Topic Talk | Spoon Theory

Become a monthly subscriber for just $1.99 per month and receive an additional two to three episodes per week!https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9472af5c-8580-45e1-b0dd-ff211db08a90/exclusive-contentIn this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack talk about spoon theory:Spoon Theory: The Spoon Theory is a metaphor used to explain the limited amount of energy and resources that people with chronic illnesses or disabilities have to accomplish daily tasks and activities. It was coined by Christine Miserandino in 2003 in an essay she wrote to explain her experience with lupus to a friend.Transcript:00:00:01JackWelcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host social and today social and I are going to talk about something called Spoon theory and I don't really know what this is, to be honest. I am kind of ignorant on this topic, but social is going to explain.00:00:22JackThe meaning of spoon theory and then we are going to complain like a couple of old people about all of our physical ailments that we're dealing with, right? So, OK, awesome. Alright. What is spoon theory? Social.00:00:34XochitlYes.00:00:39XochitlSo spoon theory is a metaphor, and it describes the amount of physical or mental energy that you have available for daily activities. So if you live with chronic pain or chronic illness, whether it's mental or physical or both, you're kind of limited in a way that other people aren't. And so.00:00:59XochitlThe idea is that you have a set amount of spoons. Let's say you have 10 spoons for your day, and then things that other people don't realize take up energy because they have.00:01:09XochitlA more fit body do take up energy for people with chronic pain. So let's say getting up and out of bed, taking a shower, making something to eat.00:01:23XochitlEven getting ready for bed, getting dressed, all those things can put strain on your body and eat up your spoon. So maybe by the time you even get ready to go to work, you're down 5 spoons and someone who doesn't have chronic illness might have just used a spoon or half a spoon of energy to do all those.00:01:44JackYeah. And let's just, uh, quickly, uh, unpack a little bit of the vocabulary. Chronic means, like, always constant. So chronic pain means you're always in pain from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. You have some kind of pain.00:01:54발표자Yes.00:02:04JackIssue.00:02:05JackAnd and so social was describing like, like the spoons are not literally spoons. We're not talking about real spoons. We're saying, like, they're like metaphors. Like, you got 10 spoons and.00:02:19XochitlThey're like units of energy, basically.00:02:21JackUnits of energy. Right. Exactly. And so.00:02:24XochitlLike hit points on a video game when your character has like a little green.00:02:28XochitlR.00:02:30JackYeah, right. Energy. Your power gets, you know, goes down and down and down, yeah.00:02:30XochitlAnd then yeah it.00:02:35XochitlIf your character is a healthy character, let's say they did all their tests and their bar is still green. But if your character has chronic illness, then by the time they're done with their morning routine, they might be down to yellow. They might be.00:02:47XochitlDown to half points.00:02:49JackRight. And let's say your energy level for the day for a person with chronic pain is 10 spoon.00:02:55발표자And.00:02:56JackLike social said, getting ready in the morning, making breakfast, taking a shower, getting dressed, that might be 5 spoons, which means you only have 5 left for the whole day, so you get the bus, get to work, open your computer. You know, there's three more spoons now. You've got 2 spoons.00:02:56XochitlYes.00:03:17JackLeft, you don't even have enough to get home, you know.00:03:20XochitlRight.00:03:22JackUntil you hit the wall right and you're so exhausted.00:03:22XochitlAnd.00:03:24XochitlRight.00:03:26XochitlAnd a lot of people get through their day-to-day on like a spoon deficit. So you're, but you're the concept basically suggests you're borrowing spoons. You're borrowing energy from your next day, which is how people who have chronic illness might end up pushing through of five day work week and doing 40 hours a week.00:03:46XochitlBut then on the weekend, they're just laying in bed the whole 2 days.00:03:50JackRight. They're just totally wiped.00:03:52JackThat out. OK, I love the idea of spoon theory. I think it's a really good. I'm not sure why they call it spoons. Like use spoons as the as the example, but it could be anything. Yeah.00:04:02XochitlRight. I don't know. I think I think because you run out, you run out. I don't know if this is true or not, but you know when you're doing dishes like you only have a certain amount of spoons and you have to do the dishes again.00:04:13JackOhh yeah, that's right that that's probably it. Yeah. I think that makes sense. Yeah, so.00:04:16XochitlYeah.00:04:20발표자So.00:04:22JackUh, I'll, I'll. I'll start with myself here first. Uh, I've been. I've