Canadian psychologist and author Dr. Jordan Peterson spent nearly a month in intensive care and was reportedly “near death” after being hospitalized with pneumonia and sepsis this summer, his daughter Mikhaila Peterson revealed in an emotional video update released on October 3, 2025. The 63-year-old public intellectual has been transferred out of the ICU but faces a lengthy recovery of several months or longer.
Critical Illness and Neurological Complications
“This summer has been incredibly challenging,” Mikhaila Peterson shared in a YouTube video, describing the past few months as “terrifying” for the family. Peterson was admitted to the intensive care unit after being diagnosed with pneumonia and sepsis, conditions that led to critical illness polyneuropathy, a severe type of nerve damage that can develop in critically ill patients. The family was unable to communicate with Peterson throughout most of September during his ICU stay.
“At nearly a month in the ICU, he has been moved to a unit for people needing less immediate care. Thank God for that,” Mikhaila stated tearfully. She added that her father was “near death” during the ordeal and has been “enduring unexplained neuropathy and weakness, among other issues, for several years”.
Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome Diagnosis
In August 2025, before his hospitalization, Peterson was diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), a condition Mikhaila attributes to decades of mold exposure. She explained on social media that her father has “a genetic predisposition that causes the immune system to have an inability to identify and detoxify mold and bacteria in indoor air“.
According to Mikhaila, Peterson’s symptoms severely flared after he was exposed to mold while cleaning out his recently deceased grandfather’s house. “CIRS is what has been behind his various health concerns, including severe allergies and significant food sensitivities over the years,” she stated. “He has been struggling with this condition since 2017, although we were unaware of its name at the time“.
The family believes that Peterson’s neurological issues stem from this chronic inflammatory condition caused by systemic inflammation from mold exposure over decades. “To clarify—this isn’t related to akathisia or medications,” Mikhaila emphasized. “He’s not taking any medication. It’s an immune dysfunction“.
Treatment Challenges and Medication Sensitivities
Mikhaila revealed that her father’s treatment is significantly complicated by his inability to tolerate most medications. “He cannot take most medications without experiencing severe paradoxical reactions, which limits our treatment options,” she explained. This medication sensitivity has been a persistent issue throughout Peterson’s health struggles in recent years.
Despite these challenges, Mikhaila reported seeing daily improvements in her father’s condition. “We are still in the thick of it, but we are now witnessing daily improvements,” she stated, though she acknowledged that “the timeline for his complete recovery is difficult to ascertain right now“.
Family Health Crises
The Peterson family faced multiple simultaneous medical emergencies this summer. On the same day Peterson was taken to the hospital by ambulance, Mikhaila’s newborn daughter was also rushed to a hospital by ambulance just hours later. The baby had previously been treated for pulmonary hypertension and heart failure in June 2025. Both Peterson and his granddaughter were hospitalized within hours of each other in July.
“Every single day this summer and now into fall has felt like watching a movie,” Mikhaila said, pausing to hold back tears. “I miss my dad. My brother misses our dad. My mom misses her best friend and husband“.
Spiritual Component and Prayer Requests
In her update, Mikhaila suggested there may be a spiritual dimension to the family’s health struggles. “We’re not entirely sure what’s going on but it looks like possibly severe CIRS and a lot of bad luck. Or we’re getting spiritually attacked. Or both,” she wrote on Instagram. “At the moment, we lack a better explanation for his neurological symptoms beyond spiritual attacks,” she added in the video.
Mikhaila asked for prayers from Peterson’s supporters worldwide. “My mom and I especially wanted to reach out for prayers to support everyone, particularly for my dad, my mom, and the nurses and doctors caring for him,” she said emotionally.
Professional Hiatus and Future Plans
Peterson’s hospitalization followed an announcement in August that he was taking time off from all activities due to his CIRS diagnosis. Mikhaila, who co-hosts her father’s Daily Wire program “Answer the Call,” explained that her father’s hospitalization followed weeks of declining health related to his immune system disorder.
Despite the severity of his condition, Mikhaila insisted that Peterson Academy, her father’s education organization, would continue operating in full force during his recovery. However, she cautioned that Peterson “won’t be back for another few months at least, probably longer”.
Previous Health Struggles
This is not Peterson’s first major health crisis in recent years. In 2019 and 2020, he suffered severe health problems related to benzodiazepine dependence following a prescription for clonazepam to treat anxiety. Unable to find North American doctors willing to place him into a medically induced coma as treatment for his addiction, Peterson traveled to Moscow, Russia, where doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia in both lungs and placed him in a medically induced coma for eight days, followed by four weeks in intensive care. He subsequently contracted COVID-19 during a hospital stay in Serbia in August 2020.
Medical Community Debate on CIRS
The CIRS diagnosis has sparked discussion within the medical community, as major public health organizations do not recognize it as a standard diagnosis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not classify mold exposure as a health effect linked to CIRS. However, Mikhaila expressed optimism that “this indoor air quality issue leading to Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome will become a commonly diagnosed condition within the next five to ten years“.
Peterson’s current condition, as documented by Wikipedia, indicates that as of October 2025 he remains hospitalized after being diagnosed with polyneuropathy and later myopathy, with his family describing his recovery as “strenuous” and limited due to paradoxical reactions to treatments and medications.
