Jordan Peterson’s family is offering a sobering update on the Canadian psychologist and podcaster’s health, describing a condition they say has left him in severe pain and away from work.
According to a May 4 report from the New York Post, Peterson’s wife, Tammy Peterson, said her husband is suffering from what she described as a “neurological injury.” She linked the injury to benzodiazepine use, a class of psychiatric medication she said he began taking in 2019 after she was diagnosed with kidney cancer.
Family describes severe daily pain
Tammy Peterson told the Post that Jordan Peterson is at home with family and supportive companions while dealing with tardive akathisia, described in the source material as a chronic-movement condition.
“Dr. Peterson is at home with family and helpful companions,” she told the Post. “His mornings are brutally painful and discouraging for him. Later, much later in the day, he sometimes feels some relief.”
She also said listeners should not expect an immediate return to podcasting.
“He is not talking about going back to work yet,” Tammy Peterson told the Post, adding that he “feels as if he’s in another realm of pain.”
Mikhaila Peterson issues her own update
Peterson’s daughter, podcaster Mikhaila Peterson, also discussed her father’s condition in a YouTube update late last month, according to the source material.
She described akathisia as “intolerable discomfort that makes people want to crawl out of their skin.”
“Without posting a video of me sobbing,” she said, “I don’t know how to describe how bad it is in words. But I’m gonna take a stab at it.”
She later called the condition “catastrophic.”
Mikhaila Peterson also offered a broader opinion about psychiatric medication injuries, saying, “In my opinion, psych-med injuries, and psych meds as a whole, should be considered a national emergency.”
A public figure with a large following
Jordan Peterson, 63, is widely known as a psychologist, author, podcaster and conservative public intellectual. He became a prominent voice in debates over free speech, political correctness and gender identity, and has also reached large audiences through interviews and podcast appearances.
The latest family updates do not provide a timeline for his recovery or a specific date for when he may return to recording.
