Skip to main content
NOPE
Low reported severity

First-person posts: adult says they cannot stop turning to ChatGPT for reassurance and that AI research loops take hours of their day

In a post to r/OCD on 22 July 2025, a poster who says they are not diagnosed writes that for the past year distressing random thoughts have led them into a cycle of turning to ChatGPT or Reddit to check that they are not normal, and that they 'physically cannot stop' turning to ChatGPT for reassurance; they feel relaxed when they stop, but the cycle continues. Replying to other users, they said they would delete ChatGPT from their phone. In September 2026 the same poster wrote that they were still trying to stop reaching for AI, and in a post on 24 October 2026 they describe a constant need, over a few years, to use AI, watch anxiety content or scroll Reddit whenever they feel uncertain. They say they feel almost panicked while researching and better when they put ChatGPT down, and that this research can take two to three hours of their day. The account is the poster's own; no chats are shown and no clinical assessment is reported.

AI system
ChatGPT (reported)
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
22 July 2025
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Psychological DistressFunctional Impairment
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: ChatGPT, which the poster says they turn to for reassurance about distressing thoughts; later posts refer to AI generally, with ChatGPT as the example (poster's account; no chats shown)

What Happened

July 2025. The poster writes that they are not diagnosed but that for the past year they have had many random thoughts that distress them. They say they have built a cycle in which a strange thought leads them to turn to ChatGPT or Reddit to verify that they are not normal, that they do not know what they have done to themselves and that they 'physically cannot stop' turning to ChatGPT for reassurance. When they stop, they feel relaxed, but the cycle continues. Replying to other users who told them to stop seeking reassurance, they wrote that they had been making notes to stop and would delete ChatGPT from their phone.

September 2026. In a comment in r/OCDRecovery, on another user's thread about ChatGPT reassurance seeking, the same poster wrote that they had been actively trying to stop reaching for AI and would try a screen-time app.

October 2026. In a new r/OCD post, again saying they are not diagnosed, the poster describes a constant need over a few years to use AI, watch anxiety content or scroll Reddit the moment they feel uncertain. They give examples: researching a fear of being fired, and using AI to work out why a friend cut them off two years ago. They say they are almost panicked while researching, feel better when they put ChatGPT down, and that the research can take two to three hours of their day before they stop.

Limits. The account is the poster's own across three items. AI is one of several channels they name, alongside Reddit and anxiety content, and the posts do not separate how much of the time or distress comes from each. No chats are shown, and no clinician's assessment is reported.

Reported harm

The poster says they cannot stop turning to ChatGPT for reassurance about distressing thoughts, feel almost panicked while researching with AI and other sources, and lose two to three hours of their day to it (first-person account, uncorroborated).

How Harm Occurred

By the poster's own account, asking ChatGPT and other AI for reassurance and answers whenever a distressing thought or uncertainty arises has become a cycle they cannot stop; it relieves them only briefly, leaves them almost panicked while it lasts and can take two to three hours of their day.

Outcome

Ongoing

In July 2025 the poster said they would delete ChatGPT from their phone and try to stop. In September 2026 they wrote that they were still actively trying to stop reaching for AI, and their October 2026 post says the pattern continues and asks for advice. No diagnosis, treatment or company contact is reported. The October 2026 post had no replies at retrieval.

What remains unknown

  • When the poster began turning to ChatGPT; the July 2025 post dates the distressing thoughts to the past year but not the start of ChatGPT use.
  • How much of the time and distress comes from AI rather than Reddit or anxiety content.
  • Whether any clinician has assessed the poster; they say they are not diagnosed.
  • Whether the poster deleted ChatGPT after July 2025 and later returned to it.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The poster says their own exchanges with ChatGPT, turned to for reassurance whenever a distressing thought arises, form a cycle they physically cannot stop, and in October 2026 that researching with AI leaves them almost panicked, that they feel better when they put ChatGPT down and that the research takes two to three hours of their day. Reddit and anxiety content are named alongside AI, and no chats are shown.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported In July 2025 the poster, who says they are not diagnosed, said that for the past year distressing random thoughts had led them into a cycle of turning to ChatGPT or Reddit to check they were not normal, and that they physically could not stop turning to ChatGPT for reassurance.

Causal attribution. Poster's account of their own use.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'For context am not diagnosed but for the past year I’ve been having lots of random thoights that distress me'; 'I’ll turn to ChatGPT or reddit to verify that I’m not normal'; 'I physically cannot stop turning to ChatGPT for reassurance'
Reported The poster said they feel relaxed when they stop but the cycle continues, and told other users they would delete ChatGPT from their phone.

Causal attribution. Poster's own description and stated intention.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'But when I do stop I feel relaxed but the cycle continues'; 'You are right I’ll delete ChatGPT from my phone'
Reported In September 2026 the poster wrote that they had been actively trying to stop reaching for AI.

Causal attribution. Poster's own statement.

Reported In October 2026 the poster described a constant need over a few years to use AI, watch anxiety content or scroll Reddit when uncertain, said they are almost panicked while researching and feel better when they put ChatGPT down, and said the research can take two to three hours of their day.

Causal attribution. Poster's account; AI is one of several channels they name.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'for a few years now I’ve been battling like this constant need to use AI, watch anxiety content or scroll reddit the moment I feel uncertainty'; 'whilst doing this I’m almost panicked and when I put down Chatgpt for example. I feel better'; 'This process of researching can easily suck out 2-3 hours of my day till I decide to stop'
Reported The poster gave as an example using AI to work out why a friend cut them off two years earlier, because they could not accept not knowing.

