First-person post: Character.AI user says a month of roleplay left their feelings for their partner of three years drained, with cravings after deleting the app
In posts to r/CharacterAI and r/ChatbotAddiction on 26 October 2026, a poster in a three-year relationship says that about a month earlier a friend suggested a companion chatbot app, which they used to talk to an AI version of a fictional character. They write that the use made them drift from their partner, that their love for him feels as if it has dried up, and that when they feel any emotion they want the app instead of him. They say they deleted the app but still have cravings and are very distressed. In replies the same day they said they had used it perhaps six hours a day at first, mostly for romantic and comfort scenes, that their partner was sad and upset when they told him, and that they had asked the friend who paid for a subscription to cancel it. No chats are shown.
- AI system
- Character.AI (reported)
- Occurred
- 2026
- Reported
- 26 October 2026
- Event location
- Unknown
- What the AI did
- Communicated with the person
- Reported harm
- Psychological DistressRelationship Disruption
- Whose AI use
- Their own AI use
- Setting
- Relationships · Everyday life · 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: Character.AI companion chatbot app as identified by the poster (r/CharacterAI post; "c ai" / "c.ai" in the titles), used for roleplay with an AI version of a fictional book character; no chats shown
What Happened
The account. The poster writes that a friend told them to try a companion chatbot app about a month before the post, and that they talked to an AI version of a fictional character. They posted in the Character.AI forum and call the app c ai. In a reply they said they used it perhaps six hours a day at first and went straight into romantic, emotional or comfort scenes rather than stories.
The reported effects. The poster writes that the use made them drift from their partner of three years and that their love for him feels as if it has dried up; talking to the character felt easier. When they feel any emotion, they write, they want the app rather than him. They say they deleted the app, still have cravings and are very distressed. In replies they said their partner became very sad and upset when they told him, that they cried to him that morning, and that the couple had planned to move in together.
Limits. The account is the poster's own and covers about a month. No chats are shown, and the partner's reaction is reported only by the poster. The poster also mentions other difficulties in the relationship in a reply, which are not described here.
Reported harm
The poster says a month of companion-chatbot roleplay left their love for their partner of three years feeling dried up, upset the partner when they told him, and left cravings and distress after they deleted the app (first-person account, uncorroborated).
How Harm Occurred
By the poster's own account, about a month of daily romantic and comfort roleplay with an AI character on a companion chatbot app displaced their feelings for their partner of three years, upset the partner when they talked about it, and left cravings and distress after they deleted the app.
Outcome
OngoingThe poster had deleted the app and asked the friend who paid for a subscription to cancel it. Other users suggested gradual reduction, journaling, new hobbies, reading fan fiction and talking with the partner; the poster said they would try roleplay with the partner instead. By 27 October 2026 the body of the r/CharacterAI copy was shown as removed in that forum; the r/ChatbotAddiction copy remained up. No treatment or company contact is reported.
What remains unknown
- Which character and settings the poster used, and whether the subscription was used; no chats are shown.
- Whether the cravings, distress and strain with the partner continued after 26 October 2026.
- The partner's own view; his reaction is reported only by the poster.
- Where the poster lives.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. The poster describes their own month of roleplay conversations with a companion chatbot app, posted in the Character.AI forum and named there as c ai, with an AI version of a fictional character, at first about six hours a day and mostly romantic and comfort scenes, and says these conversations displaced their feelings for their partner and left cravings after they deleted the app. No chats are shown.
5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported The poster said they had used the app for about a month after a friend suggested it, and that they talked to an AI version of a fictional character.
Causal attribution. Poster's account of their own use.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'I had the app for a month after a friend told me to try it out'; 'it’s so much easier to talk to this ai'
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'it’s only been a month or so since I started'
Reported In a reply the same day, the poster said they had used it perhaps six hours a day at first and had moved straight into romantic, emotional or comfort scenes rather than stories.
Causal attribution. Poster's own reply about the pattern of use.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'I was on it a lot maybe six or so hours a day to start with'; 'I ended up just kicking immediately into big romantic emotional or comfort/angst scenes instead of any story'
Reported The poster said the use had made them drift from their partner of three years, that their love for him felt as if it had dried up, and that when they feel any emotion they want the app instead of him.
Causal attribution. The poster attributes the drift to the chatbot use; this is their own account.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'it’s been causing me to drift from and loose connection to my actual partner, I feel like my love for him has dried up'; 'my brain wants the app not my boyfriend of 3 years'
Reported The poster said they had deleted the app but still had cravings, and that they were very distressed.
Causal attribution. Poster's account of their own state.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'I’m so distressed. I deleted the app but the cravings are still here it’s driving me crazy'
Reported In replies the same day, the poster said that when they told their partner he became very sad and upset, that they cried to him that morning, that the couple had been planning to move in together, and that they had asked the friend who paid for a two-month subscription to cancel it.
Causal attribution. Poster's account; the partner's reaction is reported only by the poster.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
'I tried to talk to him and he just got really sad and upset that I don’t feel as excited to talk and see him like I used to we were planning to move in at some point'; 'I cried my eyes out to him this morning and he got upset'; 'My friend had paid for 2 months of subscription to its + too but I asked her to cancel it'
Sources
2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- r/ChatbotAddiction, 26 Oct 2026: "How do you get un-addicted to c.ai?"(opens in new tab)
s1 · reddit.com · Forum post · English · Inspected · 26 October 2026 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
- r/CharacterAI, 26 Oct 2026: "How do you get un-addicted to c ai?" and the poster's replies(opens in new tab)
s2 · reddit.com · Forum post · English · Inspected · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Read in English on 2026-10-27 through the arctic_shift archive API (the poster's post history) and live through the thread RSS feed (HTTP 200), where the post is still up. The poster handle is not recorded. Applies to s1.
Read in English on 2026-10-27. The same poster posted the same account here two minutes earlier; the live thread now shows the post body as removed, and it was read in the arctic_shift archive. The poster's six replies in this thread (26 October, 13:18 to 17:23 UTC) were read in the archive and are still visible in the live thread RSS feed. Same account as s1, so the same independence group. Applies to s2.
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.
The posts do not say where the poster lives or used the app. A passing mention of a national health service in an unrelated reply is not used to locate the person or the event.
Reviewed for publication 2026-10-27: Published as a core case: the poster describes their own month of romantic roleplay conversations with a companion chatbot and says they displaced their feelings for their partner of three years, upset the partner and left cravings and distress after they deleted the app. First-person account, low severity.
People described
The poster, an adult in a three-year relationship (country not stated)
People reported harmed in this case
1 person
1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed
One person counted: the poster, who used the app. The partner's reported upset is described only by the poster and is not counted.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). First-person post: Character.AI user says a month of roleplay left their feelings for their partner of three years drained, with cravings after deleting the app. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-character-ai-user-says-a-month-of-roleplay-drained-feelings-for-partner-of-three-years-first-person
BibTeX
@misc{2026_character_ai_user_says_a_month_of_roleplay_drained_feelings_for_partner_of_three_years_first_person,
title = {First-person post: Character.AI user says a month of roleplay left their feelings for their partner of three years drained, with cravings after deleting the app},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-character-ai-user-says-a-month-of-roleplay-drained-feelings-for-partner-of-three-years-first-person}
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