When we experience some stressful or traumatic situation, in order to protect our mental health, our brain can release this event into the unconscious, causing a mental block as a defense mechanism to avoid suffering.

Another form of mental block can also be observed in writers or composers, who, for some reason, can no longer organize their ideas and produce texts, poetry, songs.

What is a mental block?

The mental block is a repression that the brain generates to a traumatic fact that occurred. In these cases, the pain of the emotion provoked by the event becomes unbearable to feel, so the brain throws this fact to the unconscious, with the objective of protecting the subject...

When does the mental block occur?

In cases of traumatic events, the brain acts to protect us from the consequences of the fact experienced and, many times, this process can later present itself as an emotional suffering that the individual cannot identify, until, through the therapeutic process, he can bring what happened to consciousness and re-signify it.

The events that can generate the mental block are: physical and/or psychological violence of all kinds (involving sexual and domestic violence), loss of loved ones, adverse situations such as natural disasters, accidents, robberies, kidnappings, and others.

In cases of mental block where the person cannot organize his thoughts and express his ideas, the mental block causes anguish, anxiety, and other symptoms, since the individual cannot externalize the content that he was used to producing with ease. In this case, it is also important to seek medical and emotional help to help release and express the emotions that, for some reason, are being held back by the mind.

What are the consequences of mental blocking?

Although it is a defense mechanism, in which the brain acts to protect us from reliving and remembering traumatic experiences, in the long run, the mental block that occurs due to traumas and stressful situations, can bring emotional illness. It is natural that during life, we have contact with some stressful event, whose organic reaction involves the release of cortisol, adrenaline andother hormones to help the body react, but the question is in the memory.

While some people, after the body's normal organic reaction, will be able to go on with their lives without being emotionally affected, others may have recurrent memories of the event and at that moment, the body will have the organic sensations it had during the event, thus configuring trauma, so the brain sometimes blocks the event, in order to avoid sufferingemotional of the subject.

If they are not re-signified, the negative stimuli that we have experienced and that have remained hidden in our unconscious, can become saboteurs of mental health and, further on, present themselves in the form of fears, phobias, insecurities, feelings of worthlessness, and many others. The mental block that occurs in writers, can lead to low self-esteem, sadness, depression and other symptoms caused by the inability to express oneself.

Child Victims of Abuse and Violence

According to the Ministry of Health, in 2019, 159,000 records were made by the Human Rights Dial (Disque 100) and, of these records, more than 85,000, refer to violence against children and adolescents.

According to the MSD (Merck Sharp and Dohme), "Any act with a child aimed at the sexual gratification of an adult or another significantly older and more powerful child is considered sexual abuse."

Suffering violence in childhood, be it of any nature, is a traumatic event that puts the child's development at risk, and because of this, the brain often acts by blocking out the event, causing the victim to grow up with no memory of the fact.

The psychopathologies resulting from mental blockage

When the mind of the victim of childhood violence blocks out what happened and there is no identification or treatment for what happened through a support network, the child can develop negative impacts on his mental health, and the emergence of psychopathologies may occur throughout his life, such as: PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), Depression, Borderline Disorder, DisordersDissociative and others - PTSD: is an anxiety disorder that can occur after exposure of the subject to a traumatic event.

Associated with exposure to the traumatic event, the victim also experiences intense fear, a sense of helplessness, and horror, i.e., the traumatic event is of an extreme nature.

In PTSD are observed the painful presence of thoughts, images, feelings, linked to the event, often in a confusing and uninterrupted way that are a way for the brain not to let them come to consciousness.

Depression

It is an affective disorder characterized by the onset of sadness over a long period of time, associated with other symptoms such as: hopelessness, demotivation, apathy, sleep problems, crying spells, and others.

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Australian research has shown that individuals who suffered emotional abuse in childhood are three times more likely to have depression as adults

Borderline Disorder

It is a personality disorder where the subject presents behaviors such as extreme fear of being abandoned, instability in relationships (love and hate), misrepresentation of self-image, great impulsiveness (being this behavior one of the most risky due to the high risk of provoking self-injury and suicide attempts).

Many individuals diagnosed with this disorder report having been a victim of childhood violence. Some are unaware of this abuse, until they begin therapy and bring the event to consciousness.

Dissociative Disorders

In this type of disorder, there is a disruption of consciousness, memories, emotions, and identities.

Its occurrence is generally associated with experiences of oppressive situations, and in most cases, are the result of violence suffered in childhood, as a way to defend themselves from what the child could not understand or process, a type of self-defense aimed at supporting the anguish and pain of the fact experienced.

How to bring the trauma into conscious awareness?

Initially, medical help must be sought, to rule out any organic alteration that could be causing this blockage, and, after this hypothesis has been ruled out, therapeutic help must be sought, which will be essential to identify the reason for the blockage and, through therapeutic techniques, reverse the situation.

Sometimes medical and therapeutic treatment must occur in parallel, so that both physical and mental symptoms can be treated.

While the therapist takes care of the emotional part, through techniques that lead the patient to bring the trauma to consciousness and after that, to make a re-signification of what happened, helping him/her to have a better quality of life, the doctor will take care of the organic part that is in unbalance.

Bibliographic references

Gov.br - Federal Government. Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights. 2020. Available at:

MSD Handbook - Family health version. general considerations on child abuse and neglect. 2020. available at: Norman, R. E.; Butchart, A. The long-term health consequences of physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect: a systematic review and meta-analysis. //doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001349, 2012. Pronin, T. Viva Bem UOL. Borderline: the disorder that makes theperson go from "heaven to hell" in hours, 2018, Available at:

This article was written by Ana Regina Figueiras ( [email protected] ), a graduate in Pedagogy and Social Communication, a psychoanalyst, a specialist in Mental Health, a specialist in Suicidology, a specialist in Neuropsychopedagogy, a specialist in Special Education and Global Developmental Disorders, and writer of the site: //acolhe-dor.org

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