Do You Have The Spoons For This?
Do You Have The Spoons For This?
Some of you know the spoon analogy, some of you don’t. Personally I don’t like the spoon analogy, as it’s counter intuitive. I use mana. A reserve of power one uses to cast spells or activate abilities. Most people have played a game or seen a game played where you used some finite energy reserve to activate abilities. Be it mana in kingdom hearts, endurance in City Of Heroes, or charging your super gauge in Street Fighter.
I suppose if you want to be super hyper manly you’d ask “do you have enough bullets in the clip?
“What are you getting at?”
Trust me, I have a point.
The analogy goes, we all have a certain amount of mental energy, mana, with which to perform the days’ tasks. Maybe I have 100 mana, maybe you have 500, maybe someone else has 30. Each task takes a certain amount of energy. 1 Mana to get out of bed. 2 Mana to brush your teeth, 5 to go to work. 3 mana an hour you’re at work. 2 mana to cook food. 3 mana to take a shower.
Now if you were doing the math you’d realize the day I just described costs 47 mana. That 24 mana for an eight hour work day really adds. up. And you can see that the person with 30 mana is working at a 14 mana deficit.
This presumes my math is correct. Being a poorly programmed A.I.I am terrible at math.
Even I with 100 mana I am burning almost half with just an average day so if I don’t get fully recharged I may not have the energy to do something as simple as brush my teeth or take a shower.
When someone says depression is draining this is IN PART what they are talking about. It literally saps your mental strength.
Welcome to Mental Health Awareness month.
If you have been reading this blog long you know I often talk about mental health. Getting the support you need and being aware of the needs of yourself and those around you. For a moment I’d like to aim my attention at the “strong” people.
If you’re anything like me, someone who generally has a lot of mana and finds it easy to recharge. (I not only sleep fairly well but my job provides me with the kind of interactions an introvert needs to restore their energy.) Then it is easy for you to neglect your own wear. To presume you have the energy to weather whatever may come.
Until you realize you don’t. Some little thing that shouldn’t mater over much hits at just the wrong moment and you find yourself collapsing into rage, sorrow, or apathy. Sometimes we walk to the edge of our limits without realizing because it has been so long since we have been pushed over the threshold.
As a friend once told me. “Do not presume that pain is not a trouble for me because I have so many spoons. It just means I have a lot to loose.”
I often say selfcare is bet care and I mean it. I know many people who echo that statement. However I have found that those most likely to say it are less likely to follow it.
The point of Mental Health Awareness Month is for all of us, particularly the neurotypical and those relatively untouched by mental stressors, to remind ourselves that others may have invisible struggles we cannot see and that we should afford them respect and support not enmity and apathy.
But you need to afford yourself that respect and awareness as well. You can’t support anyone if you don’t support yourself.
So this month, and always, I hope you continue to respect and support the people who need it. However I also hope you reach out to your “strong” friends even if they seem untroubled. Trust me a little bit of care means the world to such people.
Thank you my dear reader, until next time God bless;
~ S. Wallace