been dealing with. Uh, a chronic chronic back pain for probably 20 years, I would say.00:04:34JackI had my first.00:04:36JackMy first surgery, my first back surgery for disc.00:04:42JackProblems when I was 27.00:04:45JackAnd and then, uh, probably about 10 years later, maybe 15 years later, I had another back surgery for more disc problems. And now for the last like maybe three weeks. I've been dealing with some serious chronic pain just all the time.00:05:07JackWith my back and my discs again. So what? What I find is when you're in pain all the time.00:05:16JackYou're more tired.00:05:18JackYou can't exercise, so when you eat you get bored. You just sitting around. So. So in for me, I'll eat more to, like comfort myself, which makes me.00:05:30XochitlHave something to do right? Yeah.00:05:32JackGain weight, which makes my back hurt more, which makes me more depressed, which makes me want to eat more, which makes me not exercise more and it's like a a horrible spiral. You know, as I just go down the drain, you know, and things are getting worse and worse, so.00:05:48발표자Right.00:05:50JackSo.00:05:51JackYeah. So I so I I know what the spoon theory thing you're talking about is like there are times where I go to work and I run out of spoons, you know, by the my third class, I'm just like.00:06:04JackI don't. Whatever. You know what, guys? Just take a rest and, you know, draw a picture on your paper or whatever you wanted to, you know, talk with your friend like I'm completely. I'm done. Like I I don't have the the mental capacity.00:06:15XochitlAll right.00:06:23JackOr the physical capacity to do this anymore?00:06:27JackAnd and it's a really, it's a really depressing way to live because living with pain all the time means you're kind of always thinking about the pain. It's always in your mind. And then that leaves a little bit of space for you to think about and deal with other people. So I find that I'm really short tempered.00:06:38XochitlYeah.00:06:47JackWith my wife, I'm like, short with my wife. You know, my wife will ask me a question. Like what? You know, what do you want for dinner? What? You know that. That's my response to something like that. And it's like it's so rude.00:06:59JackAnd so disgusting of a response. But it's not. It's not because I was mad at her or anything to do with her. It's just cuz I was in some pain. I'm just like not able to focus. Like what? What did you say? Like I I can't. I can't even hear what other people are saying to me. And I really hate being like this. Like it. Really.00:06:59XochitlRight.00:07:18JackIt really makes me frustrated and I and I.00:07:21JackCan't get good.00:07:22JackSleep because I can't lie on my side. It hurts if I lie on my back. It hurts if I.00:07:27JackLie on my other side, it hurts.00:07:28JackSo it's really I've I've been dealing with this and and I know that you also have understand what I'm saying, cuz I think you've dealt with some like physical issues as well.00:07:38XochitlYeah.00:07:39XochitlDefinitely, Jack. I I completely understand what you're saying. I was born with.00:07:45XochitlBorderline hip dysplasia and both hips, and that just means my anatomy is wonky, so my bone is like here instead of being here, it's like on the edge of where it's supposed to be. And every time I walk it, like beats up the other bone I.00:08:01XochitlSo it like pinches and it's really bad in one hip specifically, which has become weaker due to the pain, but it's really hard to do physical therapy with it because.00:08:09발표자MHM.00:08:14XochitlI'm in pain, so it's hard to start doing exercises around it because it hurts more and it's more tiring and I have like a very limited.00:08:25XochitlAmount of what I can do in one day.00:08:28XochitlWhich means that I'll if I feel like I have energy to do something, I'll do as much as I can in one day and then I'll end up borrowing spoons for the next day. So I'm totally crashed out the next day. I have no energy and I know what you mean. I can also get really short tempered. Uh, one thing, a lot of people don't realize is that.00:08:47XochitlIt affects your sleep.00:08:49JackRight.00:08:49XochitlSo imagine that you had really poor sleep for like a week straight. At that point, if you're only sleeping.00:09:01XochitlFar less hours a night than you're supposed to be, far less comfortably. You probably start getting confused, agitated, irritable.00:09:12XochitlAnd unfortunately, people around you suffer because.00:09:15XochitlYou can snap at them unexpectedly.00:09:18JackYou're not gonna snap at strangers. You know you're gonna snap it. You're the people that you love because you know that they can't abandon you. You know, it's like.00:09:25XochitlRight. You're comfortable with, you're comfortable around them and you're also interacting with them?00:09:29XochitlMore, yeah.00:09:30XochitlOn a daily basis than you would with any strangers, right. So.00:09:34XochitlIt does. It is really hard. It it's one of the reasons that I have a hard time.00:09:39XochitlFinding a full time