this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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Chronic Illness

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A community/support group for chronically ill people. While anyone is welcome, our number one priority is keeping this a safe space for chronically ill people.

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I was telling someone recently about the "spoons" metaphor. I guessed they probably hadn't heard that before so before I said what I really wanted to say, I explained it. Basically, it means "unit of energy" and the idea is that we each have a different number of units each day depending on our ability / health.

In the time that it took to explain that, I could have just said what I needed to. How did it become so popular? The spoon doesn't even symbolise anything itself. So while I think it made a good visual demo when the first person presented it, I think it lands differently with people in conversation.

It is somehow reassuring to hear other people using it. It has shown me how many people struggle this way that I never realised before. But I think I'll stick with "batteries" or something that's easier to explain to people who aren't in the loop.

Thoughts?

Edit: The metaphor was invented by Christine Miserandino to illustrate her experience of lupus to someone in a café. I assume the cutlery was the best illustration device to hand in that situation and quite effective.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I like that one. We don't know how much sand is left and we don't know how much rest will be required to return the sand to the other side.