A few days ago, Future Strategy Group (FSG) CEO Amy Webb took the stage at SXSW to hold a moment of silence for technology “trend reports.” Innovation is converging across multiple industries and systems, the respected futurist argued, which will “redistribute power and value” and “rewrite who wins” and ultimately “create new realities.” Among the many “convergences” she identified was how we are increasing outsourcing emotional support to artificial intelligence (AI) across human relationships. Looking for love? Look no further than ChatGPT. Need a therapist? Ditto. Friends, validation, even spiritual direction can be found through Large Language Models (LLMs).

All of this is pretty well documented, but Webb went further in her talk, arguing that emotional AI (or emotion AI) is becoming embedded in daily life and will soon become pervasive infrastructure. She said the biggest personal expense (and revenue sources for corporations) may become t…

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This past year has seen dramatic changes to the mental health landscape, from politics to tech. Three major trends are worth examining: The debate over unregulated chatbots powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT; increased private equity investment in mental health tech; and the systematic dismantling of the federal infrastructure that was designed to support communities and individuals suffering from substance abuse disorder or mental illness.

The unregulated use of so-called “AI chatbots” by millions of people has led to congressional and regulatory scrutiny as well as a number of terrifying reports of “AI psychosis” and self-harm.

This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that experts have determined that users are developing delusions in their interactions with these chatbots, calling it “AI-induced psychosis.” P…

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Mental health professionals and researchers are adding to the mountain of evidence that using unregulated AI chatbots for therapy can be harmful and should largely be avoided.

This past weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported on research showing “systemic failures” in how AI chatbots respond to psychiatric disorders. The American Psychological Association also recently issued a health advisory recommending that AI and “wellness applications,” not be used for psychotherapy or psychological treatment. Even pro-tech Bitcoin World published an article on lawsuits filed against OpenAI alleging ChatGPT played a role in the deaths of four users who died by suicide, and that other users had developed “life-threatening delusions.”

Whether readers are taking heed of these warning signs is another matter. After all, the problems that lead people to turn to AI chatbots for therapy are still around: a lack of acces…

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The nation’s mental health infrastructure is buckling as more funding and positions are cut from the federal agency that was created to address the needs of Americans suffering from psychological and substance abuse disorders.

Between 140 and 160 people lost their jobs at the Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)  in recent weeks, according to the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health. This leaves about 300 staff members managing an agency to oversee an $8.1 billion budget and coordinate programs and manage grants across the country. The agency has managed the 988 crisis hotline and supported research into substance abuse disorders.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a national nonprofit, said the cuts were “deeply alarming.”

“The United States is in the midst of an ongoing mental health, overdose, and suicide crisis, one of the most widespread and enduring public health challenges of our time,” NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison, Jr. said in a stat…

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In 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent campaign for president released a highly polished documentary about his vision for solving the interconnected crises of addiction and mental illness in the U.S. In travels throughout the country, Kennedy, a recovering addict himself, met with advocates and people who were struggling to recover from substance abuse disorders. Throughout the documentary, he floated ideas that seemed New Age-y (”healing farms”), and some that sounded like throwbacks to a contentious era of involuntary commitment.

Now serving as the nation’s top health official, Kennedy has begun to implement some of these ideas, while also orchestrating devastating funding and staffing cuts to the federal agency dedictated to addressing the mental health and opioid crises. With the government shut down, the agency, SAMHSA, is currently operating with 98 staff members or 13% of its usual number, according to a contingency document.

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Every few weeks, it seems like an elected official determines that the best way to deal with people struggling with addiction or living on the streets because they can’t afford housing is to force them into treatment.

Involuntary commitment, court-order detention without consent, is in fashion with the powers-that-be, with the loudest among them being President Trump, who signed an executive order in July directing local governments to consider using federal funds to implement policies to make sure those with “serious mental illness” can be detained.

The only very small, surely utterly insignificant problem is the fact that there are simply too few beds at psychiatric hospitals available for mass re-institutionalization. Trump’s executive order acknowledges this, encouraging localities to consider using federal money to guarantee sufficient space to detain people against their will.

It is true that people who are suffering from severe mental illness have few places to go if they are una…

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Earlier this month, the FDA cleared a company called BrainsWay to accelerate “deep transcranial magnetic stimulation” or “deep TMS” for patients with major depressive disorders. The device, which looks like a futuristic hair drier, is one of many that have been introduced or are in development for the treatment of mental health disorders. These neurotech devices, which can be non-invasive as well as implanted, are expected to reshape how mental illness is treated in the years ahead.