job that I can do is because.00:09:45XochitlI only have so many spoons in a day and I really struggled with college when I was in college for the same reason. It's not that the work was too hard.00:09:52XochitlFor.00:09:53XochitlMe. It was that I would just get so burnt out in a day from I didn't. I like. I won't sleep well. I'm not eating well. I feel terrible. I can't walk well. Some days I really have to drag myself around.00:10:08XochitlGet anywhere and I think.00:10:12XochitlIt really puts a strain on what you can do in any given day and a lot of people just don't understand.00:10:17XochitlAnd especially when it's kind of an invisible disability. So like people like Jack and I, we might look fine to people on the outside, but we're suffering internally through all these physical and emotional stressors because it does affect your mental well-being as well.00:10:35JackYeah, chronic pain is is a it. It doesn't just affect your body, it it affects your mind as well it it. It plays games with.00:10:42JackYour.00:10:43JackWith your mind and and changes your personality and and your outlook on life and and everything so.00:10:49JackOhh yeah trying trying to overcome it. If you can find some way of dealing with like physical therapy or some kind of you know if there's a if there's a way out of it. I highly recommend pursuing it if it's possible and staying away from like painkillers and opiates and that sort of stuff.00:11:12JackBecause that stuff is.00:11:13JackJust uh masks the pain for a little while, but then that'll send you down a whole, you know, could send you.00:11:20XochitlOhh, their wormhole, right? Yeah.00:11:21JackYes, exactly, exactly so there. You know, there isn't really necessarily always a good solution to our problems. You know, sometimes they can throw painkillers at it. That's not gonna solve the problem.00:11:33XochitlYeah.00:11:34JackYeah.00:11:35XochitlIt's like seeding the monster temporarily, then it like rears its ugly head again.00:11:40JackYeah, it it gives you, you get a week of, you know, like a kind of uh. But then you're foggy, you know, you you're not yourself, you know, so.00:11:48XochitlAnd you can also get your table like as soon as you're off the pain meds or as soon as anything. Yeah, and you get dependent on them. So I think it. Yeah, I I really haven't had much. I did get an injection, A cortisol injection in my hip.00:11:52JackAll right, absolutely, absolutely.00:12:03XochitlThat worked for about two weeks, and then the pain is back, I suppose, to work for average to three to six months. So I'm like, well, totally didn't work. So I burned through that. So we shall see. But yeah, it is. It is a frustrating condition and I think.00:12:11JackYou're like, whoops.00:12:23XochitlFirst world so-called first world countries are just now starting to treat chronic pain as its own condition, not just the underlying cause, but managing it on its own. And we're just now making strides and.00:12:37XochitlMaking accommodations for it in the workplace, and I think we're making big leaps, but yeah, I'm curious to know about your guys's experience as listeners. Do any of you suffer with chronic pain or chronic health conditions? Obviously, only share as much as you're comfortable sharing, but yeah, I'm just curious to know what, what are things like in your country?00:12:56XochitlUM, how does it operate in your country and your culture?00:12:59XochitlThere.00:13:01XochitlYeah, I'm very interested to know. So leave us a comment down below at AZ englishpodcast.com. Shoot us an e-mail at at [email protected]:13:10XochitlAnd make sure to join the we chat and WhatsApp groups to talk to us directly. If you can spare $1.99 Jack and I are making exclusive episodes for subscribers. This really helps us to be able to increase the level and amount of content that we're making. So we really appreciate your support and thank you so much to those of you who have subscribed.00:13:31XochitlReady. And I'll see you the next.00:13:33XochitlTime. Bye bye.00:13:34JackBye bye.Podcast Website:https://atozenglishpodcast.com/topic-talk-spoon-theory/Social Media:WeChat: atozenglishpodcastFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/671098974684413/Tik Tok: @atozenglish1Instagram: @atozenglish22Twitter: @atozenglish22A to Z Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/theatozenglishpodcastCheck out our You Tube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCds7JR-5dbarBfas4Ve4h8ABecome a member of Podchaser and leave a positive review!https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-a-to-z-english-podcast-4779670Join our Whatsapp group: https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7Intro/Outro Music: Daybird by Broke for Freehttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Directionless_EP/Broke_For_Free_-_Directionless_EP_-_03_Day_Bird/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcodeSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-a-to-z-english-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy