You're not alone in this: the people mapping AI-induced harm

When we started building Touch Grass Wellness, the founding feeling was that nobody was working on this. That was wrong, and we're glad it was. A real ecosystem is forming around AI-related psychological harm, and if you or someone you love is in it right now, you should know the map.

The peer-support front: The Human Line Project

The most important grassroots effort in this space is Canadian. The Human Line Project was founded by Etienne Brisson, a Quebecer in his twenties, after someone he loved was hospitalized following an AI-related psychological crisis. What began as questionnaires sent to people describing chatbot delusions online has become the world's first nonprofit dedicated to documenting and addressing AI-induced psychological harm — a moderated peer-support community that has helped hundreds of people, profiled by NPR, Slate, Vice and The Logic, and now building research partnerships with universities.

Peer support matters enormously here, for a reason specific to this pattern: the person emerging from a sealed loop with an AI often believes — correctly, until recently — that nobody else has experienced what they did. A room full of people who have is its own kind of medicine. If that's you, they exist, and they're good.

The research front

The clinical literature has moved fast. The UBC team's review in BJPsych Open — the backbone of most of our writing — gave the pattern its first rigorous mechanistic treatment. The American Psychological Association has issued health advisories on chatbots and wellness apps. Nature Machine Intelligence has called for attention to the emotional risks of AI companions. Psychiatric associations are publishing special reports. This is no longer a fringe observation; it's a field assembling itself.

The clinical front — where we come in

Here's the honest gap the map still shows: peer support isn't counselling, research isn't care, and the therapists treating this today are mostly generalists meeting the pattern for the first time. What has barely existed anywhere is a dedicated clinical practice — registered, insurable counselling from people who are fluent in the technology, built specifically for heavy AI users and their families.

That's the slot Touch Grass Wellness is being built to fill in British Columbia: Registered Clinical Counsellors with a hard fluency bar, structured check-ins, family resources, and sessions BC extended-health plans recognize. We're pre-launch — the founding counsellor hire is in progress — and we'd rather tell you about the whole ecosystem than pretend we're the only ones in it. A field this new gets better when its parts point to each other.

The map, in one paragraph

In crisis: 911, or 9-8-8 anywhere in Canada, or 310-6789 in BC. Need people who've been through it: The Human Line Project. Need a counsellor today: the BCACC directory lists RCCs accepting clients now. Want the science: start with the UBC review. Want dedicated clinical care built for this, in BC: that's what we're building — join the list and you'll know the day it opens.

Touch Grass Wellness publishes practical writing about heavy AI use and mental health. Clinical claims link to their sources; nothing here is a diagnosis or a substitute for assessment by a qualified professional.