The Spoon Theory
The Spoon Theory: Understanding the Invisible Illness What is the Spoon Theory? The Spoon Theory is a powerful metaphor by Christine Miserandino that poignantly illustrates the daily struggle of living with chronic illnesses. It is a very effective concept for explaining the largely invisible challenges of such conditions, making it easier for people who suffer from these to express their experiences. All chronic illnesses, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, and multiple sclerosis, are symptomatic but not visible to any other person. Such an illness makes a person feel isolated and misunderstood. The Spoon Theory is a metaphor that describes how the disease influences the daily life of an individual and why something simple could become a mountainous task for that individual. The Analogy To understand the Spoon Theory, imagine this: every morning when you wake up, you have a certain number of spoons at your disposal. A spoon is a unit of energy, the ability ...