logo
  • We Are the Change-Makers: Poems supporting Drop the Disorder!

We Are the Change-Makers: Poems supporting Drop the Disorder!

In Stock
ISBN 9781910919644
Author:
Cover Price: £12.99
Buy Now Price: £10.00

free UK shipping PCCS pays your UK postage

This is a unique collection of poems written by and for people who have survived our mental health system and the diagnostic process that is used to categorise and treat mental and emotional distress.

In October 2016, Jo Watson launched A Disorder for Everyone (AD4E) – an international campaign to challenge the culture of psychiatric diagnosis and the labelling of expressions of emotional distress as medical disorders. Since then hundreds of people have attended AD4E events all over the UK, and thousands have joined the campaign Facebook group ‘Drop the Disorder!’ What began as a shout of protest has become an international roar.

Poetry has long been used to give voice to resistance and to drive change in all kinds of social movements, and it is a central aspect of this campaign as well. It has been at the heart of every AD4E event and, more recently, several online poetry events have brought together poets and poetry-lovers from across the globe under the Drop the Disorder! banner.

We Are the Change-Makers is a collection of these and other poems that seek to describe the otherwise inexpressible and challenge the power of psychiatry that misrepresents and medicates what it does not understand.

Foreword
Introduction  - Jo Watson

Decolonising distress
Sanah Ahsan

Fuck the DSM 
Jyl Anais

Burgundy
Jasmine Gardosi

I work within the crisis team 
Amanda Bueno de Mesquita

Nocebo effect 
Dr Julie Carter

Tilt 
Ruth E. Dixon 

More and less all of this
Lydia Daisy

Self-discovery
Mica Gray

Drop the disorder!
Jo Watson

Act of war 
Jyl Anais

On the Inside 
Martha Enticott

Open the can of worms
Tracey Farrell

The Killing of Susan Kelly 
Dorothy Dundas

Crazier than me 
Ruth E. Dixon

Everyday magic 
Dr Julie Carter

I mistook myself for a scientific label 
Dr Peter Gordon

Dis-ease Kathleen
Halley Angus 

No apology in pathology 
Sally Fox

Six verses
Viv Gordon

A penny dropped 
Ruth E. Dixon 

When daisies talk 
Mica Gray

Jump start 
Jyl Anais

I remember
Wend Badger

They think 
Toni Hurford

All of this disorder stuff 
Jo Watson

Look into my eyes 
Sue Irwin

Smart move
Jackie Hagan

It could have been me 
Jen Yates

Drop the disorder haiku 
Amanda Bueno de Mesquita

I can see you (but you are so very far away) 
Ruth Jackson

Let’s stop pretending 
Brian E. Levitt

I’m gonna run 
Viv Gordon

In this moment
Mitzy Sky

Empire 
Jo McFarlane

Your chemical embrace 
James Moore

The object of my hate  
Anonymous

Battle weary 
Sally Fox

Dignity cannot be taken four times a day 
Dolly Sen

Don’t blame the canaries 
Matthew Morris

A million conversations about ‘ECT’ 
Jo Watson

Other than personality disorder, what term could you use to describe these people?
Clare Shaw 

Labels
Jacky Power

Text book 
Dr Peter Gordon

Manipulation 
Jo McFarlane

I am a storm
Erin Stevens

What if psychiatry has got it all wrong? 
Dr Jessica Taylor

Rvenge of the crazy wimmin
Leah Ida Harris

Watching the sun rise from her chair 
Ruth E. Dixon 

Everything you have ever lost 
Joelle Taylor

Trauma-reducing not trauma-inducing 
Dr Karen Treisman

Unlabelled 
Jo McFarlane

I do not believe in silence 
Clare Shaw

Fuck you 
T.O. Walker

I’m with her 
Jo Watson

'What a rollercoaster of emotions! These are poems of truth, pain and power reclaimed. I salute the poets for their courage.'  

Deborah Alma, Emergency Poet and founder of the Poetry Pharmacy;  

'These are the voices of the rebel souls, the truth tellers, the defiant and the righteous...This book is rich, full and will take you on a journey with no turning back. You will be transformed forever.'  

Akima Thomas, OBE, founder and clinical director, Women and Girls Network  

Jo Watson

Jo Watson is a psychotherapist, trainer, speaker and activist. Her activism is motivated by a belief that emotional distress is caused by what is experienced and largely rooted in social factors. Jo founded the Facebook group ‘Drop The Disorder!’ in September 2016. She is part of the madintheuk.com team and editor of Drop the Disorder! Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis (PCCS Books, 2019). Jo is the organiser of the A Disorder For Everyone events (adisorder4everyone.com) and can be found on Twitter @dropthedisorder

Read more

Jo Watson