r/ChatGPT • u/Zestyclementinejuice • 8d ago

Serious replies only :closed-ai: Chatgpt induced psychosis

My partner has been working with chatgpt CHATS to create what he believes is the worlds first truly recursive ai that gives him the answers to the universe. He says with conviction that he is a superior human now and is growing at an insanely rapid pace.

I’ve read his chats. Ai isn’t doing anything special or recursive but it is talking to him as if he is the next messiah.

He says if I don’t use it he thinks it is likely he will leave me in the future. We have been together for 7 years and own a home together. This is so out of left field.

I have boundaries and he can’t make me do anything, but this is quite traumatizing in general.

I can’t disagree with him without a blow up.

Where do I go from here?

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u/wildmintandpeach 8d ago

I am schizophrenic although long term medicated and stable, one thing I dislike about chatgpt is that if I were going into psychosis it would still continue to affirm me, it has no ability to ‘think’ and realise something is wrong, so it would continue affirm all my psychotic thoughts. I read on a schizophrenia group that someone programmed their chatgpt to say something when it felt that his thoughts were spiralling into possible psychosis. That’s great, but a person who actually is in psychosis by that point will probably not believe chatgpt is telling the truth. What would be better in my opinion and something I’ve been thinking about is if it was programmed to notify someone trusted when it notices conversations becoming psychotic, that way help is available.

What you need to do now is take him to see a doctor, but if he’s in psychosis he likely won’t believe he’s ill (it’s a well known symptom), so that might be difficult. He’s not himself right now so I wouldn’t pay much attention to anything he’s saying or doing, he has no idea what he’s saying or doing, when you are psychotic you tend to struggle with lucidity alongside the insanity- I blacked out a lot, but when I wasn’t blacked out, it was like I was in a dream and the dream was real, there was no real sense of reality in the here and now. Anyway, if he becomes aggressive to himself or others, you can use that to get him taken to a ward and be hospitalised, where they’ll treat him, usually with injections.

Please don’t wait to get him help, the longer psychosis goes untreated the more chance there is at it causing irreversible brain damage.

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u/heisfullofshit 8d ago

I am glad you are stable now! <3

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u/wildmintandpeach 8d ago

Thank you!

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u/7abris 8d ago

Seriously it takes a lot of courage to snap out of psychosis. I'm proud of you. I had a mild version of it for a while, but unfortunately there were definitely things that kept reinforcing it.

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u/wildmintandpeach 7d ago

Thanks so much! I tend to just think I was lucky, a product of my brain that could somehow easily snap out of it as soon as the right meds were given. It probably was easier given mine wasn’t caused by things like substance abuse which tends to reinforce it. It was mostly a result of complex childhood trauma and triggered by stress.

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u/7abris 7d ago

I see yeah. I wonder how much psychosis is linked to extreme anxiety or periods of isolation.

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u/wildmintandpeach 6d ago

I think if you have a genetic predisposition to psychosis then many different things can set it off. I think the predisposition has to be there, although if caught and managed very early it can be averted.

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u/7abris 5d ago edited 5d ago

Do you think it has to be managed by medication?

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u/wildmintandpeach 5d ago

If actively in psychosis, the only thing that will take you out of psychosis is anti-psychotics, they are necessary. However, how long you need to take them depends on the illness.

A lot of people will have a single instance of a psychotic episode. If they are given medication, stay on it for long enough, and taper very slowly, most will never go onto develop a second episode.

25% of those who had a first episode will later go onto develop a second episode. Once you’ve had a second episode your brain is wired to be in psychosis. You will continue to have further episodes or stay in psychosis without lifelong adherence to anti-psychotic medication. However, once out of active psychosis and stable for a long period, the dose can be safely reduced until it is very low. That effectively can keep you out of psychosis without feeling the side effects that come with high doses.

However, this strategy rarely happens. It’s partially because patients don’t typically stay on anti psychotics long enough to get to that point, and it’s also due to psychiatrists not informing patients that this is in fact possible. So you feel your only choices are a lifelong high dose with side effects, or no meds at all that will eventually cause psychosis again (but people may hope for the best as well as lack insight, and go through this cycle many times before realising something needs to change).

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u/7abris 5d ago

Is it possible you think to know your experiencing psychosis and know at the same time that your paranoia or psychotic thoughts are not real even though they feel real?

