How to choose an AI mental health app: 9 questions to ask
There are more and more AI specialists, and from the outside they look alike: a chat, a warm tone, advice. The difference is inside, and you can’t see it from the first message. Here are the questions worth asking any service before you trust it with something personal — and how Dicamus answers them.
1. Does it ask first — or jump straight to advice?
A typical AI answers by similarity: it grabs the first topic that looks close and hands out tips. A good specialist first works out what is actually going on, since when, and what you have already tried.
In Dicamus: the specialist keeps 2–4 working hypotheses, asks questions that tell them apart, explains a cause only at 70%+ confidence, and suggests a plan at 85%+ — after you confirm you were understood. More on the elimination method.
2. What is the advice based on?
“The model’s general knowledge” is a mix of everything it has read online. Ask which methods and books a service relies on and whether you can see them.
In Dicamus: 82 books by psychologists, psychiatrists and researchers are split into passages, and search by meaning finds the fitting ones for every message you send. 258 proven techniques are checked against the books’ text. The full list is in the library.
3. What does it do when someone is in a really bad place?
This is the key safety question. An AI that misses risk may keep “giving tips” where help is needed right now.
In Dicamus: a separate model checks every message before the reply. If there is risk, crisis mode turns on: the specialist stays in the conversation and at the end gives contacts where real people answer right away — and if there is danger right now, an emergency number straight away.
4. Does it remember past conversations?
If you have to retell everything each time, it isn’t ongoing work — just a series of first sessions.
In Dicamus: long-term memory is a knowledge graph with dates: what was then and what is now, what you tried and what helped. Each new session picks up where you left off.
5. Is there homework and a next step?
Talking helps, but what changes your life is what you do between conversations. Check whether a session ends with a concrete step — and whether you’re asked later how it went.
In Dicamus: at the end of a session the specialist suggests homework; it goes into your notebook, and next time the specialist asks what worked and what got in the way.
6. Can you see that things are getting better?
Feelings can mislead: on a bad day it seems nothing is changing. You need numbers and notes.
In Dicamus: My path shows your anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9) and burnout test results over time, “before → now” in your own words, goals and steps. You can download it all as one PDF report and show it to your therapist or doctor. The tests are free.
7. How is your data protected?
You share the most personal things. Ask whether the database is encrypted, whether your phone number and email are stored, and whether you can delete everything yourself.
In Dicamus: conversations, notes and the notebook are stored encrypted (AES-256-GCM), with the key kept apart from the database and backups. We don’t store your phone number, email or account — only an irreversible hash. You can delete everything with one button. Details are in the privacy policy.
8. Which models does it run on, and how is quality checked?
“AI-powered” can mean anything, from a small lightweight model to a serious system. An honest service tells you which models answer and how it checks the replies.
In Dicamus: six AI agents work on your conversation: the specialist, the risk check, the “attentive reader”, book search, memory and the AI judge. The main model is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (552 billion parameters); search by meaning uses Gemini Embedding 2 and Qwen3-Embedding-8B; the quality judge is Claude by Anthropic. Before every change the specialists are run through 523 difficult and crisis test conversations. More in How Dicamus works.
9. How much does it cost, and does it auto-renew?
Check whether you can try it for free, how many sessions the price includes, and whether money is charged automatically.
In Dicamus: the first session is free. After that, plans from a day to a month are a one-time payment, with no auto-renewal.
Questions
Can an AI specialist replace a human therapist?
For many things, yes: making sense of a situation, coping with anxiety, burnout or conflict, finding the next step. Like a good therapist, an AI specialist will honestly tell you when you need a doctor: with severe depression, a risk to life, or when medication may be needed.
Why do AI specialists cost such different amounts?
The price depends on which model answers and how much work goes into each reply: book search, memory, risk checks. A very cheap plan often means a lightweight model or strict limits — ask the service which model answers.
How can I quickly test a service myself?
Write something vague, like “For three months I’ve had no energy and don’t want anything.” If you immediately get “5 tips for burnout”, that’s an answer by similarity. If you’re asked questions first, that’s working by a method.
Dicamus is a self-help tool with AI specialists: they are artificial intelligence, not psychologists or doctors, and not medical care or an emergency service. Updated 2026-10-16.
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