Announcing a screening and live virtual discussion you don’t want to miss!

 

Medicating Normal is excited to announce that we will be taking part in The Winter Film Festival on December 6th from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm EST, hosted by Trauma Research Foundation (TRF). We’re so excited to join the lineup with some of the most important films in the field of trauma right now. Each film explores a different aspect of how trauma can impact us.

Even more exciting is that Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., esteemed trauma expert, psychiatrist, researcher and author, will take part in the live post-screening virtual discussion/Q&A session. Science journalist, author and founder of madinamerica.com, Robert Whitaker, and David Cohen, Ph.D., researcher and professor at UCLA—both experts who appear in Medicating Normal—will sit alongside Bessel. Books from all three—Bessel’s New York Times bestseller, The Body Keeps the Score, Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic and Cohen’s Your Drug May Be Your Problem—are all influential works that were instrumental to the research and production of Medicating Normal. Angela Peacock, MSW, U.S. Army veteran and subject of the film will also appear on the panel.

Register

You must register to attend this event. Please follow this link to register for the TRF Winter Film Festival showing and live post-screening discussion: https://www.traumaresearchfoundation.org/2020-film-festival Upon registering, you will receive an email from Trauma Research Foundation containing the links and information you’ll need to join the live virtual event.

Cost

This community event is available through a suggested voluntary donation of $15 (but any amount is appreciated) via this link: https://www.traumaresearchfoundation.org/thank-you/2020-film-fest-thank-you (select ‘Medicating Normal’ from the dropdown box). Donations will go towards continued outreach efforts to bring the film to communities worldwide. If you’d rather, you can also donate directly to Medicating Normal at medicatingnormal.com/donate. Thank you in advance for your generous support!

Schedule

  • 6:00 pm to 7:15 pm EST: Screening of Medicating Normal, 76-minute run time
  • 7:15 pm to 8:30 pm EST: live post-screening virtual discussion/Q&A session featuring key members of the trauma community and film
 
Questions/Assistance:
Please submit any questions about the festival to programs@traumaresearchfoundation.org
The Medicating Normal Team can be reached at medicatingnormal@gmail.com

Synopsis: Medicating Normal follows the journeys of a newly married couple, a female combat veteran, a waitress and a teenager whose doctors prescribe psychiatric drugs for stress, trauma, mild depression, sleeplessness, and focus. As a result, they struggle with serious physical and mental side effects, and are saddled with neurological damage from taking the drugs as prescribed and from attempting to withdraw.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/JFzhTm2-UM8

Endorsement: Renowned Stanford University psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke has praised our film saying: “Medicating Normal dares to challenge prevailing myths about how psychotropic medications work, or fail to, in our ongoing struggle to treat mental illness. It promises to spark a long-overdue national conversation on the growing problem of overprescribing.”

Follow-Up Screening:

For those unable to attend the December 6th Trauma Research Foundation screening, the post-screening discussion from that event will be recorded and uploaded to Medicating Normal’s YouTube channel shortly thereafter. We will also be hosting a follow-up screening on the heels of the TRF screening that will continue the conversation on trauma on Saturday, December 12th from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm EST. Please follow this link to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/medicating-normal-a-deeper-dive-into-trauma-tickets-129940626913 Join one screening—or both!

For even more upcoming screenings and discussions, please visit Medicating Normal’s ‘Watch’ page; it is updated frequently with new events.