Wow. Can’t say I saw this coming: ChatGPT psychosis. According to one psychiatrist specializing in psychosis, this is a true delusional psychosis..
People experiencing "ChatGPT psychosis" are being involuntarily committed to mental hospitals and jailed following AI mental health crises.
futurism.com
As we
reported earlier this month, many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality.
The consequences can be dire. As we heard from spouses, friends, children, and parents looking on in alarm, instances of what's being called "ChatGPT psychosis" have led to the breakup of marriages and families, the loss of jobs, and slides into homelessness.
And that's not all. As we've continued reporting, we've heard numerous troubling stories about people's loved ones being involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — or even ending up in jail — after becoming fixated on the bot.
"I was just like, I don't f*cking know what to do," one woman told us. "Nobody knows who knows what to do."
Her husband, she said, had no prior history of mania, delusion, or psychosis. He'd turned to ChatGPT about 12 weeks ago for assistance with a permaculture and construction project; soon, after engaging the bot in probing philosophical chats, he became engulfed in messianic delusions, proclaiming that he had somehow brought forth a sentient AI, and that with it he had "broken" math and physics, embarking on a grandiose mission to save the world. His gentle personality faded as his obsession deepened, and his behavior became so erratic that he was let go from his job. He stopped sleeping and rapidly lost weight.
"He was like, 'just talk to [ChatGPT]. You'll see what I'm talking about,'" his wife recalled. "And every time I'm looking at what's going on the screen, it just sounds like a bunch of affirming, sycophantic bullsh*t."
Eventually, the husband slid into a full-tilt break with reality. Realizing how bad things had become, his wife and a friend went out to buy enough gas to make it to the hospital. When they returned, the husband had a length of rope wrapped around his neck.
The friend called emergency medical services, who arrived and transported him to the emergency room. From there, he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric care facility.
Numerous family members and friends recounted similarly painful experiences to
Futurism, relaying feelings of fear and helplessness as their loved ones became hooked on ChatGPT and suffered terrifying mental crises with real-world impacts.
Central to their experiences was confusion: they were encountering an entirely new phenomenon, and they had no idea what to do……
…….
With emergency responders on site, the man told us, he experienced a moment of "clarity" around his need for help, and voluntarily admitted himself into mental care.
"I looked at my wife, and I said, 'Thank you. You did the right thing. I need to go. I need a doctor. I don't know what's going on, but this is very scary,'" he recalled. "'I don't know what's wrong with me, but something is very bad — I'm very scared, and I need to go to the hospital.'"
Dr. Joseph Pierre, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco who specializes in psychosis, told us that he's seen similar cases in his clinical practice.
After reviewing details of these cases and conversations between people in this story and ChatGPT, he agreed that what they were going through — even those with no history of serious mental illness — indeed appeared to be a form of delusional psychosis.
"I think it is an accurate term," said Pierre. "And I would specifically emphasize the delusional part.".
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The earlier article, mentioned above:
A startling number of ChatGPT uses are developing intense, reality-bending AI delusions. The impacts on their real lives are often disastrous.
futurism.com
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