“Spoon Theory” is something that has really changed the way I’m able to explain my illness to people. I found Spoon Theory on But You Don’t Look Sick, a blog about invisible disabilities, and I haven’t found a better way to explain how it feels to be in chronic pain.

The author, Christine Miserandino, says that healthy people expect to have an endless supply of spoons, but people who are sick start each day with a finite number of spoons, which represent a person’s energy to make it through the day, essentially. The friend Christine is explaining this to has lost half of her spoons just getting ready for work. I think this essay is a great tool for explaining to loved ones your condition.

Spoon Theory has even become a bit of an inside joke among some chronically ill people in the But You Don’t Look Sick community, where people wish each other “extra spoons”.

The National Fibromyalgia Association has a variation on Spoon Theory that is specific to chronic pain called the Clothespin Challenge, in which someone who does not live with chronic pain holds a clothespin on their finger and then explain to them that with chronic pain, you can’t just take the clothespin off when you feel like it.

These are both great resources for helping understand chronic pain, kudos to But You Don’t Look Sick and NFA for these great resources.