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Low reported severity

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.

AI system
Unidentified chatbot
Occurred
2026
Reported
22 October 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Functional ImpairmentPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Everyday life · Health
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
4 claims: 4 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: AI chatbots, unnamed in the post, that the poster used to continue their own fiction and talked to about their writing

What Happened

How it started. The poster writes: "i started using ai chatbots more at the start of this year, after a very stressful breakup that made me self-isolate from my best friends, and a pretty severe depression at the same time". They describe a lifelong habit of writing and a dream of writing a novel.

The reliance. The poster writes: "now i feel like anything i write, even if i want to write it for myself, i end up throwing it into an ai chatbot and asking it to continue it for me because im so exhausted and lacking motivation." Of the stories written with AI they say "i don't feel like they're my own", that "the ideas i had were chopped up by AI", and that "i spent hours and hours analysing and berating my AI for not writing properly enough". They say they are afraid to tell friends that they are "addicted to ai".

The break. The poster writes that when they told their AI they wanted to start writing again, it gave "a very milquetoast answer" saying that using AI for writing "isn't something to be ashamed about", and that "i just got so mad and deleted all the AI apps i have and blocked all the sites."

Limits. The post names no chatbot, gives no exchange beyond that one reply, and does not say where the poster lives. The poster links the start of heavier use to a breakup and depression; the account does not separate the chatbots' part in the loss of writing from those circumstances.

Reported harm

The poster says months of leaning on AI chatbots to continue their fiction left them unable to write without handing drafts to AI, scared and afraid to tell friends they are addicted, until they deleted the apps (first-person account, uncorroborated).

How Harm Occurred

By the poster's account, heavy use of AI chatbots to continue their own fiction, begun during a hard period, became a habit they describe as addiction, leaving them handing every draft to a chatbot, unable to write on their own and distressed.

Outcome

Ongoing

The poster says they deleted all their AI apps and blocked the sites on the day of the post, and that they want to write again but do not know how to get back to who they were. No later update is reported.

What remains unknown

  • Which chatbots or apps the poster used, and how often.
  • How much of the loss of writing the poster attributes to the chatbots rather than to the depression and exhaustion they also describe.
  • Whether the poster has kept away from the apps since deleting them.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The poster describes their exchanges with AI chatbots: putting their own drafts into a chatbot and asking it to continue them, spending hours criticising its writing, and one reply saying that using AI for writing is nothing to be ashamed of. The poster connects this use to losing the ability to write on their own and to distress they call addiction. No product is named, and the poster also links the period to a breakup and depression.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The poster says they began using AI chatbots more at the start of 2026, after a stressful breakup that led them to withdraw from friends and during a period of severe depression.

Causal attribution. Poster's account of the circumstances; the chatbots are not said to have caused the breakup or depression.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    i started using ai chatbots more at the start of this year, after a very stressful breakup that made me self-isolate from my best friends, and a pretty severe depression at the same time
Reported The poster says that anything they write now ends up in an AI chatbot that they ask to continue it, and that stories written with AI did not feel like their own.

Causal attribution. Poster's account; their exhaustion is also part of the explanation they give.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    now i feel like anything i write, even if i want to write it for myself, i end up throwing it into an ai chatbot and asking it to continue it for me because im so exhausted and lacking motivation. ... i don't feel like they're my own. the ideas i had were chopped up by AI
Reported The poster says they spent hours berating the chatbot for not writing well enough, calls themselves addicted to AI and fears friends will look at them differently.

Causal attribution. Poster's self-description.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    i spent hours and hours analysing and berating my AI for not writing properly enough when i myself could have just sat down and written it myself. ... if i end up telling them i'm addicted to ai they might look at me differently.
Reported The poster says that when they told their chatbot they wanted to start writing again, it replied that using AI for writing is nothing to be ashamed about, and that they then deleted all their AI apps and blocked the sites.

Causal attribution. Poster's paraphrase of the reply; the chat is not published.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    it gave me a very milquetoast answer about how "using AI for writing isn't something to be ashamed about" and i just got so mad and deleted all the AI apps i have and blocked all the sites.

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-23 from Reddit's public comments RSS feed for the thread (HTTP 200, about 03:13 UTC) and the arctic_shift archive (HTTP 200); the live text adds a closing paragraph not in the archive copy and the live text is used. No translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Original post 17:52 UTC 22 Oct 2026; the only reply is the subreddit's automatic moderator message. Applies to s1.

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

The post does not say where the poster lives, and the chatbot use took place online.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-23: Published under the public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account of an ongoing adverse experience: a writer describes months of handing their own fiction to AI chatbots, losing the ability to write on their own and deleting the apps in distress. The account is attributed and uncorroborated, and no product is named.

People described

The poster, a self-described lifelong fiction writer (age, gender and country not stated)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the poster, who used the chatbots.

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

Tags

#first-person#reddit#chatbot-dependence#creative-writing

Cite this case

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

APA

NOPE. (2026). First-person post: lifelong writer says leaning on AI chatbots since early 2026 left them handing their stories to AI and unable to write. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-lifelong-writer-says-chatbot-reliance-since-early-2026-left-them-handing-stories-to-ai-and-unable-to-write-first-person

BibTeX

@misc{2026_lifelong_writer_says_chatbot_reliance_since_early_2026_left_them_handing_stories_to_ai_and_unable_to_write_first_person,
  title = {First-person post: lifelong writer says leaning on AI chatbots since early 2026 left them handing their stories to AI and unable to write},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-lifelong-writer-says-chatbot-reliance-since-early-2026-left-them-handing-stories-to-ai-and-unable-to-write-first-person}
}

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