In September 2020 two and a half thousand people from over 15 different countries registered for the A Disorder for Everyone Online Festival.

AD4E brought together wisdom, experience and passion for change in an online festival full of inspiring contributors who all challenged the mainstream medicalised paradigm of emotional distress that labels and pathologises people’s suffering.

The feedback we received in the weeks and months that followed the event was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging and it provided us with yet more evidence that the appetite for this discussion is growing exponentially.

Many, many people have simply had enough of people’s stories and experiences being negated and dismissed by scientifically questionable labels. They want change, and they want to be part of a movement that is demanding change.

This September we are doing it all again. Please sign up to join us and please help to spread the word as much as possible.

Hosts:

Lucy Johnstone, Jo Watson, John Wilson, Akima Thomas

AD4E ONLINE FESTIVAL - SCHEDULE

9am - John Wilson Onlinevents - Welcome to the festival and introductions

9.10 - Jo Watson - About AD4E

9.25 - Poem: Sanah Ahsan 'Decolonising Distress'

9.30 - Dr Lucy Johnstone kicks off the festival with a summary of the debate around the challenge to psychiatric diagnosis.

10.55 - Debra Lampshire, leading activist from New Zealand, talks about the reclaiming of what has been taken from those labelled ‘mentally ill’

10.25 - Dr Akima Thomas & Bec Bayliss - Survival is not a Disorder! Two feminists from women’s organisations talk about what they are doing to challenge the pathologising of women’s experiences of sexual violence.

10.45 - Dr Margot Sunderland talks about the crucial trauma-informed work being done in schools in the U.K that challenges pathologisation and labelling.

11.15 Break

11.30 - Prof Paul Gilbert talks to Lucy Johnstone about Compassion Focussed Therapy, the medicalisation of distress and the way forward in counselling & psychotherapy.

12.20 - Mitzy Sky and Vesper Moore - ‘If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem.’ Two US based activists talk about the challenge to diagnosis in their community-focused work.

12.50 Break

1.15 Ruth Dixon, Poem - 'Madness Meds'

1.25 - Lucy Johnstone talks to Jasper Gibson, author of 'The Octopus Man', and his mentor/consultant on the book Dr Jacqui Dillon

2pm Prof Dainius Pūras, former United Nations special rapporteur on the right to health talks about his UN reports that called for a move away from a medical model approach.

2.30 The AD4E Panel Discussion chaired by Lucy Johnstone

Panellists: Prof Dainius Pūras, Dr Jacqui Dillon, Mitzy Sky, Vesper Moore, Prof Peter Kinderman, Dr Sanah Ahsan

3.20 - Break

3.35 - Poem: 'I’m with her.'

3.45 - Dr Gabor Maté, Johann Hari & Dr Lucy Johnstone - In conversation about the medicalisation of emotional emotional distress and the way forward.

4.45 - Campaign for an independent review of ECT. 4 activists, Prof John Read, Dr Sue Cunliffe, Sarah Hancock and Dr Chris Harrop, talk about the campaign and their achievements to date.

5. 15 - Dr Jacqui Dillon talks about the damage caused by the culture of psychiatric diagnosis.

5.45 - Closing words and an invitation to the evening session

5.55 Poem: ‘Do Something'.

The Evening Session

7pm - 9pm

The AD4E festival continues with a showing of 'CALL ME CRAZY', a groundbreaking play that challenges the legitimacy of psychiatric diagnosis by our friend and ally Paula Joan Caplan who sadly died in July.

To see talks from our 2020 festival check out the AD4E YouTube channel

This event is supported by Onlinevents