Jordan Peterson returns home after long hospital stay

[joswift]

I had a close friend years ago that was taking 40-50mg of Valium a day for around 2 years.  When he stopped taking them he was fine for a couple days and then started having seizures.  One time we were standing in his backyard watching football about 3-4 months after he got clean, all the sudden he collapses and smacks his head on the concrete patio, the sound his head made hitting the concrete is something i can still hear in my mind today, it was terrible.  I thought he was dead but he was just having a seizure.  His wife had to be with him everywhere he went for almost a year, he would randomly blackout.  That's why i'll never take that stuff again, i had a script for it years ago for general anxiety, but i only took it at night to help me sleep off and on.

I dated this girl a long time ago who was on Klonopin for a long time, over 2 years.  She had been in a bad relationship with this guy and he was literally stalking her all over town.  She was having anxiety attacks because she was scared of him; he'd just show up places where she was and cause trouble and he was violent.  He ended up getting thrown in jail for drinking and driving, so she approached me about stopping the drugs; to be honest i dated her for 3 months and didn't know she was taking anything.  Well, she tapered down slowly over a 5-6 week period and suddenly had a freaking emotional meltdown.  Like she would cry ALL the time about everything.  It was insane, you could barely talk to her about anything and she would get emotional as hell.  I don't know how much of the stuff she was taking, but it messed her up badly.  We stopped talking for a while because she was just nutty.  She ended up living with her aunt for like 6 months in order to get help.  After 2-3 months she was fine and we started dating again, but damn she was like an emotional rollercoaster for months.

It would be fair to say that you were not "her rock"

[Titus Pullo]

How does Valium compare to Ativan/lorazepam on a milligram basis?  I've known folks prescribed the latter, 1-2 mg/daily for years; when they went completely off, they had withdrawal for a week or so.  After that, they said they felt normal.

I have been prescribed Ativan before.  Coming off wasn't easy but it didn't take all that long.  What is Peterson doing that I didn't? 

[Matt]

For how long was he on benzos and what was his dosage at peak? I don't know if this long a recovery is the rule or if he fared particularly badly. Maybe a 2 year taper, or whatever, might have been better, hard to say.

I think he went into rehab for Clonazepam around March of 2019, having claimed in his longer video with his daughter [when he was fresh out of the being placed into a medically-induced coma in Russia] that he started using benzodiazepines in December of 2016.

My brother thinks he was actually using for much longer than that, and was in fact on benzos in his TVO special appearance videos from as far back as 2011.

Allegedly, the quantity would have been equivalent to around 4mg of Xanax daily for the 2.5 years before he sought out treatment.

It took 14 days of a medically-induced coma in Russia, then 14 days of being a zombie that he said felt like one day before he finally got back to himself.

Benzodiazepine withdrawal seems to be one giant mess.  I strongly advice anyone on here to only take benzos as needed and to NEVER go 14 days in a row using them, and if you do, to ABSOLUTELY NEVER go 28 days in a row.  I don't even want to suggest what sort of schedule a person could get away with because of what a nightmare withdrawal seems to be, after having heard what Jordan Peterson reported.

[Matt]

How does Valium compare to Ativan/lorazepam on a milligram basis?  I've known folks prescribed the latter, 1-2 mg/daily for years; when they went completely off, they had withdrawal for a week or so.  After that, they said they felt normal.

I have been prescribed Ativan before.  Coming off wasn't easy but it didn't take all that long.  What is Peterson doing that I didn't?

I love that you used capital letters for the brand name, but lower case for the chemical name - I'm a big fan of proper form in writing. 

I think lorazepam [Ativan] is 50% the strength of alprazolam [Xanax].

Valium...that's a benzodiazepine that was in fashion a long time ago, and I think is considerably low on the strength scale, compared to other benzos.  It wouldn't surprise me if Valium was something like 10% of the strength of Xanax [making it 20% the strength of Ativan].

A friend of mine has told me that you can just use another benzo for withdrawal of a benzo [as in, Ativan can be used for Xanax withdrawal].  I don't know if that is exactly accurate...it seems too easy to me...but there may be some partial truth to that.

The way I put it is like this:

Benzodiazepines are the hot dogs of pharmaceutical drugs.
Opiates are the sirloin steaks of pharmaceutical drugs.

And benzos increase the risk of dementia, according to Jordan Peterson.  I really hope to never become dependent on them.

