Jordan Peterson in a new interview described his spiral into drug addiction and suicidal thoughts and then undergoing a controversial Russian treatment that placed him into an induced coma for eight days.
The controversial Canadian psychology professor, who has spent much of his career railing against political correctness, spoke to the Sunday Times, along with his podcast host daughter, Mikhaila Peterson, about his downward spiral.
I dont remember anything. From Dec. 16 of 2019 to Feb. 5, 2020, the self-help author said of period he was sent Russia for treatment. I dont remember anything at all, Peterson told the British newspaper.
Peterson gained international fame for blasting academic safe spaces and feminism, as well as his refusal to use transgender peoples preferred pronouns.
He penned the international bestseller, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, in 2018, but was struggling with an addiction to benzodiazepines prescribed to him after a violent reaction to a strict meat and greens diet.
Mikhaila, 28, her Russian husband and Peterson began the diet in 2016, but all three had a violent sodium metabisulphite response, she said. It was really awful but it hit him hardest, Mikhaila told the Times. He couldnt stand up without blacking out. He had this impending sense of doom. He wasnt sleeping.
Peterson has previously claimed that he didnt sleep for 25 days during this time, but the longest period of human sleep deprivation ever recorded is only 11 days, the paper notes.
He was prescribed a low dose of antidepressants, which helped him recover, but the dosage was increased after Peterson sunk into depression following his wife Tammys cancer diagnosis.
And things just fell apart insanely with Tammy. Every day was life and death and crisis for five months, Peterson told the paper. The doctors said, Well, shes contracted this cancer thats so rare theres virtually no literature on it, and the one-year fatality rate is 100 per cent. So endless nights sleeping on the floor in emergency, and continual surgical complications So I took the benzodiazepines.
Tammy Roberts recovered from complications with a kidney surgery, but Petersons drug dependency worsened.
Dad started to get super-weird. It manifested as extreme anxiety, and suicidality, Mikhaila, who the Times reports seems to have assumed full charge of his affairs, said.
The anti-political-correctness crusader went to a Toronto clinic, where he was reportedly taken off benzodiazepine and prescribed ketamine, before checking himself into a New York rehab in 2019.
TheTimes reported that he wasdiagnosed with schizophrenia around this time.But Peterson subsequently released full audio of the interview to show thatMikhaila said he wasmisdiagnosedwith several conditions, including schizophrenia.
Well, I went to the best treatment clinic in North America. And all they did was make it worse. So we were out of options, Peterson said to the Times regarding the decision to undergo a controversial treatment in Moscow.
I had put myself in the hands of the medical profession. And the consequence of that was that I was going to die. So it wasnt that [the evidence from Moscow] was compelling. It was that we were out of other options.
In Russia, Peterson was intubated for undiagnosed pneumonia and administered propofol so that he could be induced into a coma for more than a week while medics cleared his system of drugs.
When he emerged from the treatment, Peterson had lost the ability to walk, along with large parts of his memory, according to the report.
He was catatonic. Really, really bad. And then he was delirious, his daughter told the paper.
After making some progress, Peterson was flown to Florida in February, where his pain and suicidal thoughts returned.
Mikhaila then flew her father to a private hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, where he was diagnosed with akathisia a restlessness condition linked with withdrawals of benzos.
Peterson, who also contracted the coronavirus during his time overseas, returned home to Canada to recover from akathisia. He told the Sunday Times that being labeled an icon of white supremacy and hate speech, by employees at his books publisher affected his mental health.
I was at the epicenter of this incredible controversy, and there were journalists around me constantly, and students demonstrating. Its really emotionally hard to be attacked publicly like that. And that happened to me continually for, like, three years, Peterson told the paper.
I was concerned for my family. I was concerned for my reputation. I was concerned for my occupation. And other things were happening. The Canadian equivalent of the Inland Revenue service was after me, making my life miserable, for something they admitted was a mistake three months later, but they were just torturing me to death.
When asked about the apparent of irony of turning to drugs after telling his followers that life is about battling through pain and suffering, the author deflected.
No, Ive never said that. Look, if youre a viable clinician you encourage people to take psychiatric medication when its appropriate. What I really encourage in people is to understand that it isnt useful to allow your suffering to make you resentful. And, believe me, Ive had plenty of temptation to become resentful about whats happened to me in the last two years, Peterson told the paper.
During the ordeal, Peterson wrote a sequel to his best-selling book dubbed Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. Its expected to be published in the spring.
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Jordan Peterson says he was suicidal, addicted to benzos