I received a mysterious email the other day from a young man calling himself Bill Deen (not his real name).
He let me know (very politely) that he had read my blog and could sympathise with what he referred to as my “Condition“.
Naively I asked what condition he was referring to and he replied by letting me know about something called “Brickdiction”.
At first I though he was referring to those people who have the admittedly horrible habit of pronouncing the plural form of Lego as Legos. I agreed wholeheartedly – Diction and pronunciation is important in many areas of society, even Educational Construction Toys.
I replied that I had heard of people who did this and sympathised with their plight but assured him that I didn’t have this disease and he had gotten it all wrong.
He laughed at me (over email) and told me that Brickdiction was defined as:
“The Lego addiction suffered mainly by AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego). When someone has this they are “brickaddicted”.
Needless to say I didn’t return any more “Bill Deen’s” emails. Can you imagine! The poor man was deluding himself.
But then a book arrived in my postbox, called simply “Brickdiction: A Seven Step Recovery Guide For People Addicted to Lego.” It was addressed to me…personally. As if!
I started to read the small tome and then showed my husband. His response was along the lines of, “About time you got that obsession looked into…”
Obsession? Addiction? Brickdiction?
Were these really words that should be used when someone supports an Educational Construction Toy and integrates into their child’s life for Educational purposes? Did I mention Lego’s Educational benefits…for children? What about Lego’s environmental benefits…for the environment? These are the (very legitimate) reasons I buy Lego, not because…I am addicted?
In Brickdiction, Bill Deen (not his real name) says the first on the road to recovery is to:
1. Admit to yourself that you are powerless over bricks –
that your Brick Life (his words not mine) has become unmanageable.
It was clear I had a problem – my family could see it even if I could not.
But it was also clear that I was not alone. Which is why Bill Deen put years and years of research (yes Bill, I “research” Lego too) into the condition known as Brickdiction and then published a Recovery Guide for sufferers of the disease, their friends and family.
If you know someone who could benefit from the book it can be downloaded as a PDF for use on ipads/iphones and Android Portable Devices, downloaded to Amazon Kindle and also bought in a handy pocket sized book format.
I recommend keeping the book close at hand, especially during those first days of the “Recovery” process. Brick-Fever hits when you least expect it. In such a situation today I was innocently killing-time in a department store toy department (on a school day without my kids- It was “research”), when I was brutally confronted by a 20% off sale for the latest Star Wars Lego Sets.
Thankfully I had my Brickdiction book close at hand. The store sales staff tried to wrest it from my hands and I was escorted off the property before any other AFOLs could be influenced by my alleged propaganda. How rude!
As Bill Deen (…) says in his introduction, “Recovery Will Be hard but it is possible”
Recovery? Wait a minute…What if I don’t want to “recover?
HELP!
I’m off to my Lego room to do some more “research”.
Seriously…buy the book. It’s great fun for fans who can appreciate the insightful truths hidden amongst the humor 🙂
You can read more about Bill Deen at his website www.brickdiction.com (not working at present but I’ll get back to you on this).
Disclaimer:- Bill supplied me with a free copy of the book but I recommend it wholeheartedly regardless and won’t even mention that The Brick Life is mentioned in the book 🙂