>>24650358
Jordan Peterson took a doctor prescribed medication. There is no evidence he was abusing it or taking it in a higher dosage than directed by his physician. He experienced a severe side effect from said medication culminating in his seeking treatment in 2018. This side effect and symptoms related to it were not listed on the medication until 2019--after Peterson had gone public about his symptoms.
In a nutshell, Jordan Peterson sustained a neurological injury from his medication. This affected his immune system and his body began reacting to random foods he normally had no problem consuming. For example, people who experience the same side effect will have histamine responses to food and drink they were not allergic to in the past. Basically, their body has seemingly random immunological responses that vary in severity and degree. On top of this there are also adverse effects on the regulation of the parasympathetic nervous system. As far as the later is concerned psychological symptoms arise (e.g. a sense of dread/terror, lack of impulse control, sleep regulation, appetite regulation, etc).
When Peterson stopped taking his medication due to the above he experienced severe withdrawal symptoms. This is not due to an "addiction" but rather a physical dependency that commonly arises from wide range of medications. Akathisia is one of the worst of such symptoms as it creates an insatiable sense of restlessness. This is not simple anxiety although anxiety may arise due to akathisia which is itself a motor disorder. The reason this symptom is labelled "subjective" is because it is qualitative and patient reported. The pain one has during a migraine or a cluster headache is also "subjective"--this doesn't mean the pain doesn't exist.
Peterson sought treatment in Canada but was given a poor diagnosis and thereby sought treatment at a specialized facility that developed an experimental treatment regimen specific to the symptoms he was experiencing. He was put into a comatose state so as to negate extreme withdrawal symptoms and to avoid further neurological damage. The treatment was a success and in the years since he has continued with him life and found success in multiple endeavors.
People who want to attack Peterson try to label him as a drug addict. In so doing, they wish to bring in the connotations associated with addiction as a way to defame him. In realty, Peterson had a physical dependency on medication, as many people do, AND had a server side effect, unknown at the time, that compounded the dangers of simply tapering off the drug. No loaded language is needed to describe what actually happened; an appeal to the facts at hand alongside information relating to such experiences themselves suffice.
Here's a medical doctor who specializes in the treatment of medication withdrawal explaining exactly what Peterson went through:
https://youtu.be/C_32icvWpIg
