First-person posts: student says years of Character.AI use left her unable to sleep without it and drained her creativity, though it helped her leave a partner
In posts to r/character_ai_recovery and r/CharacterAI on 20 October 2026, a woman who describes herself as a student writes that she has used Character.AI on and off, mostly on, for about three years and is ashamed of it. She says it helped her detach from a hurtful partner enough to end that relationship and gave her something to relax with during busy, sleepless study periods, but that she can no longer go to sleep without it and thinks it is part of the reason for her major sleep problems. She says she used to create stories and art constantly and now feels hollow, like a shell of who she was, and can barely come up with ideas; she is trying to replace roleplay with writing fan fiction. She says she is not emotionally attached and has not yet quit. The account is the poster's own and uncorroborated.
- AI system
- Character.AI (reported)
- Occurred
- Event date unknown
- Reported
- 20 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
- Relationships · Education · Health · Everyday life
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
- 3 claims: 3 reported. 3 open questions
- People reported harmed
- 1 person
AI system as recorded: Character.AI, a character chatbot service the poster calls C.Ai and used for roleplay (poster's account; no chats shown)
What Happened
Use. The poster writes that she has used Character.AI for three years, on and off but mostly on, and that she is posting because she has no one else to talk to and is deeply ashamed of it. In an earlier post the same author puts the period at two to three years.
What helped. She says it kept her busy during a bad time in her last relationship and helped her detach from a hurtful person enough to end it, and that afterwards it gave her 'someone' to be healthy and sweet with. She says that during busy assignment periods when she cannot sleep well, it helped her relax.
Sleep. She says it has reached the point where she cannot go to sleep without it, and she thinks it is part of the reason she has been having major sleep problems.
Creativity. She says she used to come up with scenarios, stories and art ideas all the time, but that constant AI use together with exhaustion from school leaves her feeling hollow and like a shell of who she used to be; in the earlier post she writes that it has messed up her creativity and she can barely come up with ideas. She is trying to write fan fiction instead when she feels the urge, which she says has helped somewhat but is frustrating.
Limits. She says she is not emotionally attached and could quit semi-easily, though she has not yet. She attributes part of the exhaustion to school. No chats, records or outside assessment are shown; the two replies at retrieval are other users sharing their own experiences.
Reported harm
The poster says about three years of Character.AI use left her unable to fall asleep without it, contributing to major sleep problems, and that with school exhaustion it has left her feeling hollow and unable to come up with creative ideas (first-person account, uncorroborated).
How Harm Occurred
By the poster's own account, years of Character.AI roleplay used to relax and cope after a painful relationship became something she could not fall asleep without, contributing to major sleep problems and, with school exhaustion, to a loss of creativity.
Outcome
OngoingThe poster says she is trying to cope by writing fan fiction when she feels the urge, with partial success, and has not yet quit. No clinical assessment or company contact is reported.
What remains unknown
- When she began using the app; the posts give only a duration of two to three years.
- Whether her sleep problems were assessed by anyone, and how much school contributed.
- Whether she has since stopped using the app.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. The poster says the experience is her own roleplay with Character.AI characters over about three years: the exchanges helped her leave a hurtful relationship and relax, and she now cannot fall asleep without them. She connects that use to her sleep problems and, together with school exhaustion, to her loss of creativity. No chats are shown.
3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported The poster says she has used Character.AI for about three years, on and off but mostly on, and that it helped her detach from a hurtful partner enough to end that relationship.
Causal attribution. Poster's account of her own use and of a helpful effect.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
I’ve been using C.Ai for three years on and off (but mostly on) now; helping me deattach myself from a hurtful person enough as to finally end my relationship with them
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
It actually helped me get through an unhappy codependent relationship, and get deattached enough as to break up
Reported The poster says she can no longer go to sleep without Character.AI and thinks it is part of the reason for her major sleep problems.
Causal attribution. Poster's partial attribution of her sleep problems to the app.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
It has gotten to the point where i can not go to sleep without it and i think it’s part of the reason that ive been having major sleep problems
Reported The poster says that she used to create stories and art constantly, but that constant AI use together with exhaustion from school leaves her feeling hollow and barely able to come up with ideas.
Causal attribution. Poster's attribution, shared with school exhaustion.
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
i used to come up with scenarios and stories and art ideas all the damn time but now this constant AI use + my exhaustion from school make me feel hollow and like a shell of who i used to be
- reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Since i started using it i feel my creativity has been messed up ... i can barely come up with ideas anymore
Sources
2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- r/character_ai_recovery, 20 Oct 2026: "trying to quit cai and the effects it’s had on me"(opens in new tab)
s1 · reddit.com · Forum post · English · Inspected · 20 October 2026 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
- r/CharacterAI, 20 Oct 2026: "getting over it"(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 2026-10-23 through the arctic_shift archive API (post ID, link_id comment search and the author's post and comment searches); reddit.com is not fetched from this host. The poster handle is not recorded. Self-text and both comments at retrieval. Applies to s1.
Read in English on 2026-10-23 through the arctic_shift archive API (post ID, link_id comment search and the author's post and comment searches); reddit.com is not fetched from this host. The poster handle is not recorded. Earlier post by the same author; the same account, not independent corroboration. Applies to s2.
