#chronic illness problems
So my friend bought me a new fit bit, just a mini one, but like. It’s already validating
This is me standing up abruptly today and feeling a palpitation lol
Being chronically ill and tiptoeing around in the waters of dating/apps and finding someone cute but then finding out they’re in the medical field
One thing I don’t think the Spoon metaphor has helped able-bodied people understand is that you can overdraw.
Generally, for most conditions, running out of spoons doesn’t mean you collapse, doesn’t produce an effect they can actually see. What it means is that you run on life support, quite possibly unsafely, until you get to a safe place and can stop. But you’ll owe those spoons back, with interest. You’ll have hurt yourself to do it.
Sometimes I hang out with a friend and they’ll be like, wow, I’m really glad you had a good day. And I have to decide whether to make them feel bad by explaining that in fact they did not catch me on a good day, and tomorrow will probably be bad. I just made choices.
“Hey, y'know that anime trope where a spellcaster runs out of mana, but like his friends and family are counting on him to win or keep the shield up or whatever, so he starts to draw from his own life force? And then the battle is won and everyone’s all "YAAAAAYYYY” but he just fucking… collapses and has to rest for a few days because he literally vampired himself to win? It’s kinda like that.“
My friends and I call this "borrowing spoons.”
It’s understood that spoon-borrowing comes with worse time constraints and interest rates than a payday loan, and the enforcement style of a restless mafia goon.
