© GettyJordan Peterson
The "12 Rules for Life" author has sought help trying to get off the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam, his daughter Mikhaila Peterson said in a video posted to her YouTube account Thursday.
"I've never seen my dad like this," the 27-year-old diet blogger said in the eight-and-a-half-minute video. "He's having a miserable time of it. It breaks my heart."
The elder Peterson, 57, began taking the addictive medication to deal with stress from his wife's battle with cancer and other health problems earlier this year, his daughter said.
He tried to quit cold-turkey over the summer after his wife, Tammy Roberts, "miraculously" recovered from complications with a kidney surgery, Mikhaila said.
But he went through "horrific" physical withdrawal that has left him looking "like a lost puppy," she said.
"He decided to check himself into a place because he didn't want to stress mom out, wanted to get off of this as quickly as possible, and honestly needs the medical help," said Mikhaila, who has used her YouTube channel to promote her all-meat "Lion Diet."
Peterson is getting weaned off clonazepam at the unidentified rehab facility with other drugs that will help abate the withdrawal, Mikhaila said.
She added that she had a similar withdrawal struggle when she tried to get off Oxycontin as a teenager. At one point it made her feel "like ants were crawling upside down under my skin," she recalled.
Peterson has gained international fame for his strident critiques of academic "safe spaces" and feminism, as well as his refusal to use transgender people's preferred pronouns.
The controversial University of Toronto professor has been open about his previous struggles with depression, which he has battled since his teen years.
He's said he beat it back with the meat-heavy diet his daughter encouraged him to adopt. Cutting out greens altogether improved both his mental and physical health, he said in an interview last year.
"I'm better now probably than I've ever been in my life, and I haven't been taking anti-depressants for a whole year," Peterson said in a July 2018 episode of the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast.
Reader Comments
I understand JP intense vulnerable emotional crisis, which affected his rational mind, in a normal state he may have rejected such interventions,
I don't really understand, why a physician would prescribe such a medication, it has such a list of adverse effects alone but, combined with and antiperspirant, would turn any individual into an emotional cripple... and for a mind as brilliant as JP, it would be a great loss.
Thank goodness his wife and life long love, his pillar of support also survived her own health crisis. As JP has said himself "they have tried to take me down" . Well that could have been the case.
But both have survived, I am sure JP will turn this into a lesson and learning experience to be shared with all....I wish his wife continued good health and JP a speedy recovery....the youth of the world need him.
Just my thoughts.
Unfortunately the drugs they give to ease the withdrawal can often be addictive themselves and have serious side effects. It's a long hard struggle to kick them from what I've heard and read.
Best wishes to you Dr. Peterson in your recovery. Please use that sharp mind to realize the medical doctors may often mislead you in many ways.
A very courageous family.
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Not trying to minimize his accomplishment, announcing this openly and seeking treatment.
I remember my older sister telling me, after her marital crisis, taking Valium, and her experience when she stopped taking the drug, she told me it was a horrible experience.
I also remember another anecdotal experience, where a woman in the US, her husband was in the military, she had a difficulty adjusting to life in the UK, she was prescribed Valium, her milkman delivered milk, had to put it in the fridge for her because she was in such a daze (milk deliveries at that time were doorstep deliveries). She suddenly woke up when she she saw her children looking inkempt and uncared for.
And it was prescribed for the many in times of emotional crisis in the 70' and 80's, now that same formula as been remastered, and is even more mind numbing.
Just my thoughts