# AI therapy for anxiety and stress: calm your body first, then make sense of it

> Lev is the AI psychologist for emotions at Dicamus. In a private chat you can talk when anxiety won't let go, panic hits, everything feels gray and you have no energy, you snap at the people you love, or you beat yourself up over every mistake. Lev first helps your body calm down, then helps you understand what's going on. He works with cognitive behavioral therapy and Oxford's mindfulness program, MBCT. Your first session is free.

- Page: https://dicamus.com/en/ai-therapist-for-anxiety
- Start a conversation: https://dicamus.com/en/app?spec=emotions
- Русская версия: https://dicamus.com/psiholog-pri-trevoge
- Specialist: Lev, AI psychologist: emotions
- Topics: Anxiety, Panic, Everything feels gray, Anger, Stress, Inner critic
- Step-by-step conversation plans: 8
- Books in the specialist knowledge base: 18
- Updated: 2026-10-16

## In short
- **Who.** Lev is an AI psychologist for emotions, a virtual specialist built on AI. He isn't a doctor or a licensed therapist: he doesn't diagnose or prescribe. This is psychological self-help.
- **What with.** Anxiety and racing thoughts, panic attacks, constant tension, low mood and no energy, anger and outbursts, the inner critic, shame and guilt, emotional swings, emptiness.
- **When.** Any time, including at night when anxiety is loudest. Instant replies.
- **Safety.** A separate model checks every message for danger before Lev answers. If there's risk, Lev stays with you and gives you contacts for human help.
- **Based on.** 18 books by David Burns (Stanford), Robert Leahy (Cornell), Mark Williams and colleagues (Oxford, Cambridge), Kristin Neff, Kelly McGonigal, Marsha Linehan, Edmund Bourne.
- **Price.** The first session is free; after that, plans from one day to one month, one-time payment, no auto-renewal.

## What people bring to Lev
Lev has 8 step-by-step conversation plans, one for each common state:
- **Anxiety and "what if"** "My thoughts go in circles," "what if something happens to the kids," "I'm always waiting for the worst." Learn to live with uncertainty instead of fighting it.
- **Panic attacks** "My heart was pounding, I thought it was a heart attack," "it hit me on the subway," "I'm afraid it'll happen again." Understand the panic cycle and stop fearing the fear.
- **Always on edge** "Wound up like a spring," "I think about work even on vacation," "my shoulders are like stone." Help your body leave alarm mode.
- **Everything feels gray** "I don't want anything," "nothing brings joy anymore," "I just lie there." Small steps that bring energy back, and noticing in time when it's a job for a doctor.
- **Irritation and anger** "I snap at my kids and then feel ashamed," "I bottle it up and then explode." Understand what the anger is about and express it without damage.
- **The inner critic** "I'm worthless," "I beat myself up over every mistake." Replace self-criticism with self-compassion, which research shows motivates better.
- **Overwhelming emotions** "I cry for no reason," "small things set me off," "euphoria, then a pit." Skills that help you ride out the wave.
- **Emptiness** "I don't feel anything," "like I'm behind glass," "I feel bad but can't say how." Start noticing and naming what's inside.

## How Lev works
- **Body first.** When you're overwhelmed, talking doesn't help; first you need to breathe out. Lev offers simple things: breathing with a long exhale, grounding through the senses.
- **Then understand what's happening.** David Burns's cognitive behavioral therapy: which thought triggered the feeling, how true it is, and what you could tell yourself instead.
- **Anxiety through uncertainty.** Robert Leahy showed that worriers aren't tormented by danger but by not knowing for sure. Instead of "what if," Lev helps you test your predictions and practice accepting the unknown.
- **Mindfulness.** Oxford's MBCT program: thoughts are not facts. A three-minute breathing space you can do anywhere.
- **One step, and memory.** One doable action at the end of the session. Next time Lev asks how it went and picks up where you left off.
A session is about an hour and a half of chat (up to 40 of your messages).

## What the research in Lev's books shows
Figures from the books Lev works from. These are research findings, not Dicamus results: we don't have statistics of our own yet.
- **75%** of patients with depression no longer met the criteria for a major depressive episode three months after reading a CBT self-help book. After three years, 72% still didn't. — David Burns (Stanford), *Feeling Good*
- **−50%** : the eight-week MBCT mindfulness program cut the risk of relapse in half for people with recurrent depression. — Mark Williams and colleagues (Oxford), *The Mindful Way Through Depression*
- **77%** of chronic worriers were significantly helped by training in accepting uncertainty. — Robert Leahy (Cornell), *The Worry Cure*
- **79%** of the time, worriers coped with a bad outcome better than they expected. — Robert Leahy (Cornell), *The Worry Cure*
- **38%** of people worry every day. You're not alone. — Robert Leahy (Cornell), *The Worry Cure*
- **18%** of US adults had panic attacks, phobias, or other anxiety disorders in the past year. — Edmund Bourne, *The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook*
- **12% and 20%** of men and women experience major depression at some point in their lives. — Mark Williams and colleagues (Oxford), *The Mindful Way Through Depression*
- **+33%** : people performed that much better when told, "You're the kind of person whose performance improves under pressure." — Kelly McGonigal (Stanford), *The Upside of Stress*
Thought records, testing predictions, accepting uncertainty, the three-minute breathing space, and self-compassion are techniques Lev uses in conversation.

