Canadian Clinical psychologist and University of Toronto professor Jordan B. Peterson has checked himself into rehab in New York, his daughter shared on Thursday, Sept. 19.
Peterson, 57, was prescribed antidepressants as well as clonazepam by a family doctor to help him with the stress he faced following wife Tammy Peterson’s cancer diagnosis late April this year, and later, surgical complications she faced after a kidney removal, Mikhaila said in the 8-minute video.
After Tammy recovered, Peterson tried to quit taking clonazepam over the summer, she said.
“Turns out clonazepam is hell to get off of,” Mikhaila said, adding that when her dad tried to stop cold-turkey after speaking to a psychiatrist, he experienced “horrific physical withdrawal and anxiety.”
Mikhaila said that such symptoms are “more than common with clonazepam” and explained that her father is in New York at an unidentified rehab clinic because he is trying to get off the drug by using other medications.
“He wanted to get off of this as quickly as possible and honestly needs the medical help,” she said.
The 27-year-old warned her viewers to “be very wary of clonazepam.”
“The situation is really sad. He looks like a lost puppy. But it’ll only last while he gets this horrible medication out of his system and then we’ll be good to go again,” she said. “The important part of this entire thing is mum is going to be okay and that’s where most of the stress was.”
FDA: Essential to Discontinue Clonazepam ‘Gradually’
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that when people try to stop taking clonazepam, doing so gradually is “essential.”In his university lectures and other talks, Peterson has shared about his depression, which he has struggled with since his teens.
This year, following wife Tammy’s cancer diagnosis, Peterson suspended a speaking tour for his book “12 Rules for Life.” Peterson also delayed the publication of another book.