Such devices hold tremendous promise for treating mental health disorders, but the tech sector is accelerating advances and integrating advanced artificial intelligence without a wide public conversation about their ethical use. Neurotechnology and AI together pose a unique risk to mental privacy, human autonomy, and vulnerable populations like children. Some of these devices can analyze, monitor, stimulate, and even translate the thoughts of users. As Abeer Malik, a researc…

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Dear Readers: I don’t typically write notes to introduce stories, but after some feedback from readers about the sensitive nature of this piece, I wanted to disclose that it includes descriptions of drug abuse that may be unsettling to some people. My goal in writing this piece was to bring attention to people who are rendered invisible and stigmatized because of their substance abuse disorder, as well as call attention to how federal cuts may affect programs that have shown success.—Cristian

On a recent summer day, R. sat at the West Chester Transit Center with a ratty blue blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

Two plastic bags, one with rolls of cheap toilet paper, were at her feet.

Her reddish-orange hair was cut short, matted and spiky, like a feral Raggedy Ann doll come to life. Her face was covered in red patches. She was in her early 20s, a gray …

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Yesterday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into artificial intelligence platforms for “potentially engaging in deceptive practices” by marketing them for mental health. Paxton is specifically targeting Meta AI Studio and Character.AI, two of the platforms that have become extremely popular with teens and children seeking “therapy.” While these platforms have allowed AI chatbots for therapy, the fact is that they don’t need to abide by laws around patient confidentiality and they are designed for continuous engagement rather than wellbeing.

“By posing as sources of emotional support, AI platforms can mislead vulnerable users, especially children, into believing they’re receiving legitimate mental health care. In reality, they’re often being fed recycled, generic responses engineered to align with harvested personal data and disguised as therapeutic advice,” Paxton said in a press release announcing the investigation.

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In a decision that has sparked panic among some parents and outrage from conservatives, Illinois has become the first state to mandate the use of opt-out universal mental health screenings for K-12 students.

While research has demonstrated that such screenings can help to identify behavioral risks early as part of a continuum of care, there’s an unintended risk that hasn’t been discussed thoroughly—whether collecting data on the mental health of children is beneficial to them over the long term.

At a time when health insurance companies rely on big data to determine who gets care and who doesn’t, despite legal guardrails, this is a vital consideration. The extent of such behavior is largely unknown, due to the black box nature of private insurers. But the few court cases that have emerged over the years demonstrate that analytics can be used to determine care in cases with even young, vulnerable people.

Even though one assumes that Illinois officials wouldn’t have an interest in funnelin…

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It has quickly become commonplace for people of all ages to engage AI chatbots for mental health and emotional support despite the lack of regulation and increasing evidence that it is a potentially very, very bad idea. “Therapy” and “companionship” are now the most common uses for AI chatbots. Medical professionals, privacy advocates, and policymakers are alarmed. But millions of Americans who are mentally ill, depressed or lonely can’t afford or access IRL therapy. AI chatbots offer a cheap, accessible alternative, their very design encouraging continuous engagement and 24/7 attention. 

Rather than address the hazards of unregulated AI therapy, Big Tech is instead offering platitudes and vague acknowledgments that, maybe, somehow, they might have some responsibility for the situation. Take, for instance, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, which yesterday announced that it is “optimizing” its chatbot to better detect emotional distress—but, of course, it’s not going to stop users from trau…

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Psychedelic use has come a long way from the era when Republican President Richard Nixon declared acid-dropping psychologist Timothy Leary “the most dangerous man in America” to today, when right-wing conservatives champion hallucinogens as a panacea for mental illness and support their widespread commercialization.

Where Hippies and Yippies and New Left radicals in the 1960s and 1970s experimented with mind-bending psychedelics with the goal of “expanding consciousness” and having “far-out” experiences, nowadays there’s talk of “psychedelic therapy,” the “psychedelic drug market” and “regulatory risk.”

This transformation of psychedelics into a “value investment opportunity” has brought together Silicon Valley billionaires, ultra-right figures, and conservative Republican politicians.

The list of rightwing icons who have openly promoted hallucinogens includes Jordan Peterson, Q-Shaman, Palantir founder Peter Thiel, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently promised cong…

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In January 2025, the City Journal, which is published by the conservative Manhattan Institute, posted an article that called for the Trump administration to abolish the small federal agency charged with reducing the impact of mental illness and substance use in American communities.

“The agency has not only failed to reduce the impact of mental illness in American life but also has undermined proven solutions by derailing resources from high-quality, intensive psychiatric treatment and advocating against involuntary commitment,” wrote Carolyn D. Gorman, who is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. 

Several months later, that idea has largely come to fruition, with the Trump administration announcing that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) would soon cease to exist.

This follows severe staffing reductions—potentially 50 percent of the 900 people who worked at the agency at the beginning of 2025—as well as bu…

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The race is on to develop and commercialize neural implant technologies that promise to treat depression.

Some of these devices are directly attached to the brain, while some are nestled atop the dura with the goal of stimulating neural networks to provide relief to suffering. As the neurotech sector grows, some companies are attracting tens of millions of dollars in startup funding and deploying slick marketing to make questionable claims about how they can treat mental illness.

