So what happens if you run out of spoons for the day before the day is over? You might feel like you have absolutely no energy to do anything else. But life keeps going so inevitably, you borrow from the next day, kind of like an energetic division equation. However, this means you spend the next day in a deficit of these spoons, leading you to have less for that day. This can start a dangerous snowball effect that means that each day you just get less and less until one day you wake up with no spoons at all. When that happens, it’s called burnout. 

Burnout can manifest in many different ways for many different reasons, but it means the same thing: exhaustion. Bone-deep, mind-numbing exhaustion that results from too much emotional, physical, or mental fatigue.  

People who use the spoon theory in their day-to-day life and conversations about how their energy gets used are called “spoonies”. People find community in others who not only know of their energy struggles, but also the burden of needing to advocate for their energy needs in the first place.  

As someone who is a spoonie, I can say that what I wish people understood about spoon theory is that for us, energy is finite. For someone without chronic illness, when you get tired after a task or work a long, exhausting day, it’s not the exact same as someone might experience with chronic illness. If your favorite band was coming to town and they were giving out free tickets, someone without chronic illness might be able to push through and do those things that they deeply wanted because the energy is there. For us, that is not the case. So the next time someone talks about being a spoonie, maybe have an open ear, open mind, and open heart, that our experiences are different and one does not negate the other’s experience.