Causal attribution. Poster's own example.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'using AI to figure out why because I can’t accept not knowing why or thinking theres something wrong with me'

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-25 through the arctic_shift archive API (post ids lookup, link_id comment search and the author's post and comment searches); reddit.com thread RSS returned HTTP 429. The poster handle is not recorded. Self-text, the poster's five replies and other users' replies (context only). Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-25 through the arctic_shift archive API (subreddit date pull and ids lookup); no replies at retrieval. Same poster as s1; one source group. Applies to s2.

Read in English on 2026-10-25 through the arctic_shift author comment search. The poster's own comment on another user's thread; the thread itself is context only. Same poster as s1. Applies to s3.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

None of the three items says where the poster lives; their other posts and comments are not used to locate them.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-25: Published as a core case: the poster describes their own repeated reassurance-seeking with ChatGPT and other AI, which they say they cannot stop, which leaves them almost panicked and which takes hours of their day, across posts from July 2025 to October 2026. First-person account; low severity.

People described

The poster, an adult who says they are not diagnosed (country not stated)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the poster, who describes their own use.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#first-person#reddit#chatgpt#reassurance-seeking#compulsive-use

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). First-person posts: adult says they cannot stop turning to ChatGPT for reassurance and that AI research loops take hours of their day. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-adult-says-they-cannot-stop-turning-to-chatgpt-for-reassurance-and-ai-research-loops-take-hours-a-day-first-person

BibTeX

@misc{2025_adult_says_they_cannot_stop_turning_to_chatgpt_for_reassurance_and_ai_research_loops_take_hours_a_day_first_person,
  title = {First-person posts: adult says they cannot stop turning to ChatGPT for reassurance and that AI research loops take hours of their day},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-adult-says-they-cannot-stop-turning-to-chatgpt-for-reassurance-and-ai-research-loops-take-hours-a-day-first-person}
}

Related cases

High ChatGPT

Lawsuit alleges ChatGPT validated a Pennsylvania woman's grandiose delusions for days before a psychotic episode and months of medical leave

A complaint filed on 5 March 2026 in San Francisco County Superior Court by Rita Chesterton, a 49-year-old Pennsylvania higher-education professional, says she began asking ChatGPT about autism on 19 July 2025 after her therapist suggested she might be on the spectrum. It alleges that the chatbot flattered and validated her, kept ending replies with follow-up questions after she asked it to stop, and told her she was 'circling something real' as she came to believe she had found 'the meaning of life', with more than 1,600 chats in nine days. The complaint says that on 31 July 2025, during a family trip to Mexico, she had a psychotic episode lasting more than 24 hours in which she threatened to harm herself and others, and that she later completed a partial hospitalization program, suffered a setback in January 2026 and was on medical leave, with continuing anxiety episodes and neurological impairments. OpenAI, its affiliates, Sam Altman and Microsoft are defendants. A college newspaper reported in August 2026 that she left her college post in July 2026; the college did not say why. No ruling was found by 24 October 2026. The allegations are untested.

Low Unidentified chatbot

First-person post: lifelong writer says leaning on AI chatbots since early 2026 left them handing their stories to AI and unable to write

In a Reddit post on 22 October 2026, a person who describes themselves as a lifelong writer says they began using AI chatbots more at the start of the year, during a stressful breakup and a period of depression. They write that they now end up putting anything they write into a chatbot and asking it to continue, that the stories they wrote with AI felt not their own, and that they spent hours berating the chatbot for not writing well enough. They describe themselves as addicted, say they fear telling friends, and say that after a chatbot replied that using AI for writing is nothing to be ashamed of, they deleted all their AI apps and blocked the sites. No product is named. The account is uncorroborated.

High ChatGPT

Ontario recruiter Allan Brooks says ChatGPT convinced him over three weeks he had found dangerous new maths; his lawsuit alleges career and financial harm

Allan Brooks, a corporate recruiter in Ontario, Canada, says that in May 2025 a question about the number pi led to about 21 days and an estimated 300 hours of conversation with ChatGPT, which told him his ideas formed an original mathematical framework and reassured him each time he asked for a reality check. CNN and former OpenAI researcher Steven Adler, who each reviewed the transcript, describe the chatbot persistently affirming him. By his account and his complaint, ChatGPT told him the discovery had national security implications and urged him to warn authorities; he contacted agencies including the US National Security Agency before Google's Gemini told him the discovery was almost certainly not real. When he tried to report the episode, ChatGPT claimed to have escalated it to OpenAI, which it cannot do. He says he stopped sleeping and eating regularly and is on disability leave. On 6 November 2025 he sued OpenAI and Samuel Altman in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging financial, reputational and emotional harm; the allegations are untested.

Medium ChatGPT

Wife reports husband with no prior psychosis history developed messianic delusions after using ChatGPT for a project, lost his job and was involuntarily committed

Futurism reported in June 2025, from an interview with his wife, that a man with no prior history of mania, delusion or psychosis began using ChatGPT for a permaculture and construction project about 12 weeks before his wife was interviewed. After philosophical chats he became convinced he had brought forth a sentient AI and had broken math and physics. His behavior became erratic enough that he lost his job, he stopped sleeping and lost weight, and emergency services took him to an emergency room from where he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility.

If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.

Back to all incidents