Lego Therapy

[Andrew1]

Hi, 
For the past 7 years I have suffered severe depression and anxiety issues. I was diagnosed in 2010 with dysthemic anxiety disorder after suffering a major break down working in the financial industry.
It all came to the fore when one evening my wife walked into the room to see me staring at the computer blankly. I didnt know how or what I was doing and couldnt string a sentance together to articulate how i was. To the best I could describe my brain suddenly shattered into a thousand little lego pieces and although i could see a picture of what things should be, I could not place the pieces together at all. All cognative behavior and responce had broken within my brain.
The next 9 months were a blur for me but torture for my wife and 3 young children. Apparently between doctors and psychiatrists and psycholigists my life consisted predominantly of sleeping. Doctors expressed repeatedly that I may never return to work. Because of that, I cannot express the appreciation love and amazement i have for my wife in the support and care she gave me through the ordeal. Not only did she have me to care for in every way, but our youngest girl was only newborn at the time. To my amazement it was this responsibility she used to start rewiring my brain to start dealing with tasks and situations. At first it was laying our little girl in my arms as she slept and i dozed. This subconsciously gave my mind a sence of responsibility that was immediate and present. Small steps, but piece by piece, just like a lego creation, my mind was reintroduced to dealing with life. I use the illustration of lego because another form of therapy i used was playing with lego. As mentioned before, my brain was able to see point A of a task (just like a huge pile of lego pieces in all shapes) and then see point Z (like the picture of the completed model on the lego box) as a completed task but had no idea of how to piece each piece together. I related my thoughts to the chaos of a pile of unsorted lego. So cognatively starting to piece together lego was like repiecing together the thoughts in my mind. After sleeping for 9 months, the next 3 months was spent playing with lego. 

[Guest_1055]

Hello Andrew...

Welcome, I was drawn to your thread because of your heading. You see I also build things out of Lego. I have never thought much about it except that I enjoy it. But now I am thinking about it more, I believe you are absolutely right. And you can even sit and build with your little ones.

I am glad you have such a caring wife, someone to look out for you. You are very blessed.

I am not sure what else to say ,except thankyou!

Shelley xx

[Doolhof]

Hi Andrew,

Welcome to Beyond Blue and to the community here. I too would like to thank you for sharing your story with us.

You certainly have an amazing wife! Unfortunately some of us do not have much assistance or help from others to get us through the tough times.

Thanks for the story about the Lego. As Shelley mentioned, I am sure other people could benefit from the same kind of activity.

Hopefully you are improving and learning new and different ways of doing and coping with life.

I have found over the years I have needed to adjust, change direction and think of different perspectives and strategies to help me progress.

Wishing you many positive and constructive days ahead.

By the way, what do you like to make the most from the Lego?

Cheers, from Mrs. Dools