There Are People with Less Spoons Than I Have out There

The spoon theory explains to normal people about why chronically ill people do not always have the time to get stuff done. Whether it is chronic pain or other things, chronically ill people are suffering from being tired while having pains in the middle of the night. People with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia do not always sleep well sometimes even while on meds. Some people have more spoons than others. If you are lucky, you do not have a chronic illness but then nobody gets enough sleep if you work full time. Or do you?

How much sleep you get is linked to how much caffeine you worker bees have during the day. As a caffeine addict, I used to drink coffee to get through my day but I’d wind up manic all the time from the coffee. I was only on medication that treated schizophrenia, not a medication that helped with mood swings. I didn’t get a proper schizophrenia diagnosis until I was 30. I know all about sleep deprivation as well. Sleep deprivation can make a person loopy. This can mess with my writing.

The term spoons simply refers to how much energy the chronically ill person can have on any given day or time. Energy is a fleeting sensation that happens more to me in the summer. In winter, I’m stuck low energy unless there is sunlight. In the Bay Area, there is some sunlight but we get our clouds too and this year there has been rain although some are not convinced the drought is over. Spoons refer to energy reserves. Some chronic illnesses like fibromyalgia have to do with physical pain and this definitely controls how much energy the person has.

With other illnesses like diabetes, energy is not certain unless your blood sugar is stable throughout the day. People with hypothyroidism are not always energetic on top of that because of the brain fog and if you are diagnosed with that, having no idea what you are dealing with, this illness can get exhausting. Chronic illnesses are all about how much energy you have either way the person with the illness looks at it. When you can’t work, this is when a person with chronic illness qualifies for SSDI or SSI. SSDI is given to people with a work history.

It is always helpful to have some work history. Chronic illness can drive somebody bankrupt in the United States if only because doctor visits are not single-payer yet and can get expensive. Sometimes finding a job with an illness is difficult if the person doesn’t feel like disclosing it to employers to get reasonable accommodations like being able to come into work later. Chronic illness can take its toll on the person with the illness, if only because you never know what will happen next. This can be crazy making since it is hard to determine how a person will feel day-to-day. Can you put up with something or not? Decisions on how to manage your time have to be made when you have a chronic illness, often with plans as to how that time will be spent. Productivity can be hard for some illnesses if the person remains in bed all day doing nothing or perhaps watching TV is the extent of their activities. It really depends on the person. We all need to make money though and some illness can interfere with that process. However, once a person gets stable with regard to mental illness anything is possible. I know I have a great option for working from home give or take.