The loss or neglect of parents. The burden of education. The harsh breakups. The weight of popularity. The bloodshed of war. The complications of life as a whole. They may seem large and impending, but all and all they’re just “bricks in the wall”. These are the reasons presented in Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” for why someone would shield themselves from the rest of the world. Creating a mental wall in their mind to fulfill this exact task. However, there’s more than meets the eye than the aforementioned reasons as to why or how one of these mental walls is constructed.
To understand what a mental wall is we first we need to take a look at how one of these can be built. We’ve already mentioned a big chunk of the reasons, but they’re not the full picture. Meaning we need to take a deeper look into what builds a mental wall.
“They may have previous experiences that can lead to the construction of a mental wall,” psychology teacher Dillon Simpson said. “A mental wall is something that prevents them from doing things that they want to do.”
What could all these reasons have in common, you may be wondering. Take a step back and look at not just them, but their after-effects. Every single reason a mental wall can be built isolates a person from the outside world more and more.
“A mental wall, to [us], is the point at which a person can no longer process what he or she is experiencing or has experienced,” counselor Brandye Jackson said. “It can be due to overwhelming stress, trauma or exhaustion. I do also believe this is our mind [and] body’s way of protecting itself during times such as these.”
These awful events that can happen to a person are overwhelming and because of this they decide to distance themselves from everyone else. Feeling that this is the right thing to do, but what they usually fail to realize is the higher they build the wall, the more their stability slips away from their mind.
“Mental walls can cause us to be less productive in our everyday functioning,” Jackson said. “[I]t can cause further stress on relationships and in extreme I believe it can cause memory loss and depression if not dealt with.”
The wall becomes a cocoon and once they are free from this cocoon they come out an entirely different person. This person is barely even a person anymore. They are an uncaring, hollow shell of their former self.
“A mental wall may lead to someone not doing necessarily what they want to do,” Simpson said. “I’d say it prohibits them [from] achieving whatever that past trauma was built around.”
Several options can happen past this point: They will either continue going down this path of not caring about anything or will realize this is not who they are and tear down the wall for good.
“Destroying a mental wall will take time, that’s for sure,” Simpson said. “I’d say that’s just tenacity, realizing what constructed your mental wall will help in destroying that wall which would lead to creating a safe space for you to achieve whatever you want to achieve.”
Most people understand what a mental block is, but not many know about the mental wall. As such, when they’re faced with someone dealing with one of these walls, they don’t know how to help themselves or others.
“I think we often use the term ‘mental block’ more often and the two can be confused at times,” Jackson. “A mental block is less severe and is often temporary. A mental wall is more long-lived and difficult to work through due to the cause. There are more underlying emotions, thoughts and stress associated with it and much more needs to be worked through than if one simply has a mental block.”
We need to open our eyes more to the concept and learn how to treat those who have essentially no contact with the real world. This way we can significantly decrease the amount of people who struggle with mental walls and their immensely harmful effects.
“I think talking about mental walls vs. mental blocks will raise awareness,” Jackson said. “Those who have gone through the work of breaking down a mental wall
could speak out and help others know more as well.”
