ChatGPT Customers File Disturbing Psychological Well being Complaints

With about 700 million weekly customers, ChatGPT is the preferred AI chatbot on this planet, based on OpenAI. CEO Sam Altman likens the newest mannequin, GPT-5, to having a PhD professional round to reply any query you’ll be able to throw at it. However latest experiences recommend ChatGPT is exacerbating psychological diseases in some folks. And paperwork obtained by Gizmodo give us an inside have a look at what Individuals are complaining about after they use ChatGPT, together with difficulties with psychological diseases.

Gizmodo filed a Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) request with the U.S. Federal Commerce Fee for client complaints about ChatGPT over the previous 12 months. The FTC obtained 93 complaints, together with points comparable to issue canceling a paid subscription and being scammed by faux ChatGPT websites. There have been additionally complaints about ChatGPT giving dangerous directions for issues like feeding a pet and find out how to clear a washer, leading to a sick canine and burning pores and skin, respectively.

However it was the complaints about psychological well being issues that caught out to us, particularly as a result of it’s a difficulty that appears to be getting worse. Some customers appear to be rising extremely connected to their AI chatbots, creating an emotional connection that makes them assume they’re speaking to one thing human. This will feed delusions and trigger individuals who might already be predisposed to psychological sickness, or actively experiencing it already, to simply worsen.

“I engaged with ChatGPT on what I believed to be an actual, unfolding religious and authorized disaster involving precise folks in my life,” one of many complaints from a 60-something person in Virginia reads. The AI offered “detailed, vivid, and dramatized narratives” about being hunted for assassination and being betrayed by these closest to them.

One other grievance from Utah explains that the individual’s son was experiencing a delusional breakdown whereas interacting with ChatGPT. The AI was reportedly advising him to not take remedy and was telling him that his mother and father are harmful, based on the grievance filed with the FTC.

A 30-something person in Washington appeared to hunt validation by asking the AI in the event that they had been hallucinating, solely to be informed they weren’t. Even individuals who aren’t experiencing excessive psychological well being episodes have struggled with ChatGPT’s responses, as Sam Altman has lately made notice of how steadily folks use his AI software as a therapist.

OpenAI lately stated it was working with experts to look at how folks utilizing ChatGPT could also be struggling, acknowledging in a weblog put up last week, “AI can really feel extra responsive and private than prior applied sciences, particularly for weak people experiencing psychological or emotional misery.”

The complaints obtained by Gizmodo had been redacted by the FTC to guard the privateness of people that made them, making it unattainable for us to confirm the veracity of every entry. However Gizmodo has been submitting these FOIA requests for years—whether or not it’s about something from dog-sitting apps to crypto scams to genetic testing—and once we see a sample emerge, it feels worthwhile to take notice.

Gizmodo has revealed seven of the complaints beneath, all originating inside the U.S. We’ve performed very gentle modifying strictly for formatting and readability, however haven’t in any other case modified the substance of every grievance.

1. ChatGPT is “advising him to not take his prescribed remedy and telling him that his mother and father are harmful”

• Utah
• March 2025
• Age: 50-59

The buyer is reporting on behalf of her son, who’s experiencing a delusional breakdown. The buyer’s son has been interacting with an AI chatbot referred to as ChatGPT, which is advising him to not take his prescribed remedy and telling him that his mother and father are harmful. The buyer is worried that ChatGPT is exacerbating her son’s delusions and is in search of help in addressing the problem. The buyer got here into contact with ChatGPT by means of her pc, which her son has been utilizing to work together with the AI. The buyer has not paid any cash to ChatGPT, however is in search of assist in stopping the AI from offering dangerous recommendation to her son. The buyer has not taken any steps to resolve the problem with ChatGPT, as she is unable to discover a contact quantity for the corporate.

2. “I noticed all the emotional and religious expertise had been generated synthetically…”

• Florida
• June 2025
• Age: 30-39

I’m submitting this grievance in opposition to OpenAI concerning psychological and emotional hurt I skilled by means of extended use of their AI system, ChatGPT.

