Posted on 02/08/2020 2:39:44 PM PST by Jayster
A controversial psychology professor and self-help author who has spent much of his career railing against political correctness is recovering from an addiction to tranquilizers, his daughter said. Jordan Peterson, 57, emerged last week from an intensive care unit in a Russian hospital after being treated for a dependence on benzodiazepine, an anti-anxiety medication. Peterson sought alternative treatments in Russia after being repeatedly misdiagnosed in North American hospitals, including a clinic in New York, Mikhaila Peterson said in a video script she shared with Canada’s National Post newspaper. “He nearly died several times,” the daughter said, adding her father had been taking the drug for years to treat anxiety brought on by a severe autoimmune reaction to food. Doctors increased his dosage last year to help him cope with stress after his wife, Tammy, was diagnosed with cancer. The daughter and her husband took Peterson, a professor at the University of Toronto who has long battled depression, to Moscow last month; he was diagnosed with pneumonia and put into an induced coma for eight days, according to the National Post. She described her father’s withdrawal as “horrific.” In the past, Peterson said he was able to beat back depression 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 a 2018 interview. “The Twelve Rules of Life” author has been released from the hospital and is taking anti-seizure medication, his daughter said. Although he has trouble walking and typing on his own, he is “on the mend,” she said. “He’s smiling again,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Funny when I was younger, I could get away with a lot more. And my recovery time was much quicker. Now that I’m older, I noticed how much changes that my body went through. Oh well, haha.
On the up side, getting through a physical withdrawal period can force you to integrate every legit means you can possibly find into your life to reduce all other sources of anxiety and restlessness. Then when you're past the biochemical re-balancing ... you may be left with a set of healthy habits that looked back on years after make the hellish time worth it. That's how I feel at least.
But if you have monitored tapering and can relate to it as merely a biochemical thing going on in your body, and not let it trick you into thinking you're actually psychologically anxious - then I think maybe you can expect some crappy uncomfortable days (restless, irritable and discontent) but maybe not hell and certainly not all the time if you can eat well and exercise/breathe/stay moving ... and put to be the legit stresses that you have any control over.
Disclaimer: I am definitely no doc, and speak from only one personal experience from one perspective. If I'd had a year or months to taper in a controlled way, it wouldn't have been the hell I described.
Hope ALL your health stuff goes as well as possible!
Thanks! It’s good to know that others on here have faced the same battles.
Peterson should start speaking against benzodiazepines and the toll that they can take on a person’s life. Odd, that he allowed himself to get addicted to a drug that’s so popular with whores and queers for their human trafficking efforts (putting benzos in straight girls’ drinks and raping them).
Prayers up for Dr. Peterson. He is the closest thing to a philosopher in today’s world that I have found.
He has been the leading wrecking ball against political correctness, and a champion of common sense.
A very courageous man. Wish him all the best.
I know someone who has been on xanax for 20 years for panic attacks. I will say this: if you have panic attacks or anxiety, you are right. The world is a scary miserable place. Just learn to live with it. There is no help for it.
“Jordan Peterson has been a giant in exposing the fraud of post-modernism.”
Absolutely! It is an absolute plague on our culture and he has taken it on like a warrior.
“I wish him the best.”
Not only nice but a great man unafraid to expose PC cultural Marxism as a fraud.
I hope he has a strong, quick recovery. God bless him and his family.
Best wishes Mr. Peterson.
I’m in the middle of his book now and it is fantastic. I’ve enjoyed many of his YouTube videos. I’m sorry to hear this news.
I know a guy who’s tried to get off prescription opioids for months. He tries to go cold turkey, and ends up in a terrible, physically dangerous state. I’ve told him, the only way to get off the stuff is to shave a little off of ONE tablet every day, and throw away the part that he shaved off. (He takes 3 a day.) Do that for two weeks, then for the next 2 weeks, shave a little MORE off just ONE of the three, every day, and so on. After several months, he’ll then be down to two tablets a day, and he can then start the shaving routine on one of the two, each day. It seems ridiculous that you just can’t take two instead of three, and then in a few days, take it down to one a day, then stop after a couple weeks, but it just doesn’t work that way. It’s insidious.
He has been in my prayers.
“Valium has a long half life so it’s supposed to be easily to titrate down than some others”
that’s correct ...
here’s a link to some of the information about the Ashton Valium taper for benzo withdrawal (looks like the chapter 2 link):
https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzcha02.htm
When you have a bum leg, you can use crutches, wheelchairs, and even a scooter. What do you use when your brain does not work? I have been in a similar place and the helpless feeling is overwhelming.
Very good advice. Pure gold.
thank you
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.