Distractd

Call Directions Website Contact the organization

ADHD Organisation connecting communities, delivering information via industry professionals, education, panel discussions, mingles and advocacy.

https://bit.ly/DistractdLiveTicket

15/10/2026

Last night’s DISTRACTD, Care That Fits, was one of those evenings that’s going to stay with me for a while.

We talked about masking, identity and what it really means to feel safe enough to be yourself. So many people in the room recognised themselves in the conversation, and that’s exactly why we do this.

A huge thank you to our incredible speakers.

Dr Micah Perez, for showing us what happens when the environment doesn’t fit the person, and what neuroaffirming support can actually look like.

Amy-Ann Broomhall, for her thoughtful, honest look at identity, late diagnosis and the cost of constantly changing yourself to belong.

Monica Zidar, for getting us out of our heads and into our bodies with her music therapy demonstration.

Dr Glen Craig, for answering your questions with so much care and clinical insight.

Thank you to the HOTA team, our wonderful volunteers, and every single person who came along, asked a question or donated. DISTRACTD stays free because of you.

If you came last night, please tell one person something you learnt. And if you missed it, keep an eye out for the next one.

Because good support shouldn’t require you to become a different version of yourself first.

04/10/2026

Meet Monica Zidar.

Monica is a Registered Music Therapist and the founder of Queensland Paediatric Allied Health, with 20+ years in paediatric and lifespan allied health. She’s also President of the Australian Music Therapy Association and was a founding Director of the charity Everyone Deserves Music.

Monica isn’t just telling us about regulation. She’s showing us.

Her session is a short, interactive music therapy demonstration, how rhythm, sound and music can actually be used for regulation, connection and expression. After two speakers unpacking the theory, this is the bit where you get to feel it instead of just hear about it.

Sometimes the answer isn’t “push through.” It’s finding what actually helps your body settle before you’re asked to do the next thing.

📅 Wed 14 Oct | 6–8:30pm | HOTA Basement | Free

30/09/2026

Meet Amy-Ann Broomhall.

Amy-ann Broomhall is a Psychologist and Gender-Affirming Clinician, and she’s bringing us a part of this conversation that doesn’t always get the space it deserves: identity, masking, and being safe enough to be yourself.

She’ll be speaking on gender-affirming care, where neurodivergence and identity intersect, masking, late recognition and diagnosis and what it does to someone to keep feeling like they need to change themselves just to belong.

It’s about making space for the people in the room whose experience of ADHD has never quite been talked about.

When does adjusting yourself to the room become masking? That’s the kind of question Amy-Ann’s session sits with.

📅 Wed 14 Oct | 6–8:30pm | HOTA Basement | FREE

28/09/2026

Meet Dr Micah Perez.

Micah EM Perez is an Occupational Therapist and the founder of Neurodiverse Therapies and a late-identified AuDHDer herself.

Mica will discuss not “how do we get this person to cope better” but what’s actually going on when sensory, social and environmental demands stack up, what masking costs someone to keep doing, and what genuinely neuroaffirming support can look like at home, at work and in everyday life.

Come with your questions, there’ll be time for them.

📅 Wed 14 Oct | 6–8:30pm | HOTA Basement | Free

24/09/2026

October live line-up.

Amanda, founder of DISTRACTD, hosting the night

Dr Micah Perez, Occupational Therapist when the environment doesn’t fit the person

Amy-Ann Broomhall, Psychologist / Gender-Affirming Clinician identity, masking & being safe enough to be yourself

Monica Zidar, Music Therapist, an interactive regulation demonstration

Dr Glen Craig, Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, our medical anchor, live for Q&A

Four different lenses on the same question: what does it actually take to feel safe enough to be yourself?

📅 Wed 14 October | 6–8:30pm
📍 HOTA Basement
🎟️ FREE, link in bio

Where do you feel safe enough that you don’t have to work quite so hard at being acceptable? Tell us in the comment section (or just tell us which speaker you’re most curious about, either works)

23/09/2026

You’ve spent years learning how to seem fine.

Reading the room. Adjusting how you talk. Rehearsing the conversation before you’ve even had it. Smiling through the noise, the lights, the overload, so nobody clocks it.

Sometimes that’s called masking.

It can genuinely help you get through a day that wasn’t built with your brain in mind. But doing it constantly comes at a cost and a lot of us have never had space to talk about that cost out loud.

This month at DISTRACTD, we’re getting into ADHD, identity, and psychological safety.

NOTE: Not the first Wednesday of the month to give way to HOTA’s BLEACH FESTIVAL running 1st-11th Oct. Check out their awesome program at their website.

CARE THAT FITS
📅 Wed 14 October | 6–8:30pm
📍 HOTA Basement
🎟️ FREE, link in bio to register

We’ll be talking gender-affirming care, late diagnosis, masking, and what it actually looks like when support is built around the whole person instead of the other way around.

Sometimes the question isn’t “how do we help this person fit?”

It’s “how do we make the support fit the person?”

You’re not broken. You’re not automatically “too much.” Sometimes what needs to change is the fit, not you.

Come curious. Leave a little clearer.

Tag someone who needs a reason to finally come to one of these 👇

07/09/2026

Too Much, All at Once 💥

What a night.

We talked sensory overload, why we can cope one day and absolutely NOT the next, why some brains seek more input and why sometimes it’s the tiniest thing that finally tips us over.

One takeaway really stuck:

It’s not always about the thing that tipped you over. It might be everything your system was already carrying before it happened.

A huge thank you to Dr Chris Stapelberg and Monica Hassall for sharing their knowledge, and to everyone who came along, asked questions, donated, bought a T-shirt or simply sat in the room and listened.

And remember your DISTRACTD homework:

Tell one person something you learnt.

Next up → CARE THAT FITS

ADHD, Neurodivergence, Identity & Psychological Safety

14 October | HOTA | 6pm | FREE

goldcoastevents

01/09/2026

What if we could get ahead of “too much” before we actually get there?

Monica Hassall joins us in September to look at the executive function side of sensory overload — and how we can better prepare for days and environments we already know are going to ask a LOT of our brains.

How can we anticipate the demands ahead?

What can we put in place before we’re already overwhelmed?

And how do things like planning, capacity, self-care and our “Internal Pharmacy” affect how much we have available to cope with in the first place?

Because sometimes we know the day is going to be a lot… and we still head straight into it expecting ourselves to just cope.

Let’s get better at planning for our capacity instead.

Join us at HOTA for Too Much, All at Once.

Wednesday 2 September | 6pm
HOTA Basement Theatre
FREE

SAVE A SEAT >> Link in our bio

31/08/2026

Why can you handle a busy environment perfectly well one day… and the next day the exact same thing feels completely overwhelming?

Dr Chris Stapelberg joins us in September to unpack why our sensory capacity can change from day to day.

We’ll look at how stress, fatigue, sleep and emotional load can affect our tolerance, where sensory overload can overlap with anxiety and emotional dysregulation, and why sometimes it’s the smallest final thing that tips us over.

We’ll also explore what overload can look like from the outside - and when sensory difficulties might be worth seeking some extra support for.

Because “too much” isn’t always the same amount.

Join us at HOTA for Too Much, All at Once.

Wednesday 2 September | 6pm
HOTA Basement Theatre
FREE

JOIN US >> Link in our bio

Address

Gold Coast, QLD

Telephone

+61409997295

Website

http://Www.distractd.org/, https://hota.com.au/whats-on/live/talks-and-ideas/distractd, https://www.distractd.org/catego

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Distractd posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Distractd:

Want your organization to be the top-listed non profit organization in Gold Coast?