I sent a message to Unbekoming last week regarding Bill’s history of alprazolam use, and his suicide. Here is that message”
“I didn’t want to post this publicly, but I would appreciate your feedback please. My late husband began having a few panic attacks in 1991, after a number of major life events. He was prescribed alprazolam, which was probably helpful, for the short term. He took it for 30 years. He weaned himself off in 2021. I am wondering if he had permanent brain damage. He took his life on November 28, 2025, days after taking a fall in the bathroom and hitting his head on the edge of the tub. Did the previous alprazolam use contribute to his suicide?”
Today he wrote back in response, and here is that response:
Thank you for trusting me with this. I'll answer directly, because that's what you're asking for.
The short answer is yes — what you're suspecting is consistent with what the evidence shows, and you are not wrong to ask the question.
Long-term alprazolam use produces documented damage to the brain. The Ashton Manual — Professor Heather Ashton's work, drawn from decades running an NHS benzodiazepine withdrawal clinic — established that benzodiazepines taken for years alter the brain in ways that do not fully reverse when the drug is stopped. The body's regulatory systems are forced to compensate for continuous chemical interference, and after enough years of that compensation, they do not return to baseline simply because the drug is removed. Cognitive impairment, depression, emotional flatness, intrusive thoughts, and suicidality can persist for years after the last dose. This is called post-acute withdrawal syndrome, and it is documented in the medical literature even where its full implications are not acknowledged in primary care.
Thirty years is a long time. The longer the exposure, the deeper the damage. Your husband successfully weaned off in 2021, which took real courage — most people prescribed benzodiazepines for that duration never get off. But coming off the drug is not the same as undoing the damage it did while he was on it. Four years clear, after thirty years on, is not enough time to know what is recoverable and what is not.
Then there is the fall. A blow to the head — any blow to the head, but particularly against a hard edge like a bathtub — can produce a traumatic brain injury that doesn't show on imaging. Head injury is independently associated with sudden onset of depression, impulsivity, and suicidality in the days and weeks afterward. The pattern is well documented. When a head injury occurs in someone whose brain has already been altered by decades of benzodiazepine exposure, the two insults are not additive — they compound. A system working from a depleted baseline has less reserve to absorb a new injury. The fall could have tipped a balance that was already precarious.
I want to be careful about what I can and cannot say. I did not know your husband. No one can tell you with certainty what was happening in his mind on November 28th. What I can tell you is that the pattern you are describing — long-term benzodiazepine use, withdrawal that left damage behind, a head injury, a suicide within days — is a recognised pattern. You are not seeing a connection that isn't there.
I also want to say this plainly: he was prescribed a drug that should never have been given for thirty years. The package insert for alprazolam recommended short-term use only, even in 1991. The pharmaceutical company that sold a drug they knew produced dependence and damage did this. The regulatory system that allowed indefinite prescribing did this. He took what he was told to take, and he eventually had the strength to get off it. That is the story.
I am sorry. I know that doesn't change anything. But you asked a real question and you deserved a real answer.
We have this doctor in the next town over that specializes in SSRI’s. He has tons of housewives, their teenage daughters, and a couple of my husband’s daughters and several granddaughters. It blows my mind. And don’t you dare question any of it. Apparently, brain chemistry being in need of intervention is hereditary.
Daughter even had the nerve to tell that I should be on them. I’m like… hmmm… no.. I don’t even take a baby aspirin. I’ll pass.
Everyone wants a magic pill. 💊 A Magic shot, and they never research any of it.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “are you a doctor, where did you get your medical degree?”
Another words if your not a doctor, then you can shut up and do as your told or said doctor will cut you lose.
Have yall seriously tried to ask a doctor questions lately???
My husband had an appointment with a doctor last month. a specialist. They asked if they could use AI, we said yes. We then asked if we could use our AI, they looked at each other and said they’d have to check the policy on that. In the end they ok. So, I’m gonna start letting AI record these visits. 🤷♀️
Get out of the system, change the way you think about illness and dis-ease, and learn how the body is designed to heal itself… given the opportunity and tools.
Read & Watch here on Substack: Dr C’s Health & Wellness
You forgot this important part of the Jordan Peterson story. There was also a video where he tells others the get the bioweapon in a very manipulative way but I can’t seem to find it. Dr. Yoho if you find it can you share link it please?
