Hilarious considering his benzo addiction nearly killed him.

yeah that was surprising but a lot of people in different fields tend to trust what pamphlets say over what an experienced addict has been through until they realize that the addict and them are a long more similar than they are different. regardless, I got into drugs because I had low self esteem thinking it would “open my mind” enough to jar me out of anxiety. what I did not know is that I was treating the symptoms thinking it would solve the underlying issue of getting my stuff together.

Seeing him strung out on opiates (edit: turns out it was benzos) made you get off opiates?

If anyone with publically published material has demonstrated that they do everything for a specific purpose, it is Jordan Peterson. His body of work is plenty to demonstrate that he would not do something recklessly or without specific focus and purpose. We desperately want to derive causation from correlation, but that particular approach has created some incredibly negative movement in popular culture and society at large.

The man doesn't need to explain himself to overly left left wing redditors looking to try to take him down a notch or prove him wrong. I only metion redditors as your comment on benzos is the single most popular item to bring up in a discusson about him. His years of work and masses of public statements and appearances get dismissed with a single, ill informed snarky one-liner. The man is a treasure.

He was prescribed Clonazepam, not opiates.

Which I have just discovered are like opiates on steroids when it comes to addictive properties.

I don't really understand what you mean by that. They're completely different families of drugs used to treat different diseases, and have different side effect profiles. Opioids are typically used to treat pain, while Benzodiazepines treat anxiety disorders.

Addictive profiles was my meaning, Benzodiazepines (apparently using the abreviated form is offensive for some) making opiates look like a walk in the park when it comes to addiction.

Additionally there is a large boxy of work for prescribing Benzodiazepines to treat pain, as well as pairing the two for chronic pain, which seems to be an absolute recipie for disaster if used for anything but the shortest periods of time.

Your comment is nonsensical. You are talking about two entirely different families of medications.

My mistake he was hooked on benzodiazepines (lie corrected for you).

Which I have just discovered are like opiates on steroids. I am shocked that as a clinical psychologist, he was unaware that it was such powerful medication.

That said I think he has done some great work.

Benzodiazepines work on entirely different receptors than opioids. They work on GABA receptors which opioida mostly act on mu-opioid receptors. Please do not lie on the internet in order to attack people, it makes you a bad person.

It's used routinely in clinical psychiatry and psychology. And you listen to your psychiatrist, even as a psychiatrist and especially as a psychologist.

> prescribed a low dose of an unspecified benzodiazepine following an "extremely severe auto-immune reaction to food" a few years ago

Does your psychiatrist dispense medication for an auto-immune reaction to food?

Actually yes, when I was at psychiatry clinic the psychiatrist of the day dispensed all medication - including medication for stomach problems. Keep in mind that every medical doctor (including psychiatrists, but not psychologists) is trained in the entire field of medicine; they have specializations but that doesn't mean they can't solve other problems.