Chronic Illness and Spoons- Energy Levels & Fatigue
What Are Spoons?
So, if you’ve heard the term “Spoons” used by people who have chronic illnesses, but you don’t know what that means, you’ve come to the right place! I’d heard it before, too, but I didn’t understand what it meant until I was diagnosed with a debilitatingly painful and exhausting condition called Fibromyalgia to go along with my autoimmune disease. Chronic illness and spoons relates to the amount of energy you have.
Most people, including me before my diagnoses, don’t give any thought about using energy on things like taking a shower, brushing their teeth, or even just putting socks on. But once you develop a chronic illness, all of that changes.
Chronic Illness and spoons describe units of energy
Chronic illness spoons was originally coined by a lady named Christine Miserandino, who suffers from Lupus, to describe to one of her friends what it’s like living with a chronic illness.
She started by grabbing 12 spoons and explained that each spoon represents one unit of energy. Then, she took away one spoon for each activity that a person typically does in one day: showering, getting dressed, fixing hair, putting on makeup, standing… getting less sleep costs extra spoons as does skipping meals.
Spoons’ energy can change depending on activity or time of day
On some days, those same activities could cost less spoons- others, more. And when those spoons are gone, you crash. There’s no more energy left to do anything else. And the only way to regain some of that energy is to sleep. But get this- sleeping does not refresh you! I wake up tired. It’s like I can sleep for 12 hours a day and still not feel rejuvenated.
Chronic Illness changes everyone, especially your energy levels
Everything changes when you develop a chronic illness, so that’s why I will help you know ahead of time about how many spoons each craft will use because I get it.
So hang out with me and let’s do some crafts. Even if you can only do 5 minutes at a time, each day, that’s ok! Slow and steady wins the race when you have a chronic illness. It’s definitely a marathon! And I know how important it is to keep track of your chronic illness spoons.
So, what exactly do my spoon icons mean?
I’ll tell you!
1 Spoon – Minimum energy required. You can probably create this project fairly quickly without much pain.
2 Spoons – A little more time and energy required. You may need to pace yourself or take a couple breaks.
3 Spoons – Consider resting a little before beginning these projects. You may want to consider gathering most of your supplies the night before, that way you don’t have to use additional spoons the day you want to create the craft.
4 Spoons – This is even more time and energy intensive. Definitely consider gathering all your supplies the night before, and resting before you even get started might help. Pace yourself, and take a few breaks for as long as needed.
5 Spoons – This is very time and energy intensive. You’ll want to prepare for these crafts ahead of time, and you may want to space this craft out over the span of a few days to prevent additional pain or flares. When I do a craft that’s five spoons, it will often take me a few days. But that’s ok because slow and steady wins the race!