The Spoon Theory Explained

So, this is the Spoon Theory explained. Basically, a healthy body has unlimited amount of spoons….aka cortisol…aka energy. Wouldn’t that be nice?

This is how I explained my illness to my kids so that they could understand at any moment how I was doing.

I took out all of my spoons in my kitchen drawer and sat down with each kid.

I started with Austin because he not only was the oldest but he was the one who least understood it

I told him he was just diagnosed with AI. Congratulations…you get 20 sooons per day!!

I then told him to tell me about a typical day for him. He started with “Well, I wake up.” “Ok great…one spoons please!” “Woooah…hold up…just for getting out of bed?” “Yes son, you use spoons for every single thing in your life.”

He carried on. “I then make breakfast.” “Ok, that will be 3 spoons!” We carried this on for quite some time. He then was all of a sudden was out of spoons and still had plenty to do in his day. “What do I do now?”

I explained how he would need to make a choice on whether or not to borrow from tomorrow’s spoons. He agreed that he did but I warned him how he would feel the next day.

I then explained that any kind of stress, good or bad, also took spoons.

He started crying. “Mom…I had NO IDEA how living with this disease impacted you soooo much!”

Here’s to wishing you day filled with spoons my friends!! 🥄🦋🥄🦋

Author: Jen Hudnall

After over 8 years of being incredibly sick, being told it was all in my head, dragging my kids to the hospital over and over again, I was finally diagnosed with Adrenal Insufficiency, also known as Addison's Disease. I've started this blog to share my journey and to help educate and bring awareness about not only Addison's Disease, but every other rare disease in which case patients are fighting to find a diagnoses to their symptoms. View all posts by Jen Hudnall