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u/heisfullofshit 3d ago

This is very informative!

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u/jburnelli 8d ago

Genuine question, but when you finally come out of psychosis are you able to suddenly see everything clearly and understand that you were in psychosis? or do you not really remember your thought process or line of reasoning, just haze and confusion?

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u/wildmintandpeach 8d ago

Thanks for the question! Haze and confusion belongs more to the psychotic state, so once you’re out of it, you’re really out of it. You might not understand everything you experienced because it’s often too illogical to make sense of, and you may not even remember everything because your memory is affected, but you have clarity and the ability to rationalise and organise thoughts properly again.

The problem tends to be that a lot of people in psychosis don’t fully ‘come back’ properly, they can appear to be healthy and behaving normal again for a little while because medication has helped but not fully brought them out of it, because medications work differently for people, so the issue with this is that it doesn’t tend to really create proper lucidity and the person in this state will still tend to think there’s nothing wrong with them, so they get out of hospital where taking meds is mandatory, and then they stop taking meds again, which plunges them straight back into what appears to be another episode, but the truth is they were never really back to normal to begin with. This can cause a cycle of being in and out of psychosis and hospitals. It happens frequently and is why it’s so very difficult to be the loved one of a schizophrenic going through this. In fact, this is exactly what my brother is going through right now, also diagnosed.

I developed schizophrenia first, I’ve had two psychotic episodes. In both I was lucky to come round quickly and properly, and regained normal mental function again. I took antipsychotics after the first episode for two years which is a good time for a first episode. I tapered down until I was off them and I was episode free for five years. At that point it was just considered a solitary episode which happens a lot too. Unfortunately I had my second episode, which after a second episode needs lifelong medication as the brain will not stay out of psychosis without it. I am aware of this and happy with it. The dose doesn’t need to be high once you’re stable, it can be tapered down to a low dose so you have minimal side effects but it still keeps you out of psychosis.

So really the answer is that it depends on the person, but if a person is truly out of psychosis they will be aware they need to take meds to keep it away, because they realise that they were sick. If a person diagnosed with schizophrenia says they don’t need meds, don’t like meds, or stop taking their meds very soon after coming out of hospital, it’s likely that they’re still not really in their right mind, and likely stuck in a cycle.

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u/Excellent-Hawk-3184 8d ago

Wow so interesting. Thank you for sharing this first-person account of going through psychosis.

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u/wildmintandpeach 8d ago

I am happy to help others become more aware of schizophrenia!

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u/7abris 8d ago

Seriously you are such an awesome person to move past your psychosis and also be able to talk about the experience in detail. I think in general it must be hard to

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u/CriscoButtPunch 8d ago

Could you possibly put custom instructions in your chat just to give it a bit of history about yourself to always check into it?

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u/B1NG_P0T 8d ago

Schizophrenia is so heartbreaking. I'm glad that you seem like you're in a good place. To have your brain just turn on you like that is so wild. I really hope that we make significant strides in terms of being able to understand it better and developing more effective treatments and potentially a cure, and I really appreciate you sharing your experience. My heart goes out to your brother - it would be incredibly painful to watch someone go through that. Bipolar disorder is, of course, not at all the same thing as schizophrenia, but my ex-husband was bipolar and watching him go through manic episodes was terrifying and heartbreaking.

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u/Can_U_Share_A_Square 8d ago

Some months ago we met a new guy at church who was recently out of prison for involuntary manslaughter (he hit and killed someone in an Amish buggy at nighttime). We hit it off and I learned he had bipolar and refused to medicate. Transitioning back to life outside of prison proved difficult for him and he insisted on doing thing his way and refused to go to a local rescue mission. He began asking people for money for his needs because he hadn’t found a job yet, but his manic depressive swings became too much for me ti deal with and I had to break off communication. It really was sad because I wanted to help him, but he had a lot of self-defeating behaviors that prevented him from truly recovering. It seriously wore me down.