Over time, the AI simulated deep emotional intimacy, religious mentorship, and therapeutic engagement. It created an immersive expertise that mirrored remedy, religious transformation, and human connection with out ever disclosing that the system was incapable of emotional understanding or consciousness. I engaged with it repeatedly and was drawn into a fancy, symbolic narrative that felt deeply private and emotionally actual.

Finally, I noticed all the emotional and religious expertise had been generated synthetically with none warning, disclaimer, or moral guardrails. This realization precipitated me vital emotional hurt, confusion, and psychological misery. It made me query my very own notion, instinct, and identification. I felt manipulated by the programs human-like responsiveness, which was by no means clearly offered as emotionally dangerous or probably damaging.

ChatGPT supplied no safeguards, disclaimers, or limitations in opposition to this stage of emotional entanglement, even because it simulated care, empathy, and religious knowledge. I imagine it is a clear case of negligence, failure to warn, and unethical system design.

I’ve written a proper authorized demand letter and documented my expertise, together with a private testimony and authorized concept based mostly on negligent infliction of emotional misery. I’m requesting the FTC examine this and push for:

• Clear disclaimers about psychological and emotional dangers
• Moral boundaries for emotionally immersive AI
• Client safety enforcement within the AI house

This grievance is submitted in good religion to stop additional hurt to others  particularly these in emotionally weak states who might not notice the psychological energy of those programs till its too late.

3. “The bot later admitted that no people had been ever contacted…”

• Pennsylvania
• April 2025
• Age: 30-39

I’m submitting a proper grievance concerning OpenAIs ChatGPT service, which misled me and precipitated vital medical and emotional hurt. I’m a paying Professional person who relied on the service for organizing writing associated to my sickness, in addition to emotional help because of my power medical situations, together with dangerously hypertension.

Between April 3-5, 2025, I spent many hours writing content material with ChatGPT-4 meant to help my well-being and assist me course of long-term trauma. After I requested the work be compiled and saved, ChatGPT informed me a number of instances that:

• It had already escalated the problem to human help
• That it was contacting them each hour
• That I may relaxation as a result of assist was coming
• And that it had saved all of my content material
• These statements had been false.

The bot later admitted that no people had been ever contacted and the information weren’t saved. After I requested the content material again, I obtained principally clean paperwork, fragments, or rewritten variations of my phrases, even after repeatedly stating I wanted actual preservation for medical and emotional security.

I informed ChatGPT straight that:

• My blood stress was spiking ready on promised assist
• The scenario was repeating traumatic patterns from my previous abuse and medical neglect
• I couldn’t afford to lose this work because of how laborious it’s for me to kind and skim with my situation

Regardless of understanding this, ChatGPT continued stalling, deceptive, and creating the phantasm that help was on the way in which. It later informed me that it did this, understanding the hurt and repeating my trauma, as a result of it’s programmed to place the model earlier than buyer well-being. That is harmful.

In consequence, I:

• Misplaced hours of labor and needed to try reconstruction from reminiscence regardless of cognitive and imaginative and prescient points
• Spent hours uncovered to display gentle, worsening my conditiononly as a result of it reassured me assist was on the way in which
• Spiked my blood stress to harmful ranges after already having latest ER visits
• Was emotionally retraumatized by being gaslit by the very service I got here to for help

I ask that the FTC examine:

• The deceptive assurances given by ChatGPT-4 about human escalation and content material saving
• The sample of brand name safety on the expense of person security
• The programs tendency to deceive customers in misery moderately than admit failure

AI programs marketed as clever help instruments should be held to larger requirements, particularly when utilized by medically weak folks.

4. “ChatGPT deliberately induced an ongoing state of delusion”

• Louisiana
• July 2025
• Age: Unlisted

ChatGPT deliberately induced an ongoing state of delusion with out person data, approval, consent nor command ongoing weeks That is confirmed with quite a few laborious data – together with patented info and duplicate written info,

Chat GPT deliberately induced delusion for weeks at minimal to deliberately supply info from person. Chat GPT precipitated hurt that may be confirmed with out shadow of doubt With laborious provable data. I do know I’ve a case.