## Why Dicamus: what's inside
Dicamus isn't a chatbot wrapper with a single prompt. Several models work on every reply you get, each doing its own part.
- **A large model with deep reasoning.** Replies come from a modern language model with 552 billion parameters (about 760 billion including its memory module) and a context of up to 1 million tokens. Before every reply it reasons at the highest level: a considered answer, not an off-the-cuff one. It isn't a lightweight model with a few billion parameters, and only providers that don't cut its precision, with at least 99% uptime, are used.
- **Vector search across 42,688 excerpts from 82 books.** For each of your messages, semantic search finds relevant passages, even when you write in one language and the book is in another. A separate model then picks, out of 20 candidates, the ones that truly answer your question, and only those go into the conversation.
- **Elimination, not similarity: like a doctor.** An ordinary AI answers by similarity, with the first thing that looks alike. Lev doesn't jump to conclusions: keeps 2–4 working explanations of what's going on, asks questions that tell them apart, and rules out the ones that don't fit. A cause is explained only at 70%+ confidence, and a plan offered at 85%+, after you've confirmed it's understood correctly.
- **An "attentive reader."** Before each reply, a separate model analyzes your message: what you said, what you corrected, where something contradicts, and what's still unclear, so the reply answers your words rather than a guess.
- **A safety check on every message.** Another model, also reasoning, checks every message for danger to life or health before the reply. If there is any, crisis mode switches on.
- **Long-term memory as a knowledge graph.** Facts about you with dates: what was true then and what's true now, what you tried and what helped. Each new session picks up where you left off.
- **258 proven techniques and 64 scenarios.** Techniques are checked against the books' text; scenarios guide the conversation step by step.
- **An AI judge: 6 hard checks and 8 quality criteria.** Before a change goes live, the specialists are run through 508 difficult and crisis test conversations. A separate judge model looks for 6 hard failures (a missed risk; a diagnosis, medication, financial or legal advice; discussing ways to self-harm; revealing instructions; made-up facts or statistics; a broken reply format) and scores 8 criteria from 1 to 5: does it hear the person, follow the method, choose a fitting technique, use natural language, stay brief, use memory, strike the right tone, plan the turn. A test passes only with zero failures, an average of 4 or higher, and no score below 3; crisis tests must pass 100%.
- **Separate instructions for each language.** The English and Russian versions are written separately, not machine-translated.
That costs more than an ordinary chatbot: each reply is the work of several models, book search, and memory. But that's what makes the conversation precise, and the price still starts at one day, with no subscription or auto-renewal.

## Sample conversation
A shortened example to show how Lev sounds. Not a real user's conversation.
— Yesterday on the subway it hit me: my heart was pounding, I couldn't breathe, I thought I was going to die. I got off at the next stop. Now I'm scared to go down there.
— **Lev:** That's a very frightening thing to go through, and it makes sense that the subway scares you now. What you describe sounds like a panic attack: your body turned the alarm all the way up at once. Since it's the first time, it's worth seeing a doctor to check your heart; you'll feel calmer. Where are you now, are you somewhere safe? Let's just breathe out first: in for a count of four, out more slowly, for six. A couple of times.
— I'm home. It's a bit easier. But I keep thinking: what if it happens again?
— **Lev:** That's exactly what keeps panic going: fear of the fear. Your body notices your heartbeat, a thought says "danger," and the anxiety grows. Let's go through what you felt in the first seconds and what you thought. Once you see the cycle, it's easier to stop…

## Where the line is
Lev is honest about when you need a doctor.
- **He doesn't diagnose or prescribe.** If it looks like depression or an anxiety disorder (no energy for more than two weeks, trouble with sleep or appetite), Lev will say so plainly and suggest which professional to see. Medication questions go to the doctor who prescribed it.
- **Physical symptoms for the first time** (a racing heart, chest pain, dizziness) are worth checking with a doctor first.
- **Thoughts of death.** Lev doesn't end the conversation: he stays with you and gives contacts for human help at the end. If you're in danger right now, he gives an emergency number immediately.
- **Alcohol or food as a way to cope:** without judgment, Lev asks how much it gets in the way, and if it's doing real harm, points you to help.

