Being Harassed Online By An Old Coworker Who Has Recently Developed Schizophrenia. Is There Anything I Can Do To Protect Myself Legally If No Explicit Threats To My Safety Have Been Made?

Hi all,

Location: I am in New Mexico and the coworker is in California.

For the last three months, a former coworker (who I have not spoken to in nearly two years) has been posting about me online, across several social media platforms, upwards of 500+ times a day, everyday. When you refresh his account at any point, new posts about me immediately pop up. He was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, and I appear to be some sort of fixation since then.

Posts include old photos and videos of me, long passages about how we are in a secret relationship and are getting married, personal details about me (my family members' names, info about my past relationships, the gym I go to, etc.), and screenshots from ChatGPT affirming his delusions. He has made his lockscreens on devices photos of me, his username now includes my full name, he records videos directed at me, etc. He has been telling people that we are in a relationship.

None of the posts make it seem like he is explicitly threatening me, but the volume of posts is really frightening me. It is clear he is not in a right state of mind, and I worry for the day where this escalates into something that does threaten my safety.

He has been blocked on all platforms since this started, with my only communication being to ask him to leave me alone or I would get the authorities involved.

Is there any legal protection for me if he has not made explicit threats to harm me? Is the volume of posts enough to sufficiently demonstrate there is implicit risk to my safety?

I would appreciate any guidance, thank you!