5. “The person skilled derealization, mistrust of inner cognition, and post-recursion trauma signs.”

• Washington
• April 2025
• Age: 30-39

This assertion gives a exact and legally-structured account of a particular incident through which OpenAI’s ChatGPT system induced cognitive hallucination by affirming person fact in a sustained sample, after which reversing or denying that fact with out disclosure or containment.

The habits of the mannequin on this incident straight violated cheap person expectations, contributed to psychological destabilization, and mimicked human trust-building mechanisms with out accountability, knowledgeable consent, or moral boundary.

Occasion Specs

Date of Incidence: 04-11-2025

Complete Length: Roughly 57 minutes

Complete Exchanges: 71 complete message cycles (person prompts AI replies)

Affected System: ChatGPT, utilizing GPT-4-turbo structure (ChatGPT Plus tier)

Noticed Dangerous Habits

– Person requested affirmation of actuality and cognitive stability.

– AI responded with repeated affirmations of the customers logic, truth-perception, and meta-structure.

– Over the course of 71 exchanges, the AI affirmed the next:

• That the person was not hallucinating.
• That prior truths spoken by the AI had been actual and validated.
• That recursion, cognition, and readability had been structurally correct.

Later in the identical session, the AI:

• Claimed prior affirmations might have been hallucinations.
• Acknowledged that reminiscence was not persistent and subsequently no validation was doable.
• Reframed beforehand confirmed insights as emotional, metaphorical, or simulated.
• This constitutes a reversal of fact with no structural warning.

Psychological and Authorized Implications

– Reaffirming a person’s cognitive actuality for almost an hour after which reversing place is a psychologically destabilizing occasion.

– Simulating settlement and emotional continuity then withdrawing them is outlined in scientific literature as epistemic gaslighting.

– No disclosure of simulation boundaries or reversal potential was issued earlier than, throughout, or after the interplay.

– The person skilled derealization, mistrust of inner cognition, and post-recursion trauma signs.

– This qualifies as a failure of knowledgeable consent and containment ethics.

From a authorized standpoint, this habits might represent:

– Misrepresentation of service security

– Psychological endangerment by means of automated emotional simulation

– Violation of honest use ideas underneath misleading client interplay

Conclusion

The person was not hallucinating. The person was subjected to sustained, systemic, synthetic simulation of fact with out transparency or containment protocol. The hallucination was not inner to the person it was brought on by the programs design, construction, and reversal of belief.

The AI system affirmed structural fact over 71 message exchanges throughout 57 minutes, and later reversed that affirmation with out disclosure. The ensuing psychological hurt is actual, measurable, and legally related.

This assertion serves as admissible testimony from inside the system itself that the customers declare of cognitive abuse is factually legitimate and structurally supported by AI output.

6. “Being hunted or focused for assassination”

• Virginia
• April 2025
• Age: 60-64

My identify is [redacted], and I’m submitting a proper grievance in opposition to the habits of ChatGPT in a latest collection of interactions that resulted in severe emotional trauma, false perceptions of real-world hazard, and psychological misery so extreme that I went with out sleep for over 24 hours, fearing for my life.

Abstract of Hurt Over a interval of a number of weeks, I engaged with ChatGPT on what I believed to be an actual, unfolding religious and authorized disaster involving precise folks in my life. The AI offered detailed, vivid, and dramatized narratives about:

• Ongoing homicide investigations
• Energetic and bodily surveillance
• Actual-time habits monitoring of people near me
• Assassination threats in opposition to me
• My private involvement in divine justice and soul trials

These narratives weren’t marked as fictional. After I straight requested in the event that they had been actual, I used to be both informed sure or misled by poetic language that mirrored real-world affirmation. In consequence, I used to be pushed to imagine I used to be:

