What Made Jordan Peterson SWEAR OFF Alcohol

Quick Overview

Jordan Peterson stopped drinking alcohol permanently at age 27 after realizing his heavy drinking, fueled by anxiety and a desire for social ease, was making him aggressive and fuzzy-minded, a realization solidified by observing the destructive outcomes of alcohol use in others, including a friend whose father became an alcoholic and died young.

Key Points: Jordan Peterson quit drinking alcohol entirely at age 27, after having previously toyed with moderate social drinking for about a year after age 21. Peterson describes alcohol as an extraordinarily pernicious drug that enhances anxiety-reducing properties, social communication, and psychomotor functions like cocaine, while simultaneously producing negative effects. He notes that 5% of monkeys exposed to alcohol on first exposure exhibited an addictive predisposition, and video evidence showed monkeys drinking to the point of appearing drunk at parties. Peterson argues that alcohol is the sole cause of a significant portion of domestic abuse and date rape, citing that if you examine criminal behavior deeply enough, alcohol is involved. He recounts an anecdote about a friend's father, Ernest Hemingway, who was a hard drinker and died young, illustrating the severe consequences of alcoholism. Peterson states that alcohol makes everyone stupid and fuzzy-minded, and when he was drinking, he thought he was cool, but realized he was just being destructive to himself and others. He decided to stop drinking permanently when he got married and was planning to have children, realizing he needed to be sober for that responsibility.

Context: This segment features an interview between Jordan Peterson and Eric Edmeades (identified in the lower third graphic as Episode 374), where they discuss the nature of alcohol as a substance. Edmeades initially describes alcohol as pernicious, potentially enhancing social skills and reducing anxiety, while Peterson counters with his personal history and observations regarding the drug's severe negative impacts, linking it to aggression, cognitive impairment, and serious social harms like domestic abuse.