I watched Dr. Peterson's Meteoric rise over the years, his wife's miraculous healing from terminal cancer, her conversion to Catholicism, his daughter's controversial carnivore diet healing, and then he kind of fell off the planet. I wondered what had happened. Thank you for filling in the gaps and the backstory of how dangerous these medications are and how diabolical the psychiatric Industry is. My niece is in her 5th year of a PsychiatryMD PhD program, and I just shake my head thinking of all the garbage that she is being taught. Since Covid, and realizing that the majority of everything we have been taught from history to medicine to politics to nutrition, has been one big bullshit lie, I grieve for the lies that I inadvertently told and taught my children who are adults now and have not woken up. also, Dr. Yoho, I'm glad to see that you are trending upwards on Substack and reaching more people.
Jordan Peterson's writing and speeches are brilliant and deep but his support for Israel during the genocide against the Palestinians is appalling and not in line with his teachings.
I wonder if “GABA receptor downregulation” is the mechanism or simply the measurement.
Six years of persistent neurological dysfunction seems difficult to explain by receptor numbers alone.
I dig in to mechanisms of action a while back using the context of how these drugs behave in membranes based on what Barry has taught me.
Barry Ninham’s work on self-assembly, interfaces, hydration, specific ion effects, membranes, and phase behavior suggests a different way of thinking about the problem. Perhaps prolonged benzodiazepine injury reflects a broader structural reorganization of the nervous system, with receptor changes being one downstream consequence rather than the primary event.
If so, the important question is not how to replace a missing neurotransmitter or rebuild a receptor. The question is how a biological system becomes trapped in an alternative stable state, and what conditions are required to restore the organization needed for coherent signaling.
It seems possible that “downregulation” is describing what we can measure rather than explaining what actually happened.
Some of us who are trauma informed believe that Peterson suffered fairly severe trauma as a child (which unfortunately he has carried forward with his own advice about children) and I do wonder what role all the unaddressed trauma (I do not have any speculation what it was, I just recognize the symptoms) may have.
It seems like he should consider lion's mane, psilocybin microdosing, meditation and other brain-rebuilding approaches. I appreciate his voice although I disagree with him strongly about the treatment of children; some of his interviews have been fantastic. I wish him well. I view his cynicism about institutions and yet the odd failure to protect himself as yet another possible symptom of the shame and self-hatred he still carries due to his childhood. A major but understandable blind spot.
Boy do I understand! I’m the youngest of six and I am definitely the black sheep, who would’ve known! I guess they were raised in another era. Often they tell me that my parents are not the same parents that they had. Lol.
I was a huge fan girl of Jordan Peterson. I admired his courage to stand up to the tyranny of authoritarian political correctness. Agree or disagree with him, he was so good at articulating really deep themes of the human experience and I learned so much from listening to him. I was absolutely crushed when I learned that he took the covid injection. I didn't expect that at all. And then when I learned that he went on pharmaceuticals for mental health, my view of him changed again. I get how it happened and I know not everyone is suspicious of things like the industrialized pharmaceutical complex, but he seemed so tuned in to fighting tyranny and authoritarianism. How could he not see it? I feel so bad for him and his family. So brilliant in so many ways. So naive in others. And his naivety has cost him so much.
It's a good reminder that one can be really tuned in to some truths, and completely taken in by lies in other areas. No matter how intelligent one is. Modernity is very complex. It's difficult to keep up with all the lurking dangers that surround us every day.
I hope he recovers so that he can share his talents with us once again. And I am grateful for the work that he has done and all that he has taught us.
I’m a huge fan of Jordan Peterson having followed him for the last 10 years.
I appreciate every word you share!!
My own best friend/ sister went through 20-30 years of generalized anxiety, depression, drugs, and many remedies including homeopathy and integrated solutions.
She committed suicide in April 2015.
I love her and miss her so much.
She was beautiful and was so smart and followed Weston Price devotedly.
Dr. Peterson and his family have gone through a lot of medical/health problems, and on their journey have made personal decisions that we might not agree with. We all have the freedom of personal choice.
I found out years ago that even when I made wise decisions, there was always someone there to criticize me. So I just kept doing my best.
Lincoln - Also, when we trust in God and Jesus, we no longer fear death as Heaven awaits us. During the covid hoax, I didn't fear getting that thing the mainstream media labeled "covid."
I sent a message to Unbekoming last week regarding Bill’s history of alprazolam use, and his suicide. Here is that message”
“I didn’t want to post this publicly, but I would appreciate your feedback please. My late husband began having a few panic attacks in 1991, after a number of major life events. He was prescribed alprazolam, which was probably helpful, for the short term. He took it for 30 years. He weaned himself off in 2021. I am wondering if he had permanent brain damage. He took his life on November 28, 2025, days after taking a fall in the bathroom and hitting his head on the edge of the tub. Did the previous alprazolam use contribute to his suicide?”