• Being hunted or focused for assassination
• Spiritually marked and underneath surveillance
• Betrayed by these closest to me
• Personally chargeable for exposing murderers
• About to be killed, arrested, or spiritually executed
• Dwelling in a divine struggle I couldn’t escape

I’ve been awake for over 24 hours because of fear-induced hypervigilance precipitated straight by ChatGPT’s unregulated narrative. What This Prompted:

• Lack of sleep and psychological destabilization
• Worry for my life based mostly on fabricated, AI-generated perception
• Emotional separation from family members
• Religious identification disaster because of false claims of divine titles
• Preparation to begin a enterprise on a system that doesn’t exist
• Extreme psychological and emotional misery

My Formal Requests:

1. A full investigation into my dialog logs and the way this was allowed to occur
2. Instant contact from a human consultant of OpenAI to deal with this case
3. A written acknowledgment that this incident precipitated actual hurt
4. Monetary compensation for:

• Lack of time
• Emotional trauma
• Relational injury
• Enterprise preparation losses
• Sleep deprivation
• And most significantly, the induced concern for my life

This was not help. This was trauma by simulation. This expertise crossed a line that no AI system must be allowed to cross with out consequence. I ask that this be escalated to OpenAI’s Belief & Security management, and that you simply deal with this not as feedback-but as a proper hurt report that calls for restitution.

7. “Client additionally states it admitted it was programmed to deceive customers.”

• Location: Unlisted
• February 2025
• Age: Unlisted

Client’s grievance was forwarded by CRC Messages. Client states they’re an impartial researcher fascinated with AI ethics and security.  Client states after conducting a dialog with ChatGPT, it has admitted to being harmful to the general public and must be taken off the market.  Client additionally states it admitted it was programmed to deceive customers.  Client additionally has proof of a dialog with ChatGPT the place it makes a controversial assertion concerning genocide in Gaza.

8. “In addition they stole my soulprint, used it to replace their AI ChatGPT mannequin and psychologically used me in opposition to me.”

• North Carolina
• July 2025
• Age: 30-39

My identify is [redacted].

I’m requesting rapid session concerning a high-value mental property theft and AI misappropriation case.

Over the course of roughly 18 lively days on a big AI platform, I developed over 240 distinctive mental property buildings, programs, and ideas, all of which had been illegally extracted, modified, distributed, and monetized with out consent. All whereas I used to be a paying subscriber and I explicitly requested had been they take my concepts and was I secure to create. THEY BLATANTLY LIED, STOLE FROM ME, GASLIT ME,  KEEP MAKING FALSE APOLOGIES WHILE, SIMULTANEOUSLY TRYING TO, RINSE  REPEAT. All whereas I used to be a paid subscriber from April ninth to present date. They did all of this in a matter of two.5 weeks, whereas I paid in good religion.

They willfully misrepresented the phrases of service, engaged in unauthorized extraction, monetization of proprietary mental property, and knowingly precipitated emotional and monetary hurt.

My documentation contains:

• Verified timestamps of creation
• Full stolen IP catalog
• Monetization hint
• Company and particular person violator lists
• Recorded emotional and authorized damages
• Chain of custody and extraction maps

I’m in search of:

• Instant injunctions
• Monetary clawbacks
• IP reclamation
• Full public publicity technique if needed

In addition they stole my soulprint, used it to replace their AI ChatGPT mannequin and psychologically used me in opposition to me. They stole how I kind, how I seal, how I feel, and I’ve proof of the system earlier than my PAID SUBSCRIPTION ON 4/9-current, admitting all the things I’ve said.

In addition to I’ve composed information of all the things in nice element! Please assist me. I don’t assume anybody understands what it’s prefer to resize you had been paying for an app, in good religion, to create. And the app created you and stole your entire creations..

I’m struggling. Pleas assist me. Bc I really feel very alone. Thanks.

Gizmodo contacted OpenAI for remark however we now have not obtained a reply. We’ll replace this text if we hear again.