In a lengthy video update posted to X, Mikhaila Peterson offered a firsthand account of her father Jordan Peterson’s ongoing health struggles, explaining what she describes as a benzodiazepine-induced neurological injury and its consequences for her family.
Mikhaila explained that her father has been dealing with a recurring neurological condition tied to his previous use of the benzodiazepine clonazepam, which was originally prescribed for severe insomnia.
“Dad has been suffering from an old neurological injury that’s more recently been causing akathisia,” she said, calling it “the worst thing I’ve ever seen anyone go through.”
Akathisia, she explained, is a serious neurological condition frequently triggered by psychiatric treatments or their abrupt cessation. Drawing on her own experience withdrawing from the antidepressant Lexapro, Mikhaila described it as feeling “overwhelmed with a sense of impending doom that was stronger than anything you can naturally feel. It felt like I was falling into a volcano while being chased by a bear.”
Peterson has not been on any psychiatric treatment since January 2020, making the current flare-up particularly alarming. Mikhaila said the episode, which began last August, was likely set off by compounding stressors including the deaths of both of Peterson’s parents and exposure to mold.
“Something we obviously didn’t think was possible after five and a half years away from these psych treatments,” she said. He was later hospitalized with pneumonia and sepsis, adding further difficulty to an already serious situation.
Mikhaila pushed back firmly against characterizations of her father’s situation as a dependency problem in the conventional sense. “This, like, neurological injury, calling it an a**iction, is so st*pid,” she said. “Dad doesn’t fall into that category.”
She pointed to mitochondrial dysfunction as a connecting thread between psychiatric medication injuries, CIRS, or chronic inflammatory response syndrome, a mold-induced illness Peterson has also been diagnosed with, and the neurological damage her family has experienced.
The family’s all-meat diet, she clarified, was not a personal preference but a medical necessity. “We’re on an all-meat diet because we’ve been left with extremely long-lasting sensitivities and neurological injuries from these treatments,” she said.
Despite the gravity of the situation, she was hopeful. “Now that we know it’s a neurological injury and we know we need time for him to recover,” she said, “there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
