By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor Monday, April 20, 2026

Jordan Peterson is continuing to recover at home after a prolonged and severe illness that was finally diagnosed by doctors, with his daughter saying the past year has been “unbelievably hard” on the family.

In a detailed video update posted to YouTube on Saturday, Mikhaila Fuller said the 63-year-old clinical psychologist and author has been suffering from complications related to a prior neurological injury that has recently triggered a recurrence of a condition known as akathisia.

Akathisia is a disorder associated with extreme physical and psychological distress, in which those affected feel an intense and uncontrollable need to move.

“Dad’s been suffering from an old neurological injury that’s more recently been causing akathisia,” Fuller said, adding the condition is “the worst thing I’ve ever seen anyone go through.”

She said Peterson’s condition worsened in recent months.

“He’s still been really sick, and he got worse over the last few months,” Fuller said, explaining why the family delayed sharing a more detailed update publicly.

“I’m 25 weeks pregnant, and I wasn’t able to record anything without weeping the whole time until this week, apparently, and it stresses out my whole family to talk about it online, and there’s no point in adding stress to an already stressful situation, except that because we’re public, dad in particular, it’s also stressful not talking about it because then rumors get started, and then that’s all people wonder about,” she added.

Fuller said her father also battled pneumonia and sepsis during the health crisis, compounding an already serious condition.

Although Peterson has previously spoken about health struggles tied to medication withdrawal, Fuller emphasized that his current episode is not the result of new medications.

“Dad has not been on a psych medication since January 2020,” she said, noting the flare-up came years after discontinuing treatment.

Instead, she said a combination of stress — including family losses, relocation and environmental factors — likely contributed to the recurrence.

“This recent flare up … was likely due to the stress,” she said.

Akathisia, she explained, is often misunderstood and far more severe than commonly described.

“It is intolerable discomfort that makes people want to crawl out of their skin,” Fuller said, adding, “a lot of people don’t survive it.”

The condition was initially misdiagnosed, delaying effective treatment.

“We went to specialists … and it was misdiagnosed repeatedly,” she said, calling that pattern “super common.”

“This year’s just been terrible,” she said.

Now under the care of specialists familiar with the condition, Fuller said her family has some cautious optimism.

“Now that we know what it is and have proper doctors, it can be carefully healed again like it has before,” she said.

“Thank God for that. It’s just horrifying, and it’s so infuriating that these sensitivities, this damage that can cause severe symptoms like this, can last for so long after stopping psych meds and then, apparently, be re-triggered.”

Fuller said the entire ordeal has taken an emotional toll on the family.

“Every day for the last year has been Hell,” she said, becoming emotional. “I haven’t been posting podcasts regularly online, because until a few days ago, I’ve cried every single day. My brother is stressed out. My mom is stressed. I mean, it’s impacting so many people.”

Despite the challenges, she pointed to faith and family resilience as key sources of strength.

“Thank God for faith,” Fuller said.

Peterson, a bestselling author and public intellectual, has remained a widely followed figure through his lectures, books and podcast, often addressing topics including psychology, culture and religion.

Fuller said she does not plan to provide frequent updates but expressed hope for eventual recovery.

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” she said, while emphasizing that healing will take time.

“People need to know these medications and what they can do to people, especially long term, but not just long term, and they need to be aware of these before taking a medication,” she said.

In previous updates, Fuller has said her father has suffered from symptoms since at least 2017, though the family only recently discovered the underlying cause, and repeatedly asked for prayer.

In August, she announced he would be stepping away from public commitments to focus on treatment. By early fall, Peterson had spent nearly a month in intensive care and was, at one point, unable to communicate with relatives for weeks.

Though he doesn’t identify as a Christian, Peterson often discusses faith and has interviewed numerous Christian leaders, including Dallas Jenkins, Greg Laurie and Tim Tebow. His family’s own faith journey has also drawn interest: his wife, Tammy, entered the Catholic Church in 2023, and Fuller has said she became a Christian two years earlier.

In a 2024 interview with The Christian Post, Peterson discussed what he sees as the benefits of Christianity, particularly when it comes to raising children.

“We are seeing a revival of church-going, especially of the more conservative type,” Peterson said. “And I suspect that’s probably also useful. Providing [children] with something like exposure to classic religious ideas is necessary.”

“By their fruits, you will know them,” he said, adding that it takes discernment to know who is truly living the Christian life.

“You have to pay attention to the fact that not everybody who says ‘Lord, Lord is going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,’” he said.

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/jordan-peterson-still-very-sick-amid-neurological-battle.html