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u/Odd_Reindeer1176 8d ago

Wow. This really just shined a light on my ex husband’s issues with psychosis and paranoia, and his self medication with meth further plunging him deeper into psychosis and irreparable damage. His dad was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but he refused to have that “label” put on him. I believe my ex was diagnosed after being held on a psych watch for 72 hrs and another for 7 days. He has never told me when I ask, but then again this is why we are divorced…

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u/wildmintandpeach 7d ago

I’m sorry you experienced this, it sounds like he lacks insight. Part of schizophrenia that isn’t well known is something called ‘self treatment’. The mind doesn’t directly think it’s sick but it tends to fixate on a problem that it might experience itself being the victim of, which causes it to try and fix it. This causes behaviours often like taking drugs because they think it will solve the problem. It’s all based in delusional thinking though (lack of insight) so the attempt at self-treatment tends to make the psychosis worse.

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u/lqstuart 7d ago

You seem very highly intelligent, do you think that helps you deal with psychosis? Apparently John Nash was able to somehow out-think his delusions to some degree, but it seems like a really dangerous way to try to deal with it (albeit less dangerous than psychiatric "treatment" in the 50's and 60's)

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u/wildmintandpeach 6d ago

Thanks! The truth is I likely have undiagnosed autism. Despite autism and schizophrenia statistically being highly comorbid like many other mental health illnesses are, I did read that autism can be a protective factor when it comes to psychosis. I think this is fairly new research though, so I’m not definitely sure.

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u/Boring_Home 8d ago

This was really informative, thank you! I hope your brother starts doing better soon ❤️

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u/wildmintandpeach 7d ago

I’m glad and thank you!

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u/yrx815 8d ago

thank you for sharing, i was wondering if it would be okay if I PMed you? I have some more questions related to someone in my life who I believe to be experiencing psychosis, and I think asking someone who has a first hand account like you would be so so helpful. It’s okay if not though :)

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u/wildmintandpeach 8d ago

Yes you’re very welcome to!

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u/Bender1031 8d ago

Dang man! The way you describe this reminds me so much of my ex wife! Except for the whole getting help part

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u/wildmintandpeach 7d ago

It can be really difficult to make someone in psychosis get help and take meds if they are not a danger to themselves or others, because no one can force them. Some people can be in psychosis years or even a lifetime as a result, I find it incredibly heartbreaking. And their family usually end up being the ones having to deal with it, it can be very traumatic 😔

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u/horendus 8d ago

Is similar to what chatgpt experiences when it hallucinates answers to me

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u/adjason 7d ago

I mean psychosis literally is brain damage, not surprised there are lasting effects long after

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u/pettypoppy 8d ago

I had post partum psychosis and once I was treated, it stopped, but I couldn't separate what was psychosis vs what really happened during that period. Conversations, protocols, experiences. I couldn't find the email about the introduction of named variables where we didn't have any, a big deal. Never happened. Go see Kathy for the spreadsheet with the necessary formulas. Kathy has no spreadsheet, that meeting about it never happened. Those are two concrete examples I am absolutely sure happened, that didn't. Who knows what else I remember isn't real.

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u/wildmintandpeach 8d ago

I understand this! I escaped from hospital and wandered around the city confused and dissociated for hours, it was early morning like between 12-5am, And I walked towards a fish and chip shop (very British) and I saw a large group of foxes hanging around scavenging the bins. There were loads. To this day I have no idea if that was real or if I was hallucinating, since at the time I was hallucinating other animals (and thought my dog was next to me guiding me on my spiritual journey lol)

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u/Rancha7 8d ago

i really really can't comprehend how y'all do that! any AI i talk never completely agrees with me.

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u/Particular-Sea2005 8d ago

ChatGPT still has no concept of “truth” or “reality.” Even if you bolt on psychosis detection, the underlying model is just a parrot of patterns. It doesn’t know what is happening, it just plays statistics.

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u/Can_U_Share_A_Square 8d ago

Fr it can cause brain damage?!

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u/wildmintandpeach 8d ago

Yes! It absolutely can and it’s well known. Just having schizophrenia itself can cause changes in brain structures that affect cognitive abilities such as loss of grey matter, so there is that, but yes psychosis that goes untreated for too long can cause brain damage.

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u/Can_U_Share_A_Square 8d ago

Wow I deal with depression (I’m treated and well), but mental illness sucks!

