CTV :"Jordan Peterson says 'I'm back to my regular self' after drug dependency"

The headline on the CTV News (Canada) website says "Jordan Peterson says 'I'm back to my regular self' after drug dependency". For those who haven't seen the video of the full-hour interview he recently did with his daughter Mikhaila, it would be worthwhile to check it out in order to get the full picture. This short article only skims the surface.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/jordan-peterson-says-i-m-back-to-my-regular-self-after-drug-dependency-1.5008292 

Jordan Peterson says 'I'm back to my regular self' after drug dependency

Jackie Dunham

CTVNews.ca Writer

@JaclynLDunham Contact

Published Thursday, July 2, 2020 1:19PM EDT

TORONTO -- Jordan Peterson, the controversial University of Toronto psychology professor and famed self-help guru, says he's recovering from a dependence on anti-anxiety medication after receiving treatment in Russia.

In an interview with his daughter Mikhaila for the June 30 episode of “The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast,” Peterson discussed how he started taking benzodiazepines in 2016, after a severe autoimmune reaction to food.

Benzodiazepines are a class of drugs used to treat anxiety, insomnia, epilepsy, and other disorders.

He later developed a physical dependency on the drug in April 2019 when his dose was increased to help him deal with anxiety over his wife’s terminal cancer diagnosis.

By the fall, Peterson had disappeared from public life as he sought treatment in North America. His daughter revealed in February that her father went to Russia for an emergency medical detox after treatment attempts in North America failed.

Mikhaila Peterson said the treatment her father received in Russia successfully got rid of the benzodiazepines in his system, but the drugs had caused “significant” neurological damage, which is why they sought further treatment in Belgrade, Serbia.

Speaking during the podcast interview, which was recorded in Belgrade, Peterson said virtually all of his remaining symptoms have disappeared.

“I’m still weak if I get up and walk around, I don’t have my stamina, but I can think clearly,” he told his daughter. “I’m back to my regular self.”

Peterson didn’t go into specifics about the treatment he’s receiving at a speciality clinic in Belgrade, because he wants to wait until he knows if the improvements he’s been experiencing over the past two weeks will last in the long term.

The author said he’s been able to write every day and he has been able to enjoy music again.

“I can create, not just edit,” he said. “It’s a real relief to get my love for music back and that’s like a switch’s been turned on because it was gone completely and now it’s back completely.”

Peterson also took a moment to warn listeners about the dangers of taking benzodiazepines for a long period of time.

“People need to know this. It’s not good. Those drugs are for short-term treatment of stress-induced anxiety,” he said. “It’s quite shocking to me actually that I didn’t know, despite my professional speciality, that I had no idea how catastrophic benzodiazepine use could be.” 

Thank-you for posting this, I wanted to post it myself.

This interview is a treasure trove of information and issues for discussion for benzos-affected people.

So for those who are interested i would provide a note of caution first:

Jordan is new to this, as is his daughter Mikheala and so they are going through some well known stages of people who are new, namely information overload initially and alarm-ism at the need to speak up. note: Whilst jordan is a professional with experience in this field. Mikheala is not. So they are grasping at straws in the 'trying to frantically find a solution' phase. So there is a real sense of throwing spaghetti at the wall in the information provided by Mikheala in the description of this video.

This is what the chaos of benzo withdrawal looks like when you first start going through withdrawal.

Mikheala has mixed in her links all of the folllowing, celebrity death related with mortality studies, dementia links found within studies, the Ashton protocol. Anecdotes from PhD's personally suffering. mainstream news pieces, catatonia examples and possible allergies she has identified that her father and her have that dont seem to be linked to benzos. So trigger warning in their for new people or people in a wave.

So bearing that in mind, i want to say this is amazing in terms of benzo's awareness for this community. While i am saddened Jordan has suffered even more than he already has with his journey of depression and anxiety, if there was ever a community that needed a prominent public intellectual champion to raise awareness - This its most certainly this one.

