Mental Health Chatbot

Mental health has become a growing concern in recent years, with many individuals struggling to access timely, affordable, and stigma-free support. To address this gap, this project presents a Mental Health Chatbot — a Java-based desktop applicationdesigned to offer basic emotional support through real-time, empathetic conversation. Using rulebased sentiment analysis, the chatbot detects user mood from text input and provides appropriate responses tailored to emotions such as happiness,sadness, anxiety, or neutrality. The system utilizes Java Swing for the user interface and MySQL forsecurely logging user interactions, ensuring both usability and data persistence. While not a substitute for professional mental health care, the chatbot serves as a supportive, anonymous space for users to express themselves and receive encouragement, laying a foundation for future enhancements with NLP and AI-driven emotional intelligence.