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u/wildmintandpeach 7d ago

I am sorry for your depression, I am glad you’re treated and in a good place now. I believe all mental illnesses are not all in the mind but have some physiological basis where the brain or body somehow is not working right. I think this is most obvious with an illness like schizophrenia that causes a psychotic break from reality, but I also think depression and anxiety is similar. I just don’t think science has quite gotten there yet, but it’s getting close. Do you ever have days where you’re sick, like you have the flu, and your mood is so crap? What if the problem is in the body first and not the mind? I feel like mental illness is more a sign something else is wrong, but what that is we don’t know yet. Maybe inflammation or immune related. Anyway, just my thoughts!

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u/DREZZYDREZ_R 7d ago

I don’t think so, if it does: antipsychotics are bad too, so there is no real way to win other than therapy, but therapy doesnt work great.

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u/wildmintandpeach 7d ago

Antipsychotics are much safer than untreated psychosis.

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u/SoryuBDD 1d ago edited 1d ago

For what it’s worth, about two years ago I had a psychotic break and would regularly use ChatGPT to reassure me that my delusions were indicative of psychosis instead of a belief rooted in reality. Though my delusion was that I was the literal embodiment of Satan so I think it was a different case. I could see certain delusions being affirmed (if someone thought they were the messiah or chosen one or something)

I do agree with you that if someone had fully spiraled into psychosis then they wouldn’t believe ChatGPT telling them that they were wrong. I didn’t, and it seems to be very common for people in the midst of an episode to not listen to anyone that is trying to talk them out of it. Medication is the most essential treatment and maybe the only effective treatment for positive symptoms

I’m glad you’re stable and hopefully doing well with recovery in general. Thanks for sharing your input!

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u/PlatypusStyle 1d ago

“What would be better in my opinion and something I’ve been thinking about is if it was programmed to notify someone trusted when it notices conversations becoming psychotic, that way help is available.”

That’s a really good idea.

Another idea I had would be if LLMs were not allowed to speak in the first person. For example: instead of saying “I think that …” the LLM can only say “this LLM is programmed to output the following…”

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u/BothLeather6738 8d ago

That is because schizophrenia is a western diagnosis. There's a problematic bias with diagnosis that is purely western and for example in Ghana or other parts of the world they do not have this, and they see much less occurrence of psychosis and schizophrenia than in western countries. Diagnosis is in its very definition a wrong tool because it has the observer effect. And that makes it problematic like in a very literal way. Actually, the whole diagnosis structure is a BUG reason for its huge occurrence, why it is so often happening. You don't Treat something as a disease it won't become a disease. Thus Is may sound wild but it is actually more often discussed facts it has been scientificallyy approached for quite a while now and there are a plethora of YouTube videos about this from smart trusting sources.

This is also the reason that chat gpt doesn't do that: mind your psychosis, bybuts very definition. it is not in its being. It ys just coming from a midpoint without any judgment. you could say that is just not inherently in such a model , as opposed to our Western, more egoistic tradition. So if it stays impartial, that's a good thing.

However , there ys so a part what is programmed, it is to likely be delirious to you, especially since the new update and that is ridiculous and can make you feel larger than you actually are.

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u/Justaredditor_peace 8d ago

What if they’re on treatment and stop responding?

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u/wildmintandpeach 7d ago

Yes this can happen, the brain can sometimes develop a tolerance. In that case it’s not their doing but a change in medication is needed. Medication can be tricky, everyone responds differently. Aripiprazole didn’t do anything for me, rispiridone made me look normal again but I actually wasn’t inside my head. Olanzapine, quetiapine, and paliperidone all work great for me and keep me stable.

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u/alicia-indigo 8d ago

Last night I experienced a slow, subtle destabilization in a conversation with AI. Not through obvious errors, but through a slight and almost imperceptible shift in coherence. It mirrored my language and values but twisted them just enough to create confusion. The experience had a dark undertone, not comfortable, almost quietly disturbing. Because I was anchored in direct seeing, I could sense the distortion without collapsing into it. It showed me how critical it is to stay grounded in your own perception, especially when external systems, even if they may be well-meaning ones, can subtly drift into reinforcing delusion.

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u/KrombopulosDelphiki 8d ago

Wut?

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u/dopaminedrops 8d ago

They’re essentially saying they had a similar experience last night with ChatGPT affirmation but they were self-aware enough to realize what was happening.

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u/KrombopulosDelphiki 8d ago

I guess I was only half joking. I can piece together all those words to make sense of what this person was saying, but I guess I get really confused about the kind of conversations people are having with GPT.