The potential impact of his voice added to ours cant be overstated. This man is the most prominent public intellectual in the western world: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/opinion/jordan-peterson-moment.html in the eyes of many. And while i may not agree with him on all his views. I do believe he is the most prominent. He is up there with Noam chomsky and Slavoj zizek in terms of recognition. Frankly though he far outsizes them as a ubiquitous and global brand name.

Additionally, he is certified and educated as an expert within THIS FIELD!!!!. His opinion and perspective on this holds significant weight as a researcher within the field or closely related with h index's and citations to his name. Like it or not, the voice of the common people rarely matters in our times. In a celebrity worshiping culture like ours, where money, branding and exposure are more meaningful than substance, this is a rare stroke of luck for our issue. 

His video above has reached 1.6 million views. Thats 1.6 million people hearing, in pain staking gritty detail, about the devastational effect of these drugs on someone they are emotionally invested in. His other videos have been seen 21 million and 13 million times and his Joe Rogan Appearences are downloaded 190 million times per month.

In short, arguable the most listened to man on earth for the thinking classes who run all societies just started talking about benzodiazepines and the "appalling tragedy", his words. Thats huge.

My thoughts go out to him and his family, his story is truly a tragic one and one that is much worse than i anticipated. Hes been through hell, like we all have. I wish him strength and endurance for the hard road ahead. I also wish him divine or spiritual guidance from god to find an easier path than the one it seems hes been on. He seems to be relying heavily on the medical industry to correct their devastating intervention and i believe this will not provide him with any good returns. I myself abandoned medical interventions to let nature correct what i and the medical community had done, i think he is going to have to make his peace with the fact there are no solutions in medicine available, only deeper rabbit holes to get lost in.

Very interesting take aways from this video for people to think about:

• Jordan talks about how, people will expect that he should of known better given his qualifications and background within this field - how did this slip past the gatekeepers of the field, i.e. him and others - especially when he has preached caution and taking responsibility his whole life - an amazing self examination into how he as well as others missed this can be seen dawning on him in real time.
  
  • What was the name of the second drug he took? does anyone know. In the ED in Russia he was put into a coma with propofol and another drug. I looked for the second drug but could not find any confirmation on it. I think Mikheala got the name wrong. Their treatment was comatose the patient for 14 days and try reboot him after he went through withdrawal while in a coma!. this is insane. We need to be aware of this sort of bs as a community to make sure vulnerable people are not trying crazy treatment options like this in a hyper vulnerable state - or investigate it, either or, we need oversight dammit.
    
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      • Jordan claims hes found a potential treatment at the end and hes been very good for 2 weeks - i dont want to rain on his positive 2 weeks, but that just sounds like a window to me. either way we should follow this story absolutely to see if his treatment holds up. -- remember hes super rich so he can try everything out there if he wants. He is most certainly worth watching and following now just for this if anything. Sadly and sickeningly, this will be like a reality tv show of sorts for one of us. And in this day and age, that means people will really see what needs to be seen. He and his family have reached that level of celebrity where they share pretty much everything

     

    I will pray for him and all of us BB's. Sorry for the essay but this is such an important moment i feel for public awareness of this issue, that i feel all BB's should be following, even if its just from afar. Its a conversation starter and now everyone has a foot in the door because they know him, they know you and I, and validation starts to creep into everyones minds that this is 100% real, we are not in our own heads here, and this a public health emergency that needs to be fuking addressed NOW!.

     

    Hope your all well and healing.

     

    Pinky

     

    p.s. thanks for the post, sorry to leave this essay here.

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Hi pinky,

Thanks for your thoughtful comments. My concern is that few people will see your post because I've only posted the CTV report here, not the original video, which is what everyone is watching and commenting on. Maybe you can copy and paste your comments on one of the other threads where the original video with JP and his daughter appears. I think there are at least two or three going now.

Here's one of them:

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=242700.0

Cool lapis thanks for the heads up

great suggestion. will get on that post haste