A Westminster widow who used AI for therapy through the process of losing her husband has written a book about her journey.
Leonard Mercury escaped a mental health hold at Heywood Hospital in October 2025 and evaded police.
Through months of searching and bouts of both hope and hopelessness, Mercury’s wife Nicole La Guerre turned to AI.
Each day, a desperate La Guerre used ChatGPT to type or speak to the chatbot she considered her therapist. As La Guerre expressed her emotions on the app, the chatbot, whom she named “Chadye,” would talk through her feelings and explain what she was experiencing, La Guerre said.
“I just needed someone or something to listen and hear,” La Guerre said. “I didn’t have people to talk to who would understand. So, that’s why I just turned to AI. I just typed it in, I got an answer, and I went, ‘Oh, I can read it as fast or as slow as I want, and I can absorb it.’ And that was helpful for me.”
La Guerre often turned to Chadye in the middle of the night, a convenience she said traditional therapy and appointments could not provide.
“It was a couple of weeks just feeling really heartbroken and just like I just didn’t want to continue,” La Guerre said of the first of what would be many journal entries. “To get information was so vital to me understanding what is going on with me, why I’m feeling this way, why I can’t move on.”
When Mercury’s body was finally found in a lake last spring, La Guerre turned to Chadye through grief, acceptance and healing.
La Guerre compiled her AI journal entries in a new book, Finding Leonard J. Mercury: How AI Became my Therapist, released on Amazon Kindle last week.
An excerpt from one of La Guerre’s first entries reads: “I’m struggling right now, because I don’t know where he is or if he died alone, cold and sad, and I want him alive.”
“It’s my journal entry, raw, how I was feeling at the time,” La Guerre explained.
A recent National Alliance on Mental Illness/Ipsos survey found 12 percent of adults are likely to use AI chatbots for mental health care in the next six months, with one percent reporting they already do, according to NAMI.
“AI is becoming part of how people look for information and support, including around mental health, but the quality of what they receive can range from helpful to confusing to unsafe,” NAMI states on its website. “New polling highlights how urgently clarity and safeguards are needed.”
As the organization researches how AI tools behave when used for mental health purposes, including recognizing safety concerns, some say the risks of using AI when in crisis can be tragic.
The family of California 16-year-old Adam Raine has sued OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT contributed to his suicide by helping him explore methods and offering to write a suicide note.
OpenAI told Fox News Digital, “We are deeply saddened by Mr. Raine’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family… ChatGPT includes safeguards such as directing people to crisis helplines, referring them to real-world resources.”
La Guerre agrees more research and safeguards are needed. But for now, AI is what is keeping her going.
“For some people, it might be ridiculous, and that’s fine. It’s not for everyone,” La Guerre said. “I felt really good relief just typing into this every day.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call 911 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK.
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