Mar 12, 2020 10:43 PM
(This post was last modified: Mar 13, 2020 07:58 AM by C C.)
https://newrepublic.com/article/156829/h...n-peterson
EXCERPT: . . . So it was something of a surprise to learn, in early February, that Jordan Peterson had spent eight days in a medically induced coma at an unnamed clinic in Russia. Peterson’s daughter Mikhaila, a 28-year-old food blogger, posted a brief but dramatic video claiming that she and her father had traveled to Russia in early January seeking an unorthodox treatment for his physical dependence on the drug clonazepam. Dependency goes against the core tenets of Peterson’s philosophical brand: stoicism, self-reliance, the power of the will over circumstance and environment. “No one gets away with anything, ever, so take responsibility for your own life,” he admonished in his bestselling self-help book 12 Rules for Life.
According to Mikhaila, he nearly died several times during his medical ordeal. After weeks in intensive care, he was unable to speak or write and was taking anti-seizure medicine.
The news was met with bafflement by doctors and laypeople alike. What was Peterson doing in a drug-induced coma in Russia? Based on interviews with medical professionals and a close reading of various statements that Mikhaila and Peterson himself have made on podcasts and social media, it is clear that Peterson ended up in Russia after an extended battle to wean himself off clonazepam. And it seems likely that Peterson, a self-proclaimed man of science, succumbed to the lure of a quack treatment—with devastating consequences.
Peterson’s saga has mostly been covered in conservative news outlets, which have relied almost exclusively on a disjointed narrative put forth by Mikhaila, a nutrition “influencer” with no medical credentials who claims to have cured her idiopathic juvenile arthritis, clinical depression, and a C. difficile infection by eating nothing but meat, salt, and water.
[...] So far, there is no evidence that Peterson displayed any of the so-called “aberrant behaviors” that define addiction. But again, all we have to go on is reports from his daughter, whose family has a strong financial incentive to spin away any suggestion that the man who made his name engaging in a kind of intellectual Spartan cosplay is hopelessly addicted to a sedative.
[...] Jordan reportedly unsuccessfully attempted to quit cold turkey at least once on his own, which may have set him up for future problems. “It’s called the kindling effect,” Bogunovic explained. “If you don’t detox properly the first time, every subsequent detox can be more difficult.”
Mikhaila also claims that, in addition to his dependence on clonazepam, Jordan suffered from a paradoxical reaction to the drug, which allegedly made him extremely restless. [...] The picture that emerges is of a man who was trapped: He couldn’t tolerate the medication, and he couldn’t tolerate the withdrawal. Mikhaila told RT that her father was looking for a place that had the guts to detox him “cold turkey,” a place where doctors “aren’t influenced by the pharmaceutical companies.”
Apparently that’s how a man who didn’t want to use drugs traveled thousands of miles to be placed in a drug-induced coma. Mikhaila said that her father was diagnosed with pneumonia “upon arrival” in Russia. If that’s accurate, then his medically induced coma may have had nothing to do with [...] withdrawal. If pneumonia is so severe that it causes respiratory failure, the patient needs to go on a ventilator simply to breathe. Because it’s so unpleasant to be on a breathing machine in an intensive care unit, patients are usually heavily sedated.
The more alarming possibility is that Peterson was placed in a coma as part of his detox regimen. [...] Another possibility is that Peterson’s doctors didn’t set out to put him in a coma, but that he developed such severe withdrawal symptoms from quitting “cold turkey” that they were forced to do so for his own protection.
