How LEGO Is Being Used to Reduce Stress, Combat Childhood Trauma, and Manage PTSD

All the pieces of your life do, or will, fit together, no matter how many are scattered across the floor. Much like LEGO bricks.

Those were the words of HG, author at Canary Media who compiled a series of quotes and interviews of people using one of the world’s most famous toys to heal from trauma or reduce stress and anxiety.

The root of LEGO’s tremendous, and proven, psychiatric benefits lies in the ability to help individuals zone out while playing with them. For overstressed adults with challenging jobs, too many bills to pay, or who have suffered from episodes of trauma, the snapping together of the bricks mixed with the careful following of precise instructions allows their brain to refocus on something completely different.

HG heard from several trauma victims, including veterans with PTSD, who said that LEGO helps them to enter a Zen-like state, and others who said it allows them to revisit feelings from their childhood in a safe and expressive manner.

“Psychology has begun to recognize that play is as important to healing from trauma as processing trauma memories and establishing good-enough relationships,” Dr. Jay Watts – Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, told Canary Media. “We’re reawakening an inner child that’s been too scared, too damaged, or too paralyzed to move, and freeing them historically helps free us a little in the now.”

Retired Army Medic Robin Krauth told the Military Times that after receiving a more than 1,000-piece LEGO set of the Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter franchise, she was surprised to find it was helping her calm down substantially.

“I was surprised—I really didn’t play LEGOS as a child. But when I’m doing it now, I’m focused. All the other fears fall away,” she said. Krauth was deployed in Iraq during the tail-end of the Sunni insurgency, and sustained daily mortar fire at her base. Her deployment also included a murder-suicide incident from another US marine, which she says was deeply distressing.

AJ, another trauma victim spoke to Canary Media, saying that he finds relief in both following the instructions and building for fun.

“LEGO allows me to switch my mind off and gives me a break. Sometimes I use it to help me distract myself. If my brain is too full to think I will just follow the instructions of a set. Other times I feel more creative and will just build and see what comes from it.”

Creatively snapping bricks together just to see what happens allows people to explore their imagination—something notoriously difficult, and even distressing, for trauma victims, but in a safe, controlled, and reward-filled way that can help people regain control over what their thoughts are capable of manifesting.

LEGO, recognizing the potential of their toys for good, has sent more than 600 toy sets that make a magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) laboratory, to help ease anxiety in children undergoing these scans.

LEGO has directly targeted AFOL or “Adult Fans of LEGO” before, by releasing sets based on 90s and 80s era nostalgia, like sets from the TV show Friends, or even sets for aesthetically-minded Millenials like bonsai trees and other decorations. Throughout its history, LEGO has been kept afloat during times of poor sales by its adult fans, in part because there’s a kind of “Zen and the Art of Bricklaying” that helps combat burnout from adult responsibilities.

GOOD HEALING: How a Yoga Teacher is Saving First Responders Across America From Depression – With Downward Dog

This is especially true, GNN reported, in office workers who often have complex sets of instructions coming from several different sources. By contrast, having a single booklet to follow allows type-A personalities or over-stressed workers lower down the pecking order to just switch off.

According to the Washington Post, LEGO hired Abbie Headon, a 44-year-old English author who hadn’t picked up one of the iconic bricks in 20 years, to write a book on how adults who are concerned about their mental wellbeing can use LEGO strategically to reduce stress in their lives.

MORE WAYS TO AVOID BURNOUT: Learning to Just Say No to Unwanted Holiday Invitations Can Benefit Your Mental Health–New Study

Headon came up with the 160-page Build Yourself Happy: The Joy of Lego Play, which was released in the US in 2022.

It’s a perfect reason to pick up the latest revision of the classic LEGO Medieval Castle set.

SHARE This Inspiring Use For The Classic Toy With Your Stressed-Out Friends…