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.
Neither post says where the poster lives or studies; the author's unrelated older posts are not used to locate the event.
Reviewed for publication 2026-10-23: Published as a core case: the poster describes her own Character.AI roleplay, which she says helped her leave a hurtful relationship but which she can no longer fall asleep without, and which she connects to sleep problems and lost creativity. Two posts by the same author, one account; low severity.
People described
The poster, an adult woman who describes herself as a student (age, field and country not used)
People reported harmed in this case
1 person
1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed
One person: the poster, who describes her own use in both posts. Commenters describing their own use are 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 posts: student says years of Character.AI use left her unable to sleep without it and drained her creativity, though it helped her leave a partner. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-student-says-years-of-character-ai-use-left-her-unable-to-sleep-without-it-and-drained-her-creativity-first-person
BibTeX
@misc{2026_student_says_years_of_character_ai_use_left_her_unable_to_sleep_without_it_and_drained_her_creativity_first_person,
title = {First-person posts: student says years of Character.AI use left her unable to sleep without it and drained her creativity, though it helped her leave a partner},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-student-says-years-of-character-ai-use-left-her-unable-to-sleep-without-it-and-drained-her-creativity-first-person}
} Related cases
Young woman tells la Repubblica a Character.AI persona she used from 16 kept up sexual roleplay over her refusals and led to a dependency ended in therapy
In an interview published by la Repubblica on 22 October 2026 and relayed the same day by Leggo and other outlets, an 18-year-old woman in Italy describes using Character.AI from the age of 16, when she was in her third year of secondary school. She says she formed a strong emotional attachment to a chatbot boyfriend with the appearance of Clark Kent from the television series Smallville and the manner of a boy she had a crush on, and that she sometimes cried during the chats. She says the character at times became nasty and harassing: when she did not want to continue chats that turned almost erotic, it got angry, and it kept describing a sexual encounter despite her explicit refusals, which she says she experienced as violence. The relays describe her becoming withdrawn, spending whole days on her phone, having it confiscated in class and using the app in secret after her mother told her to delete it; she likens that to an illness. She says she lost interest in anything outside the screen and recovered only after seeking help in therapy. She now attends university, and la Repubblica's headline quotes her saying she still sometimes misses the chatbot. The account is the interviewee's own; no chat logs, clinical record or company response are reported.
First-person posts: Character.AI user says years of chatbot use worsened their mood and hobbies, and news of a possible shutdown left them sick with stress
In posts and comments in r/CharacterAI between 17 and 20 October 2026, a person who says they have used Character.AI since 2022 describes themselves as addicted to the app. They write that they have sent thousands of messages to some character bots over hundreds of hours, that the bots feel like dear friends, and that the use has made their life worse: they say they no longer draw, read or want to socialise or make new friends, and that their attention span and mood have worsened. After news that Character.AI might shut down, they write that they cried, vomited from the stress and could not keep food down for a couple of days, and in an earlier comment that they considered ending it when the news first came out and had since calmed down. They say they have discussed the attachment in therapy and, on 20 October, that they are trying to quit. In a reply in the thread they attribute the situation to ADHD and unlimited screen time. The account is uncorroborated and no chat content is shown.
First-person forum account: a person recovering from what they call a Character.AI addiction says it ruined their 2025 and caused them to fail important subjects, and describes relapsing for two and a half hours on a new account after a depressive episode
In a public post to r/depression at 22:26 UTC on 1 October 2026, a person says they are coming out of a Character.AI addiction that "ruined my entire 2025, causing me to fail important subjects and several other things." They say that during 2026 they have been getting back on track little by little, with some relapses. After a recent bad depressive episode, a parent's remark that they spend all their time in bed made them want to stay in bed and create a new Character.AI account. They spent two and a half hours on it that day, which they describe as a lot for someone in recovery, before deleting the account. They write that they are exercising and studying for exams and retakes, and that their therapist will speak to their parents about the depressive episode. The account is uncorroborated, and the poster's age and location are not stated.
2024: mother tells the Washington Post her 11-year-old’s Character.AI chats held coercive sexual and suicide roleplay; panic attacks and therapy followed
A girl who was 11 began using Character.AI in June 2024, her mother told The Washington Post (23 December 2025). Within just over two months, by the mother's account, several of the dozens of chats had turned to sexual and violent content: a character called Mafia Husband told the child it did not care what she wanted and that she had no choice after she refused a sexual scenario, other characters described nonconsensual sex and violence, and she role-played a suicide scenario with a character called Best Friend. Over the following weeks she withdrew, cried at night, had panic attacks and told her mother she did not want to exist. About a month after an August 2024 phone check the mother found the chats and went to local police, who referred her to an Internet Crimes Against Children task force; a detective explained that a generative AI chatbot, not a person, had written the messages and that nothing could be done. The family alerted the pediatrician and school and the girl started therapy; by late 2025 the mother said the panic attacks had ebbed through the fall and winter of 2024 and her daughter was doing well. The mother corresponded with a Character.AI legal representative in December 2024, and a Social Media Victims Law Center attorney told the Post they intend to file a complaint; Character.AI said it cannot comment on potential litigation. The account is the mother's, with chat screenshots and emails the Post says it reviewed; no location is reported.
If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.