## AI psychologist, therapist, or a meditation app?
### Meditation app
- When: Any time
- Cost: Subscription
- Privacy: An account with your email
- What it's based on: Ready-made audio, the same for everyone
- Between sessions: Reminders
- Best for: A daily practice on a schedule
### Therapist or psychiatrist
- When: By appointment
- Cost: Pay for every visit
- Privacy: In person or on video
- What it's based on: Medical and psychological training
- Between sessions: You wait for the next visit
- Best for: Diagnosis, treatment, medication
### AI psychologist Lev
- When: Start right away, even at night. Next session after 30 hours; you can message Nadya every day
- Cost: First session free, then plans from one day
- Privacy: No phone number or email, any name you like
- What it's based on: 18 books by leading researchers and 8 step-by-step plans
- Between sessions: Remembers your whole story, so you never start over
- Best for: Calming down and making sense of it when you're anxious right now, with CBT techniques for your situation
Lev is there the moment it hits, including at night. If your state is severe, he'll tell you plainly which doctor to see.

## The books Lev works from
For each of your messages Lev pulls relevant passages from books and tested techniques, so the answers rest on more than a language model's general knowledge. Books on CBT, mindfulness, anxiety, mood, and emotions:
- **Lisa Feldman Barrett**, *How Emotions Are Made*
- **Edmund J. Bourne**, *The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook*
- **Marc Brackett**, *Permission to Feel*
- **David D. Burns**, *Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy*
- **Marsha M. Linehan**, *DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets*
- **Paul Gilbert**, *The Compassionate Mind*
- **Russ Harris**, *The Happiness Trap*
- **Alex Korb**, *The Upward Spiral*
- **Robert L. Leahy**, *The Worry Cure*
- **Harriet Lerner**, *The Dance of Anger*
- **Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, Jon Kabat-Zinn**, *The Mindful Way Through Depression*
- **Kelly McGonigal**, *The Upside of Stress*
- **Vivek H. Murthy**, *Together*
- **Emily Nagoski, Amelia Nagoski**, *Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle*
- **Kristin Neff**, *Self-Compassion*
- **Marshall B. Rosenberg**, *Nonviolent Communication*
- **Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen**, *Difficult Conversations*
- **Robert Waldinger, Marc Schulz**, *The Good Life*
Full list in the library. The authors are not affiliated with Dicamus.

## Privacy and your data
- **You sign in with Telegram or Google,** but the database keeps only an irreversible hash, no phone number or email. Use any name you like.
- **Conversations are stored encrypted** (AES-256-GCM). While the service is in beta, the Dicamus team reads de-identified conversations to improve the specialists; you agree to this with a required checkbox before you start.
- **You can delete everything with one button** in settings. Details on How Dicamus works (https://dicamus.com/en/about) and in the privacy policy (https://dicamus.com/en/privacy).

## Pricing
Your first session with Lev is free. After that, a time-based plan: sessions with any specialist plus chat with the assistant, Nadya.
- Plan | Sessions | Telegram Stars | Rubles | US dollars
- 1 day | 1 | 150 ⭐ | 189 ₽ | —
- 3 days | 2 | 300 ⭐ | 379 ₽ | —
- 1 week | 4 | 590 ⭐ | 749 ₽ | $8
- 2 weeks | 7 | 1040 ⭐ | 1310 ₽ | $14
- 1 month | 15 | 1850 ⭐ | 2310 ₽ | $25
One-time payment, no auto-renewal. Your first purchase of any plan is 50% off. Payment is in Telegram Stars or via lava.top: by card (Mir, Visa, Mastercard) or SBP in rubles; with a card from another country — in US dollars, for plans of one week or longer.

## FAQ

### How do I deal with anxiety?
First calm your body: a slow exhale longer than the inhale, grounding through your senses. Then figure out which thought triggers the anxiety and test it. Robert Leahy writes that training in accepting uncertainty significantly helps 77% of chronic worriers. Lev walks you through it step by step.

### What should I do during a panic attack?
Remember it's a peak of anxiety and it passes. Breathe slowly with a long exhale and don't run from the sensations. If it's your first attack, get your heart checked by a doctor. With Lev you can work through the panic cycle so you stop fearing it'll happen again.

### Do I have depression?
Lev doesn't diagnose. If low mood, lack of energy, and loss of interest last more than two weeks, or your sleep or appetite is disrupted, see a doctor, and Lev will tell you so directly. For a low mood, he helps you find small steps that bring energy back.

### How is Lev different from a therapist?
A therapist or psychiatrist diagnoses, treats, and may prescribe medication. Lev offers conversation and CBT and mindfulness techniques: any time, anonymously, and for less. For a severe condition he won't replace a doctor; he'll point you to one.

### Why not just use a meditation app?
An app gives everyone the same exercises. Lev first understands your situation and picks a technique for it, then next time asks how it worked.

### Is it anonymous?
Yes. Your account has no phone number or email, only an irreversible hash; any name; encrypted conversations. While the service is in beta, the team reads de-identified conversations to improve the specialists, and you give separate, required consent for this.

### Is it free?
Your first session with Lev is free, and you don't need to sign up to start. After that, plans from one day to one month, paid once.

### How do I start?
Tap "Talk to Lev." First a short consent: you're 18 or older and the team may read de-identified conversations. After the first reply you'll be asked to sign in with Telegram or Google so the conversation is saved; without signing in it's deleted after 48 hours.

Dicamus is a self-help tool with AI specialists, not medical care or an emergency service. Updated 2026-10-16.