05/12/2026
“My Therapist Is ChatGPT”
First of all, follow .antonlima for honest psychiatry in a noisy feed.
The fastest-growing "mental health provider" in America right now isn't a person, it's a chatbot.
More than 1 in 5 U.S. adults have already used AI for emotional support, and the research is starting to catch up: some find real relief, others find serious risk.
As a psychiatrist, I think the conversation we're not having is more dangerous than the technology itself.
Save this for the next time someone tells you "I just talk to ChatGPT instead."
📚 Literature References
1. Moore, J., et al. (2025). Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers. Stanford HAI / ACM FAccT.
2. Iftikhar, Z., et al. (2025). How LLM Counselors Violate Ethical Standards in Mental Health Practice: A Practitioner-Informed Framework. Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 8(2), 1311. DOI: 10.1609/aies.v8i2.36632
3. Buck, B., et al. (2026). Psychosis risk, AI chatbot use frequency, and motivation in young adults. Journal of Medical Internet Research.
4. Rula. (2026). The Spaces Between Us: State of Mental Health Report 2026.
5. Østergaard, S. D., et al. (2025). Potentially harmful consequences of AI chatbot use among patients with mental illness. medRxiv preprint.
6. Zhang, Q., et al. (2025). Generative AI Mental Health Chatbots as Therapeutic Tools: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JMIR. DOI: 10.2196/78238