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I was wondering if any of you guys have heard of spoon theory or consider yourselves "spoonies". I discovered spoon theory when my physical health problems were on a rapid downhill slide and I find it to be the best way to explain to people what it's like living with chronic health problems. It applies to mental health as well as physical health, I use it to describe both my physical issues and generalized anxiety disorder. It can be so hard for "healthy" people to understand what it's like being sick all the time but spoon theory really puts being sick in a perspective that's much easier to understand. I'd love to know what you guys think!

Here's the link to the story of spoon theory and what it means: http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/artic ... on-theory/

I -loathe- that phrase "but you don't look...'insert thing here'".
I have anexity, depperesion, and trichollomania.

I've heard "well you don't look depperessed" "oh don't let anexity get to you, you know you can control it!', "why can't you just STOP!".

What do they think a person with depperesion looks like?
I can't control it, that's the scarey part -I CANT-
Half the time I don't know I'm doing it, and it feels like an itch!

Then it pools down to -why can't you 'go out with friends, get more done in a day, etc'

I've only heard spoon theory being used for psychical illness. But thinking about it, it works beautifully with mental health.

I hadn't heard of it until now. It makes a lot of sense and I think I could actually use it to explain certain things. I'm not seriously ill or seriously injured. They have it far worse than me. But I do have achilles tendonitis, petallar tendonitis, depression. reactive hypoglycemia and misophonia (coughing, chewing with mouth open, grinding teeth, teeth biting a fork, the sound of the playstation controller, mainly, but some other sound). The last one gets in the way of things more than you'd think. One of my biggest frustrations is trying to explain why, on some days, I get virtually nothing done beyond getting my son what he needs and some basic housework. Sometimes, I even suck at that.

Never heard of this before but it is a great way to look at this kind of thing. Lived with my ex-fiance for years never knowing how many daily "spoons" he'd get, and because he visually looked young and healthy (he was over 30 but often mistaken for late teens), even supposed "medical professionals" would discount the extent of how serious things sometimes got for him. Thankfully we're still friends. I wish I'd had this to explain it to people back in the day.

Ugh the "but you don't look sick" is awful. I'm encountering some problems at work and I think a lot of it comes from the fact that all my problems are invisible. My boss clearly doesn't understand how serious a migraine can be, for instance. She told me to "make an effort to try", but how can I think about even driving to work when I can't get out of bed? And telling her that I don't have enough spoons isn't gonna fly. Hopefully my upcoming surgery will fix all of this. But with nonprofessional relationships spoon theory is the best. I've got so many of my friends asking me if I have enough spoons to do something!

Having had headaches in the past, but never a true migraine, until the past year, I can definitely say I have a whoooooo!e new level of sympathy !! Particularly for those who get them frequently. Its miserable, and blindingly painful. My whole body just shut down, and I couldn't focus on anything but trying to make the pain stop.
And this from a mom who's done the whole childbirth thing. >~<;

I've never heard of spoon theory before, but Hyperbole and a Half had an almost identical comparison for dealing with depression.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca/20 ... t-two.html

Tora wrote:I've never heard of spoon theory before, but Hyperbole and a Half had an almost identical comparison for dealing with depression.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca/20 ... t-two.html

That is.. Horrifyingly accurate. And 85% of my life, throw in the anxiety problem and one feels nothing while feeling everything mostly dread, fear and soul crushing doubt, self loathing and sadness.

HopefulMonster wrote:Having had headaches in the past, but never a true migraine, until the past year, I can definitely say I have a whoooooo!e new level of sympathy !! Particularly for those who get them frequently. Its miserable, and blindingly painful. My whole body just shut down, and I couldn't focus on anything but trying to make the pain stop.
And this from a mom who's done the whole childbirth thing. >~<;

I feel ya, D. I recently made this meme to summarize my life with headaches and migraines: http://phenolphthaleinfuchsia.tumblr.co ... 8590#notes

Tora wrote:I've never heard of spoon theory before, but Hyperbole and a Half had an almost identical comparison for dealing with depression.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca/20 ... t-two.html

Although I suffer from anxiety, not depression, I relate SO MUCH to hyperbole and a half. I especially love her "my fish are dead" analogy.

There are so many more things I want to type but my eyes hurt and I don't have the spoons to do it right now unfortunately X.X

I hadn't read that depression hyperbole and a half before. It's exactly it, without getting into too much detail. The wyrms boards are not a support group... except that it totally improves my moods some days. XD