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

1. “All the pieces of your life do, or will, fit together, no matter how many are scattered across
2. the floor. Much like LEGO bricks”. Those were the words of HG, author at Canary Media who
3. interviewed people using one of the world’s most famous toys to heal from trauma or reduce
4. stress and anxiety. The root of LEGO’s tremendous, and proven, psychiatric benefits lies in the
5. ability to help individuals zone out while playing with them. For overstressed adults or people
6. who have suffered from episodes of trauma, the snapping together of the bricks mixed with the
7. careful following of precise instructions allows their brain to refocus on something completely
8. different.
9. HG heard from several trauma victims, including veterans with PTSD, who said that LEGO
10. helps them to enter a Zen-like state, and others who said it allows them to revisit feelings from
11. their childhood in a safe and expressive manner. “Psychology has begun to recognize that play
12. is as important to healing from trauma as processing trauma memories and establishing good-
13. enough relationships”, Dr. Jay Watts – Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, told
14. Canary Media. “We’re reawakening an inner child that’s been too scared, too damaged, or too
15. paralyzed to move, and freeing them historically helps free us a little in the now”.
16. Retired Army Medic Robin Krauth told the Military Times that after receiving a more than
17. 1,000-piece LEGO set, she was surprised to find it was helping her calm down substantially. AJ,
18. another trauma victim, said that he finds relief in both following the instructions and building for
19. fun. “LEGO allows me to switch my mind off and gives me a break. If my brain is too full to think
20. I will just follow the instructions of a set. Other times I feel more creative and will just build and
21. see what comes from it”.
22. Creatively snapping bricks together just to see what happens _____ (allow - simple present)
23. people to explore their imagination—something notoriously difficult, and even distressing, for
24. trauma victims, but in a safe, controlled, and reward-filled way that can _____ (help – simple
25. present) people regain control over what their thoughts are capable of manifesting. LEGO,
26. recognizing the potential of their toys for good, _____ (send - present perfect) more than 600
27. toy sets that make a magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) laboratory, to help ease anxiety
28. in children undergoing these scans.
29. LEGO has directly targeted adult fans of LEGO before, by releasing sets based on 90s and
30. 80s era nostalgia, like sets from the TV show Friends, or even sets for aesthetically-minded
31. Millenials like bonsai trees and other decorations. Throughout its history, LEGO has been kept
32. afloat during times of poor sales by its adult fans, in part because there’s a kind of “Zen and the
33. Art of Bricklaying” that helps combat burnout from adult responsibilities. This is especially true,
34. GNN reported, in office workers who often have complex sets of instructions coming from several
35. different sources. By contrast, having a single booklet to follow allows type-A personalities or
36. over-stressed workers lower down the pecking order to just switch off.

(Available at: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/how-lego-is-being-used-to-reduce-stress-combat-childhood-trauma-and-manage-ptsd/ – text especially adapted for this test).