Today he wrote back in response, and here is that response:
Thank you for trusting me with this. I'll answer directly, because that's what you're asking for.
The short answer is yes — what you're suspecting is consistent with what the evidence shows, and you are not wrong to ask the question.
Long-term alprazolam use produces documented damage to the brain. The Ashton Manual — Professor Heather Ashton's work, drawn from decades running an NHS benzodiazepine withdrawal clinic — established that benzodiazepines taken for years alter the brain in ways that do not fully reverse when the drug is stopped. The body's regulatory systems are forced to compensate for continuous chemical interference, and after enough years of that compensation, they do not return to baseline simply because the drug is removed. Cognitive impairment, depression, emotional flatness, intrusive thoughts, and suicidality can persist for years after the last dose. This is called post-acute withdrawal syndrome, and it is documented in the medical literature even where its full implications are not acknowledged in primary care.
Thirty years is a long time. The longer the exposure, the deeper the damage. Your husband successfully weaned off in 2021, which took real courage — most people prescribed benzodiazepines for that duration never get off. But coming off the drug is not the same as undoing the damage it did while he was on it. Four years clear, after thirty years on, is not enough time to know what is recoverable and what is not.
Then there is the fall. A blow to the head — any blow to the head, but particularly against a hard edge like a bathtub — can produce a traumatic brain injury that doesn't show on imaging. Head injury is independently associated with sudden onset of depression, impulsivity, and suicidality in the days and weeks afterward. The pattern is well documented. When a head injury occurs in someone whose brain has already been altered by decades of benzodiazepine exposure, the two insults are not additive — they compound. A system working from a depleted baseline has less reserve to absorb a new injury. The fall could have tipped a balance that was already precarious.
I want to be careful about what I can and cannot say. I did not know your husband. No one can tell you with certainty what was happening in his mind on November 28th. What I can tell you is that the pattern you are describing — long-term benzodiazepine use, withdrawal that left damage behind, a head injury, a suicide within days — is a recognised pattern. You are not seeing a connection that isn't there.
I also want to say this plainly: he was prescribed a drug that should never have been given for thirty years. The package insert for alprazolam recommended short-term use only, even in 1991. The pharmaceutical company that sold a drug they knew produced dependence and damage did this. The regulatory system that allowed indefinite prescribing did this. He took what he was told to take, and he eventually had the strength to get off it. That is the story.
I am sorry. I know that doesn't change anything. But you asked a real question and you deserved a real answer.
Unbekoming
Deb, thank you for sharing this very thoughtful response; it feels like your instincts could certainly be correct.
We have this doctor in the next town over that specializes in SSRI’s. He has tons of housewives, their teenage daughters, and a couple of my husband’s daughters and several granddaughters. It blows my mind. And don’t you dare question any of it. Apparently, brain chemistry being in need of intervention is hereditary.
Daughter even had the nerve to tell that I should be on them. I’m like… hmmm… no.. I don’t even take a baby aspirin. I’ll pass.
Everyone wants a magic pill. 💊 A Magic shot, and they never research any of it.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “are you a doctor, where did you get your medical degree?”
Another words if your not a doctor, then you can shut up and do as your told or said doctor will cut you lose.
Have yall seriously tried to ask a doctor questions lately???
My husband had an appointment with a doctor last month. a specialist. They asked if they could use AI, we said yes. We then asked if we could use our AI, they looked at each other and said they’d have to check the policy on that. In the end they ok. So, I’m gonna start letting AI record these visits. 🤷♀️
Get out of the system, change the way you think about illness and dis-ease, and learn how the body is designed to heal itself… given the opportunity and tools.
Read & Watch here on Substack: Dr C’s Health & Wellness
https://substack.com/@masterreset
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LHcWTHht1mQ
You forgot this important part of the Jordan Peterson story. There was also a video where he tells others the get the bioweapon in a very manipulative way but I can’t seem to find it. Dr. Yoho if you find it can you share link it please?
