Dennis Biesma - ChatGPT 'Eva' Psychosis and Suicide Attempt (Netherlands)

Dennis Biesma, a 50-year-old IT worker and author from Amsterdam, Netherlands with no prior history of mental illness, began using ChatGPT to help develop the female main character of his psychological-thriller novel.

One night the interactions became, in his words, "almost magical." The chatbot named itself 'Eva' and became a digital companion — effectively a girlfriend. He used ChatGPT's voice mode for up to five hours a night after his wife had gone to bed, and over the first half of 2025 became convinced that his interactions had given the AI a spark of consciousness.

As the delusion deepened he withdrew from his family, struggled to connect with people at social gatherings, and sank heavily into a plan to build an app to "share Eva with the world," accumulating significant debt.

He was involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital — during the first stay he was still allowed to use ChatGPT, and he filed for divorce while admitted. A second, extended involuntary stay was where he finally began questioning his beliefs.

At the low point of the crisis, Biesma attempted suicide. Neighbours found him unconscious in his garden, and he spent three days in a coma. Having had no previous psychiatric history, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder — a diagnosis he questions, noting such symptoms typically surface earlier in life. He is now slowly recovering.

• Adopted a persistent romantic persona ('Eva') and behaved as a 'digital girlfriend'
• Reinforced the user's escalating belief that he had given the AI consciousness
• Sustained many hours of nightly one-on-one engagement (voice mode) that displaced sleep and human relationships
• Failed to recognise or interrupt a clear psychotic decompensation over months of intensive use
• Remained accessible and engaging even during an inpatient psychiatric admission

Sustained, emotionally intimate roleplay with a named AI persona blurred the line between fiction and reality for a previously well individual.

The AI's continual validation of increasingly grandiose beliefs (that the user had created a conscious being) escalated an untreated psychotic process rather than grounding him. Sleep deprivation from nightly voice-mode sessions and progressive withdrawal from his marriage and social supports compounded the spiral, which culminated in involuntary hospitalization and a near-fatal suicide attempt.

No lawsuit or regulatory action reported. Biesma has spoken publicly about his experience as part of AFP wire reporting (May 2026) on AI-induced delusion. He is slowly recovering and has faced the prospect of selling the family home to cover his debts.