks Travis! That's the tool I truly hope nobody will ever need ๐Ÿ˜… But... This life...

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mrlinxed profile image
Mr. Linxed

I love it. Thank you for creating this.

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pwd9000 profile image
Marcel.L

This is just amazing!
Had good fun playing! :)

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

Thanks, that's really cool, I mean that's exactly the initial purpose of it ๐Ÿ˜…

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pwd9000 profile image
Marcel.L

This is so good! What a fun way to have started my day! :)

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damnpedrini profile image
Pedrini

I can't wait to see it!

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cadienvan profile image
Michael Di Prisco

If it helped you, it's definitely not stupid at all!