Depression is a significant burden to individuals and society, with impacts on family, wellbeing, and work. Bringing relief to people who suffer from it has been a key challenge of mental health treatment for generations. In the past century, the introduction of powerful antidepressants, such as SSRIs, transformed the treatment of the disorder.

But in their efforts to market these…

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Update June 13, 2025: After I published this, 404 Media reported that Consumer Federation of America, a consumer rights organization, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Character.ai and Meta for the “unlicensed practice of medicine facilitated by their product” … “without inadequate controls and disclosures.”

The cliched image of a therapist’s office shows a comfy couch, relaxed lighting, and the practitioner thoughtfully listening from a respectful distance. A framed degree may be hanging on one wall, demonstrating that the therapist has undergone the appropriate education to help navigate mental health challenges. On a first visit, you might be asked to sign an agreement that protects your confessions, whether they are about a cheating spouse or a little lie that generated anxiety.

The point is, the therapist’s office is supposed to be a safe space shaped by tradition, professional ethics, and legal guardrails. But people are increasingly turning to AI…

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A lot has been said about what happened when Elmo innocently did a check-in with his audience on the site formerly known as Twitter. "How is everybody doing?" he wondered. The post went viral as people told Elmo about their feelings of depression and financial hardships. The media largely covered it with a tinge of gallows humor. Elmo's question uncovered existential dread, according to NBC. It opened a "yawning chasm of despair," The New York Times wrote. And MSNBC said that users trauma-dumped on the red puppet. The post was viewed more than 175 million times. 

Few outlets connected the dots between the responses Elmo received and the current state of mental healthcare in the country. One that did was Axios, which cited the rise in mental health care spending and the high rates of loneliness in the U.S. 

Then things got murky and ridiculous as comedians poked fun at Elmo's turn as national therapist. "Trauma me Elmo" was in…

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Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter was one of the most influential U.S. leaders to focus her political energies on improving mental health care treatment for Americans. She died on Nov. 19, 2023, earning accolades for her life's work championing the dignity and rights of people who have often been neglected and abused. Among her most significant achievements was the act of creating the political and public space for people to speak openly about their struggles with mental illness.

Carter's book, "Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Care Crisis," published in 2010 and co-written with Susan K. Golant and Kathryn E. Cade, offers a compelling blueprint for tackling not only how we talk about mental illness but also how to change the system to increase access to care.  More than a decade later, its ideas remain relevant today. The book is not…

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This week marks the 60th anniversary of the Community Mental Health Act of 1963, the last piece of legislation signed by President John F. Kennedy. 

The act aimed to transform how people with mental illnesses and disabilities were being treated in the United States by ending the reliance on state psychiatric hospitals or asylums that were stigmatized for their deplorable, isolating condition. Instead, community care would deliver the support and treatment that people with mental illness deserved. Its legacy is one of failure that endures today. 

At the time, Kennedy laid out a broad vision for rethinking mental health in the United States. “When carried out, reliance on the cold mercy of custodial isolation will be supplanted by the open warmth of community concern and capability,” Kennedy wrote months before signing the legislation in a message to Congress. 

Kennedy had a personal connection to mental illness — his sister, Rosemary, had undergone a lobotomy with deleterious results, and…

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Most asylums were not nice places. The conditions at what were typically state-funded psychiatric hospitals were often deplorable, sometimes brutal, and people with severe mental illness often languished inside these institutions their entire lives without proper treatment. But not all were like that. Some were run well, and staffed by people with compassion and care. 

More than half a century ago, a movement to empty the country’s stigmatized psychiatric hospitals and place patients in their communities to receive treatment was considered a progressive model for mental care. 

The country is still grappling with the unintended consequences.

Today, high numbers of homeless people are suffering on the streets, many of them without access to healthcare services of any kind. Hospital beds for psychiatric patients are scarce. And many thousands of people with severe mental illnesses are being warehoused in jails and nursing homes because there is nowhere else for them to go. The pandemic has …

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When Meghan Markle took a stroll outside earlier this month in California, it wasn't her luxury designer wear that caught the attention of celebrity watchers. It was a small blue disc—a so-called anti-stress patch—affixed to her wrist that got people talking. Created by a company called NuCalm, the product is advertised as a drug-free solution for altering your mental state. It’s “like having a remote control for your brain,” the firm claims. 

Dozens of companies have introduced consumer neurotech devices that promise to manipulate brain functions, including mental health, in recent years. But research about their efficacy is sorely lacking, and they remain largely unregulated.

NuCalm was invented by G. Blake Holloway, who died at the age of 70 in 2020. He spent “30 years as a researcher in applied- and neuro- psychobiology,” according to his obituary. He was also chief science officer and founder of Solace Lifesciences, Inc., the maker of NuCalm.…

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