[Taffin]

I dated this girl a long time ago who was on Klonopin for a long time, over 2 years.  She had been in a bad relationship with this guy and he was literally stalking her all over town.  She was having anxiety attacks because she was scared of him; he'd just show up places where she was and cause trouble and he was violent.  He ended up getting thrown in jail for drinking and driving, so she approached me about stopping the drugs; to be honest i dated her for 3 months and didn't know she was taking anything.  Well, she tapered down slowly over a 5-6 week period and suddenly had a freaking emotional meltdown.  Like she would cry ALL the time about everything.  It was insane, you could barely talk to her about anything and she would get emotional as hell.  I don't know how much of the stuff she was taking, but it messed her up badly.  We stopped talking for a while because she was just nutty.  She ended up living with her aunt for like 6 months in order to get help.  After 2-3 months she was fine and we started dating again, but damn she was like an emotional rollercoaster for months.

Pfft!  A true GetBigger would have kept banging her regardless...

[Megalodon]

Peterson is a liberal but became a "conservative" voice when he spoke out against 40 different genders. Kind of like Mike Pence becoming a liberal leader if he said it's wrong to urinate on liberals.

He became part of the self-named, so-called conservative "intellectual darkweb" who people that don't know better fall for.

Someone that frail shouldn't be shaping minds.   

[Marty Champions]

Peterson is a liberal but became a "conservative" voice when he spoke out against 40 different genders. Kind of like Mike Pence becoming a liberal leader if he said it's wrong to urinate on liberals.

He became part of the self-named, so-called conservative "intellectual darkweb" who people that don't know better fall for.

Someone that frail shouldn't be shaping minds.

most are frail past 40 except trump

[Kwon]

Pfft!  A true GetBigger would have kept banging her regardless...

Her aunt no less!

[harmankardon1]

I'm not one bit surprised to hear of so many horror stories related to the use of these drugs, the useless Drs that blindly prescribe them would be the first to say "oh thats too bad" and do nothing when your stuck in a long term withdrawal..... That's why I would never take any of these meds.

As for Peterson there are obviously degrees for which individuals experience this withdrawal effect, he seems to be on the extreme end of the spectrum.

[joswift]

I'm not one bit surprised to hear of so many horror stories related to the use of these drugs, the useless Drs that blindly prescribe them would be the first to say "oh thats too bad" and do nothing when your stuck in a long term withdrawal..... That's why I would never take any of these meds.

As for Peterson there are obviously degrees for which individuals experience this withdrawal effect, he seems to be on the extreme end of the spectrum.

He just had to be didnt he, couldnt be just regular withdrawal, had to be worse than everyone else's..

[epic is back]

We wuz kangs

[Karpaasi]

As a doc the thing I hate the most of my job is to fight with people with the addiction to benzos. They will go extreme length to secure a source to the drugs. No one wants to stop and they will get really manipulative. "The last doctor was way more smart than you." Sure, yeah I'm a dumb fuck but you're still addicted. "No I'm not. I can quit anytime"

Most of my colleagues don't want to fight so many will just do what the patient wants.

[Titus Pullo]

I love that you used capital letters for the brand name, but lower case for the chemical name - I'm a big fan of proper form in writing. 

Why, thank you kindly, sir   I was a copy/line editor by trade

I think lorazepam [Ativan] is 50% the strength of alprazolam [Xanax].

Valium...that's a benzodiazepine that was in fashion a long time ago, and I think is considerably low on the strength scale, compared to other benzos.  It wouldn't surprise me if Valium was something like 10% of the strength of Xanax [making it 20% the strength of Ativan].

A friend of mine has told me that you can just use another benzo for withdrawal of a benzo [as in, Ativan can be used for Xanax withdrawal].  I don't know if that is exactly accurate...it seems too easy to me...but there may be some partial truth to that.

The way I put it is like this:

Benzodiazepines are the hot dogs of pharmaceutical drugs.
Opiates are the sirloin steaks of pharmaceutical drugs.

And benzos increase the risk of dementia, according to Jordan Peterson.  I really hope to never become dependent on them.

Possibly.

Benzodiazepines in general fuzz the user's memory, demented or no; but coupled with a genetic propensity for dementia, long-term use is almost guaranteed to frig with memory, long-term and short.  Couple that with alcohol use, and ... Oh, boy.  Bad things ensue.