[...] Mikhaila blames Western medicine for her father’s predicament, and not just because Western doctors prescribed the pills. Allegedly, Peterson’s pneumonia was the fault of a North American hospital, too, though she doesn’t say how she knows that. ... When it comes to recovery, there are no quick fixes. But that doesn’t mean the most arduous option is necessarily the most effective. If Peterson’s sad story has a moral, it’s that a drug problem is neither a dragon to be slain nor a sin to be ashamed of. It’s a mundane health problem that should be treated scientifically, without heroics. (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: . . . So it was something of a surprise to learn, in early February, that Jordan Peterson had spent eight days in a medically induced coma at an unnamed clinic in Russia. Peterson’s daughter Mikhaila, a 28-year-old food blogger, posted a brief but dramatic video claiming that she and her father had traveled to Russia in early January seeking an unorthodox treatment for his physical dependence on the drug clonazepam. Dependency goes against the core tenets of Peterson’s philosophical brand: stoicism, self-reliance, the power of the will over circumstance and environment. “No one gets away with anything, ever, so take responsibility for your own life,” he admonished in his bestselling self-help book 12 Rules for Life.
According to Mikhaila, he nearly died several times during his medical ordeal. After weeks in intensive care, he was unable to speak or write and was taking anti-seizure medicine.
The news was met with bafflement by doctors and laypeople alike. What was Peterson doing in a drug-induced coma in Russia? Based on interviews with medical professionals and a close reading of various statements that Mikhaila and Peterson himself have made on podcasts and social media, it is clear that Peterson ended up in Russia after an extended battle to wean himself off clonazepam. And it seems likely that Peterson, a self-proclaimed man of science, succumbed to the lure of a quack treatment—with devastating consequences.
Peterson’s saga has mostly been covered in conservative news outlets, which have relied almost exclusively on a disjointed narrative put forth by Mikhaila, a nutrition “influencer” with no medical credentials who claims to have cured her idiopathic juvenile arthritis, clinical depression, and a C. difficile infection by eating nothing but meat, salt, and water.
[...] So far, there is no evidence that Peterson displayed any of the so-called “aberrant behaviors” that define addiction. But again, all we have to go on is reports from his daughter, whose family has a strong financial incentive to spin away any suggestion that the man who made his name engaging in a kind of intellectual Spartan cosplay is hopelessly addicted to a sedative.
[...] Jordan reportedly unsuccessfully attempted to quit cold turkey at least once on his own, which may have set him up for future problems. “It’s called the kindling effect,” Bogunovic explained. “If you don’t detox properly the first time, every subsequent detox can be more difficult.”
Mikhaila also claims that, in addition to his dependence on clonazepam, Jordan suffered from a paradoxical reaction to the drug, which allegedly made him extremely restless. [...] The picture that emerges is of a man who was trapped: He couldn’t tolerate the medication, and he couldn’t tolerate the withdrawal. Mikhaila told RT that her father was looking for a place that had the guts to detox him “cold turkey,” a place where doctors “aren’t influenced by the pharmaceutical companies.”
Apparently that’s how a man who didn’t want to use drugs traveled thousands of miles to be placed in a drug-induced coma. Mikhaila said that her father was diagnosed with pneumonia “upon arrival” in Russia. If that’s accurate, then his medically induced coma may have had nothing to do with [...] withdrawal. If pneumonia is so severe that it causes respiratory failure, the patient needs to go on a ventilator simply to breathe. Because it’s so unpleasant to be on a breathing machine in an intensive care unit, patients are usually heavily sedated.
The more alarming possibility is that Peterson was placed in a coma as part of his detox regimen. [...] Another possibility is that Peterson’s doctors didn’t set out to put him in a coma, but that he developed such severe withdrawal symptoms from quitting “cold turkey” that they were forced to do so for his own protection.
[...] Mikhaila blames Western medicine for her father’s predicament, and not just because Western doctors prescribed the pills. Allegedly, Peterson’s pneumonia was the fault of a North American hospital, too, though she doesn’t say how she knows that. ... When it comes to recovery, there are no quick fixes. But that doesn’t mean the most arduous option is necessarily the most effective. If Peterson’s sad story has a moral, it’s that a drug problem is neither a dragon to be slain nor a sin to be ashamed of. It’s a mundane health problem that should be treated scientifically, without heroics. (MORE - details)