I watched Dr. Peterson's Meteoric rise over the years, his wife's miraculous healing from terminal cancer, her conversion to Catholicism, his daughter's controversial carnivore diet healing, and then he kind of fell off the planet. I wondered what had happened. Thank you for filling in the gaps and the backstory of how dangerous these medications are and how diabolical the psychiatric Industry is. My niece is in her 5th year of a PsychiatryMD PhD program, and I just shake my head thinking of all the garbage that she is being taught. Since Covid, and realizing that the majority of everything we have been taught from history to medicine to politics to nutrition, has been one big bullshit lie, I grieve for the lies that I inadvertently told and taught my children who are adults now and have not woken up. also, Dr. Yoho, I'm glad to see that you are trending upwards on Substack and reaching more people.
Jordan Peterson's writing and speeches are brilliant and deep but his support for Israel during the genocide against the Palestinians is appalling and not in line with his teachings.
Interesting post, Robert.
I wonder if “GABA receptor downregulation” is the mechanism or simply the measurement.
Six years of persistent neurological dysfunction seems difficult to explain by receptor numbers alone.
I dig in to mechanisms of action a while back using the context of how these drugs behave in membranes based on what Barry has taught me.
Barry Ninham’s work on self-assembly, interfaces, hydration, specific ion effects, membranes, and phase behavior suggests a different way of thinking about the problem. Perhaps prolonged benzodiazepine injury reflects a broader structural reorganization of the nervous system, with receptor changes being one downstream consequence rather than the primary event.
If so, the important question is not how to replace a missing neurotransmitter or rebuild a receptor. The question is how a biological system becomes trapped in an alternative stable state, and what conditions are required to restore the organization needed for coherent signaling.
It seems possible that “downregulation” is describing what we can measure rather than explaining what actually happened.
Those looking for an advocate or an advocacy plan may want to look here:
https://nursefreedomnetwork.substack.com/p/prepared-protected-and-heard-the?r=r6ahu&utm_medium=ios
I would refer him to Dr Cowans New Biology Clinic
Some of us who are trauma informed believe that Peterson suffered fairly severe trauma as a child (which unfortunately he has carried forward with his own advice about children) and I do wonder what role all the unaddressed trauma (I do not have any speculation what it was, I just recognize the symptoms) may have.
It seems like he should consider lion's mane, psilocybin microdosing, meditation and other brain-rebuilding approaches. I appreciate his voice although I disagree with him strongly about the treatment of children; some of his interviews have been fantastic. I wish him well. I view his cynicism about institutions and yet the odd failure to protect himself as yet another possible symptom of the shame and self-hatred he still carries due to his childhood. A major but understandable blind spot.
Boy do I understand! I’m the youngest of six and I am definitely the black sheep, who would’ve known! I guess they were raised in another era. Often they tell me that my parents are not the same parents that they had. Lol.
I was a huge fan girl of Jordan Peterson. I admired his courage to stand up to the tyranny of authoritarian political correctness. Agree or disagree with him, he was so good at articulating really deep themes of the human experience and I learned so much from listening to him. I was absolutely crushed when I learned that he took the covid injection. I didn't expect that at all. And then when I learned that he went on pharmaceuticals for mental health, my view of him changed again. I get how it happened and I know not everyone is suspicious of things like the industrialized pharmaceutical complex, but he seemed so tuned in to fighting tyranny and authoritarianism. How could he not see it? I feel so bad for him and his family. So brilliant in so many ways. So naive in others. And his naivety has cost him so much.
It's a good reminder that one can be really tuned in to some truths, and completely taken in by lies in other areas. No matter how intelligent one is. Modernity is very complex. It's difficult to keep up with all the lurking dangers that surround us every day.
I hope he recovers so that he can share his talents with us once again. And I am grateful for the work that he has done and all that he has taught us.
Dr yoho;
I’m a huge fan of Jordan Peterson having followed him for the last 10 years.
I appreciate every word you share!!
My own best friend/ sister went through 20-30 years of generalized anxiety, depression, drugs, and many remedies including homeopathy and integrated solutions.
She committed suicide in April 2015.
I love her and miss her so much.
She was beautiful and was so smart and followed Weston Price devotedly.
Onward🙌🏻🇺🇸👎🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
We can all learn from Dr. Peterson's medical journey, instead of judging him. He is still a strong role model for us - what to do and what not to do.
Everyone is human and we all make mistakes.
Dr. Peterson and his family have gone through a lot of medical/health problems, and on their journey have made personal decisions that we might not agree with. We all have the freedom of personal choice.
I found out years ago that even when I made wise decisions, there was always someone there to criticize me. So I just kept doing my best.
Lincoln - Also, when we trust in God and Jesus, we no longer fear death as Heaven awaits us. During the covid hoax, I didn't fear getting that thing the mainstream media labeled "covid."
A lot of us saw through their lies.