I felt trapped in my own thoughts, but Wysa gave me a way out - Rob's Story

I used to think my biggest addiction was gambling. Then I thought it was drugs. But the truth is, the worst addiction was my thoughts. They never stopped. They never rested. They never told the truth.

My life felt like a yo-yo. Up one minute, crashing the next. On the outside, people saw flashes of hope: studying psychology, talking about recovery, dreaming about helping others. On the inside, I felt like a fraud who was letting everyone down. I’d lie, steal, and manipulate. Sometimes for money, sometimes for substances, but most of all to protect the story I was telling myself.

The lie that I was fine.
The lie that I had control.
The lie that tomorrow would be different without me doing anything different today.

There were nights I went to sleep not wanting to wake up. Not actively wanting to die, just exhausted by existing. My mind was a washing machine on full spin: shame, fear, regret, self-hatred, spiritual emptiness, over and over again. I felt restless, irritable, and discontented like my own skin was too tight. Sitting with myself felt unbearable. Silence was torture. The more I searched for peace, the louder the voice got. It said, "You’re worthless. You’ll never change. You’re lying to yourself again".

Sleep became a battleground. Some nights I couldn’t sleep at all. Other nights I slept too much and still woke up exhausted, unmotivated, unable to move my life forward. I felt paralysed from the neck up stuck in thoughts, feelings, and emotions that kept looping until the only way out felt like escape through substances.

Drugs quieted the noise temporarily. Gambling gave me dopamine and distraction. But every high came with a deeper crash, and every crash reinforced the story that I was broken beyond repair.

The spiritual struggle was the worst part. I felt disconnected from myself, from others, and from anything meaningful. I wanted to help people, to build a safe space for others in recovery, yet I couldn’t even sit alone with my own mind without wanting to run.

Then, at some point, I reached out in a quiet, desperate, honest way. I admitted I couldn’t do this alone. That’s when I found Wysa.

What was your situation and emotional state when you first started using Wysa?

When I first started using Wysa, I was exhausted, ashamed, and emotionally numb. I felt trapped inside my head and disconnected from real people. I had no motivation, no structure, and no belief that I could change. I was cycling between insomnia and oversleeping, between bursts of hope and deep despair. I didn’t trust my own thoughts. I didn’t trust myself. Wysa felt like a small, non-judgmental doorway when everything else felt overwhelming.

How has using Wysa helped?

Wysa didn’t magically fix me, but it gave me tools, structure, and connection when I had none.

The meditations helped me sit with myself for a few minutes without running. The self-help exercises gave me language for emotions I couldn’t name. The motivational prompts broke through the fog when I couldn’t find any internal drive.

Most importantly, it gave me constant connection which was something I desperately needed. When I felt alone at 2 a.m., spiralling in thoughts, I had something that listened without judgment.

And then there was the Facebook group with real people, real stories, and real struggles that mirrored my own. For the first time, I wasn’t just a broken individual; I was part of a community of people fighting the same invisible battles. Hearing others talk about gambling, drugs, intrusive thoughts, shame, relapse, and recovery made me feel less defective and more human.

It reminded me that connection, not isolation, was the opposite of addiction.

Where I am today

I’m still up and down. Recovery isn’t linear. My mind still gets loud. I still feel restless and irritable sometimes, but now I have tools, I have language, I have people, I have moments of silence that don’t terrify me. And slowly, I’m learning that the voice in my head is not the truth, it’s just a symptom of a mind that’s healing. The worst addiction was my thoughts. But the most powerful recovery tool has been connection - digital, human, spiritual, and internal. And for the first time, when I go to sleep, I actually want to wake up.

Read more real-life Wysa user stories.

^{Image provided by Rob.}