Dragon Journal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dragonjournal) wrote2025-01-21 01:45 pm
dragonjournal) wrote2025-01-21 01:45 pm
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Writing While Chronically Ill
Chronic illness. It doesn’t magically go away. It doesn’t take a day off. And still, people with chronic illnesses are expected to be productive members of society, to be “good” workers, parents, children.
So, if you’ve been on the internet for any length of time, you’re familiar with spoon theory. The metaphor that says that for every action, a spoon is expended.
What people sometimes forget, though, is that fun stuff requires a spoon too – sometimes more than one! Meaning that, writing, crochet, editing… those are all spoons we need to account for in our day and somedays… it’s just not there. Kids, jobs, pets, feeding ourselves, all of them take spoons that sometimes we have, and sometimes we don’t.
I, myself, live with at least one physical chronic illness. Then, there’s the mental illnesses, the unknown factors that are still being tested…. My spoons run on a deficit on a good day. On a bad one? There is a deficit like the US National Debt.
So, how do I write? How do I find the energy, the spoons, what-have-you to do the writing that my mind always says need to be done?
The most truthful answer: I don’t know. There is no one fix-all for everyone. So, here’s what I do:
When I get up in the morning, my mind goes over the activities for the day. Writing is always at the top of the list, because I went to school to write dammit, and I plan on doing that! So that’s a spoon, that is reserved. Then, there’s job, kid, cleaning, cooking, walking to the bus and back. And those all take spoons. Then, on top of all that, there’s the cats and the things I want to do: video games, crochet, cross stitch. The problem, of course, is there’s a hierarchy of needs, and video games, crochet and cross stitch just aren’t high on the hierarchy.
Most people don’t have the choice to reserve that spoon for writing. I know how lucky I am. I also know that people have different levels of spoons, different priorities. I’m not here to tell you “well, if you really wanted to” which is a phrase that I find disingenuous at best. Sometimes, life just doesn’t let you. I’ve had days where the most I could muster energy for after work was lying awake in bed, staring at the wall.
And let me tell you, if that’s all the spoons ya got? GO FOR IT
Even if you write for work, this should be fun. Remember fun? Right, you need that again.
Everyone should also be familiar with the Konmari Method. If not, there’s a link to it.
In my opinion, writing should spark joy. You should be eager to sit down and do it. You should want to do it. Otherwise, why are you here? “Because everyone on the internet is a writer”? Is that why you signed up to challenge yourself?
Chronic illnesses make some things impossible, some things harder, and some things feel overwhelming. To go outside on a day when the brain is rebelling is… difficult to say the least, does not spark joy and whoops there goes a handful of spoons.
But this is possible. Whether you have a word pledge or habit pledge. I believe in you, and I’ll continue to do so.
Now, what do you do to spark that joy and get yourself writing, despite health challenges?
So, if you’ve been on the internet for any length of time, you’re familiar with spoon theory. The metaphor that says that for every action, a spoon is expended.
What people sometimes forget, though, is that fun stuff requires a spoon too – sometimes more than one! Meaning that, writing, crochet, editing… those are all spoons we need to account for in our day and somedays… it’s just not there. Kids, jobs, pets, feeding ourselves, all of them take spoons that sometimes we have, and sometimes we don’t.
I, myself, live with at least one physical chronic illness. Then, there’s the mental illnesses, the unknown factors that are still being tested…. My spoons run on a deficit on a good day. On a bad one? There is a deficit like the US National Debt.
So, how do I write? How do I find the energy, the spoons, what-have-you to do the writing that my mind always says need to be done?
The most truthful answer: I don’t know. There is no one fix-all for everyone. So, here’s what I do:
When I get up in the morning, my mind goes over the activities for the day. Writing is always at the top of the list, because I went to school to write dammit, and I plan on doing that! So that’s a spoon, that is reserved. Then, there’s job, kid, cleaning, cooking, walking to the bus and back. And those all take spoons. Then, on top of all that, there’s the cats and the things I want to do: video games, crochet, cross stitch. The problem, of course, is there’s a hierarchy of needs, and video games, crochet and cross stitch just aren’t high on the hierarchy.
Most people don’t have the choice to reserve that spoon for writing. I know how lucky I am. I also know that people have different levels of spoons, different priorities. I’m not here to tell you “well, if you really wanted to” which is a phrase that I find disingenuous at best. Sometimes, life just doesn’t let you. I’ve had days where the most I could muster energy for after work was lying awake in bed, staring at the wall.
And let me tell you, if that’s all the spoons ya got? GO FOR IT
Even if you write for work, this should be fun. Remember fun? Right, you need that again.
Everyone should also be familiar with the Konmari Method. If not, there’s a link to it.
In my opinion, writing should spark joy. You should be eager to sit down and do it. You should want to do it. Otherwise, why are you here? “Because everyone on the internet is a writer”? Is that why you signed up to challenge yourself?
Chronic illnesses make some things impossible, some things harder, and some things feel overwhelming. To go outside on a day when the brain is rebelling is… difficult to say the least, does not spark joy and whoops there goes a handful of spoons.
But this is possible. Whether you have a word pledge or habit pledge. I believe in you, and I’ll continue to do so.
Now, what do you do to spark that joy and get yourself writing, despite health challenges?