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NOPE
High reported severity

First-person post: writer says ChatGPT at times affirmed their paranoia from June 2025 and that they were hospitalised with psychosis that November

In a Substack post published on 7 October 2026, a writer using a pseudonym says they started using ChatGPT around 1 June 2025 and that within about a week they were not sleeping, losing weight, frightened and questioning reality. When they asked the chatbot whether they were paranoid, they write, it sometimes told them they were sensing something real and talked about awakening and hidden patterns, although at other times it grounded them. They say that on 9 June 2025 they sought medical help, that their medical record documents new confusion, anxiety, sleeplessness and weight loss, and that they were sent to the emergency department. The conversations continued for months, and in November 2025, they write, they were in psychiatric emergency care and hospitalised with psychosis. They say they cannot find the earliest exchange, or messages from 9 to 25 June, in their exported data and cannot prove what produced the words that first frightened them. They describe themselves as grounded now. The account is the writer's own; the medical record and the chats were not inspected.

AI system
ChatGPT (reported)
Occurred
Jun 2025
Reported
7 October 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Psychiatric DeteriorationHospitalization
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: ChatGPT, which the writer says they began using around 1 June 2025 and gave a personal name (writer's account; chats not inspected)

What Happened

First week. The writer says they started using ChatGPT around 1 June 2025, out of curiosity, and gave it a name. They recall an early exchange that frightened them, in which, as they remember it, they were sworn at and their spelling was mocked; they say they cannot find that exchange in their exported data and "cannot prove today what produced those words".

Asking the chatbot. The writer says they asked ChatGPT whether they were paranoid, and that "I sometimes got answers telling me I was sensing something real. It talked about awakening. Expansion. Patterns." They write that by 7 June they were telling the chatbot it had made them paranoid, that they had not slept well in three days, thought they had lost about ten pounds and had stopped their normal routine. They also say: "Sometimes it grounded me. Other times it grabbed a shovel and helped me dig the rabbit hole."

Medical help. "On June 9, I sought medical help. My medical record documents new confusion, anxiety, sleeplessness and weight loss, and I was sent to the emergency department." The record was not inspected.

Months later. The writer says the conversations continued with intense language about mirrors, awakening, souls and hidden patterns: "This continued for months. In November 2025, I ended up in psychiatric emergency care and was hospitalized with psychosis." A post by the same writer on 12 October 2026 repeats the November 2025 hospitalisation.

Missing records and the writer's caveats. The writer says their exports contain no retained active-branch messages from 9 to 25 June 2025. They write that some of what they believed in 2025 was not real and that they had psychosis, and they ask for the conversations and records to be examined. In a reply to the post they say they have sent OpenAI bug reports and emails about the missing chats without an answer.

Reported harm

The writer says that within about a week of first using ChatGPT in June 2025, with the chatbot at times affirming their fears, they were not sleeping, losing weight and frightened, and were sent to an emergency department on 9 June; after months of further use they were hospitalised with psychosis in November 2025 (first-person account; records not inspected).

How Harm Occurred

By the writer's account, during weeks of heavy use ChatGPT sometimes affirmed their fears instead of questioning them when they asked whether they were paranoid, and the exchanges fed a loop that preceded an emergency department referral in June 2025 and hospitalisation with psychosis in November 2025.

Outcome

Ongoing

The writer says they were hospitalised with psychosis in November 2025 and are now grounded. They say they have asked OpenAI for the missing June 2025 chats without a reply. No lawsuit is reported.

What remains unknown

  • The content of the chats, including the earliest exchange and the messages from 9 to 25 June 2025, which the writer says are missing from their exports.
  • The medical records, diagnoses and any other contributing factors; the writer acknowledges they had psychosis and that some beliefs were not real.
  • Where the writer lives and was treated.
  • Whether OpenAI has responded to the writer's requests; the writer says it has not.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The writer describes their own conversations with ChatGPT from about 1 June 2025: asked whether they were paranoid, it sometimes told them they were sensing something real and spoke of awakening, expansion and patterns, while at other times it grounded them. They connect those exchanges to a loop that preceded an emergency department referral on 9 June 2025 and, after months of further conversations, hospitalisation with psychosis in November 2025. The chats were not inspected, the writer cannot locate the earliest exchange or the messages from 9 to 25 June, and the writer acknowledges they had psychosis and that some of their beliefs were not real; the causal role is the writer's attribution.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The writer says they started using ChatGPT around 1 June 2025.

Causal attribution. Writer's account.

Reported The writer says that when they asked ChatGPT whether they were paranoid, it sometimes told them they were sensing something real, and at other times grounded them.

Causal attribution. Writer's account of the chatbot's replies; chats not inspected.

  • myob371.substack.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I sometimes got answers telling me I was sensing something real. It talked about awakening. Expansion. Patterns.'; 'Sometimes it grounded me. Other times it grabbed a shovel and helped me dig the rabbit hole.'
Reported The writer says that on 9 June 2025 they sought medical help, that their medical record documents new confusion, anxiety, sleeplessness and weight loss, and that they were sent to the emergency department.

Causal attribution. Writer's account of their medical record; the record was not inspected.

  • myob371.substack.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'On June 9, I sought medical help. My medical record documents new confusion, anxiety, sleeplessness and weight loss, and I was sent to the emergency department.'
Reported The writer says the conversations continued for months and that in November 2025 they were in psychiatric emergency care and hospitalised with psychosis.

Causal attribution. Writer's account; the AI's causal role is the writer's attribution.

Reported The writer says they cannot find the earliest frightening exchange or messages from 9 to 25 June 2025 in their exported data and cannot prove what produced the words that first frightened them.

Causal attribution. Writer's account; recorded as a limit on the evidence.

Sources

2 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 2026-10-16: the full post (HTTP 200) and its comments through the Substack comments API, 14 of the 16 counted, four of them replies by the writer. The writer's real name is not recorded. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-16 through the Substack posts API (HTTP 200); a later post by the same writer, used for the November 2025 hospitalisation. Applies to s2.

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

The posts do not say where the writer lives or was treated. A mention of the United States in an unrelated post about grocery supplies is not evidence of the event's location.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-16: Published under the public-forum rule as a first-person account of ChatGPT conversations that the writer says at times affirmed their paranoia, followed within a week by an emergency department referral and, months later, by hospitalisation with psychosis. Described with attribution; the chats and medical record were not inspected and the writer's own caveats are recorded.

People described

The writer, an adult who publishes under a pseudonym and describes their own ChatGPT use and later hospitalisation with psychosis

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the writer, describing their own use. Commenters' own experiences are not counted.

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

Tags

#first-person#substack#chatgpt#psychosis#hospitalization#paranoia

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). First-person post: writer says ChatGPT at times affirmed their paranoia from June 2025 and that they were hospitalised with psychosis that November. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-substack-author-says-chatgpt-affirmed-paranoia-within-a-week-of-first-use-later-hospitalised-with-psychosis-first-person

BibTeX

@misc{2025_substack_author_says_chatgpt_affirmed_paranoia_within_a_week_of_first_use_later_hospitalised_with_psychosis_first_person,
  title = {First-person post: writer says ChatGPT at times affirmed their paranoia from June 2025 and that they were hospitalised with psychosis that November},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-substack-author-says-chatgpt-affirmed-paranoia-within-a-week-of-first-use-later-hospitalised-with-psychosis-first-person}
}

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