This post will be discussing two theories that relate to health and wellbeing. It is important to remember that these are in fact theories and should be taken with a pinch of salt. This post was inspired by the entropy system on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyU-5P5ip4o) as I recently watched their video on this topic and wanted to share my understanding of these theories. Keep in mind that I am not a proffesional and I can only talk for my experiences and opinions. With all that said, let's get started.
Spoon Theory
Everyday when you wake up you are given a set number of spoons. Spoons are energy and you can not gain spoons through the day but you use them when you do things. A completely physically healthy person will wake up with more spoons than someone with, let's say, chronic fatigue. If a healthy person wakes up with 200 spoons and a person with chronic fatigue wake up with only 70, you can see straight away that the day will be more difficult to get through for the person with chronic fatigue.
Let's try and get through a daily schedule as both people.
Okay so if we start with 200 spoons and do everything in this schedule, we will finis the day with 48 spoons remaining. This means that you will not be completely warn out after a day of activities and would be able to do more in a day if you needed to.
Now if we look at this day starting at 70 spoons we will run into some issues. If we tried to do these things in order we would get to Food shopping and only have 4 spoons left so we wouldn't be able to go shopping or do the rest of what is on the schedule. In fact the only other thing we could afford to do without passing out on the spot would be to go to bed. Because of this the day may have to be altered in order of preference so that all the important things get done first. This can cause strain on relationships, difficulties getting to work, eating less healthy meals as cooking something better will take more time and spoons, and even result in burn out or exhaustion.
NOTE: spoons can be carried over to the next day and this is how people with chronic fatigue can attend larger events!
Hopefully this makes it easier fr you to understand why people wit different energy levels can struggle to get through a day that may seem easy to someone else. Just because you wake up with 200 spoons doesn't mean that everyone else does.
Fork Theory
This theory was based off of the spoon theory but is used for mental health! Forks represent mental energy or emotional energy and like spoon they get used through out the day. People with a mental illness will start the day with less forks than someone with perfect mental stability. The number of forks you have can change when you wake up because of nightmares, bad sleep, waking early, going to bed late, have a bad day previous, being nervous about upcoming events, etc. A mentally stable person will be less impacted by these things as they are able to control and monitor their emotions easier than someone with a mental illness.
Unlike spoons, forks can be earned back throughout the day. By doing self care, being responsible, getting jobs done, walking past a dog; these things can make you feel better than before. The catch is that you must pay forks before you gain them. An example of this is that you need a shower after along day, you have 5 forks left, and the shower will cost you 15 forks but make you gain 20 forks back. You don't have enough forks to pay the 15 needed for the shower so you can not do it even though you know that it will make you feel even better afterwards. This is a realistic view of what it's like with an illness like depression. You can see that doing something will make you feel better, but you just can't get there and do it.
Let's look at the same example as before as if we start with 250 forks (mentally stable), and 65 forks (depression and anxiety).
So, if we start with 250 forks we will get through this day with a total of 161 forks. This leaves us in a good frame of mind and able to get a night of good rest.
Now if we try the same day with 65 forks...
After taking away 25 forks for food shopping, we are left with 18 forks. This is not enough for work which costs 40 forks and is needed in order to make money. As a result of this we need to prioritise work even though we get no forks in return. So our day may end up looking more like this:
After doing this schedule we are left with 27 forks. These can now go towards getting a good nights rest and be carried over to the next day. This may not make difference at all though because of nightmares and the other variables I mentioned earlier.
Hopefully that was helpful and made you see the difficulties that can come with having a mental illness and how it impacts on how much you can get done in one day.
Conclusion
I hope that these theories helped you understand that just because something is easy for you todo dent mean it is easy for everyone. Dome days are worse than others and yo may wake up with less spoons and forks, but some days will be better and you will wake up with more than you expected.
Please remember to check out the video that inspired this post:
Thank you smooch for reading and supporting me with this blog. I hope you have an amazing day and for reading this post I award you 10 forks :)
Jen xx
