[alx_the_new_guy]

>exploiting lonely people

>lack of self control

Not quite "been there, done that", but anecdotally being lonely/alone accelerates and reinforces any "mental illness"-ish behavior. "Eating your own dogfood" type of thing, but in a bad way - it's a positive feedback loop, probably with combination of feeling guilt, inferior, being ashamed, not wanting to admit you messed up, and so on.

What I'm saying is - could be you, or me, or anyone else really. If the psyop is good enough and there isn't an external support structure to provide a "reality check", it's actually fairly easy to fall into this rabbit hole.