Spoon and Fork Theory in 2020: COVID-19 and Mental Health in Academia

The COVID-19 pandemic has made a large impact on global society, but one group has been affected by it substantially – that is, university students and junior scholars. Prospective academics around the world are having to deal with numerous obstacles from physical limitations to mental ones. A wave of students moreover is now facing mental health concerns. The questions are how can we address this concern and why has this group been so affected?

The COVID-19 Pandemic has impacted the lives of most, if not all individuals from many different walks of life. The long-term effects of social isolation, chronic stress, and an uncertain future have taken their toll and become increasingly apparent in the mental health of students in higher education and junior scholars (Elmer et al. 2020; Langin 2020; Zhai & Du 2020). Many early-career scholars have had to face sets of additional challenges to their academic duties, which are considerable. To add an external factor that one has not planned nor can control, much less predict into the mix requires a whole other level of energy than just coping with everyday realities.

What is the new reality during the COVID-19 pandemic? Junior academics are still expected to maintain the status quo in terms of academic output despite the lack of access to data, resources, funds, and most importantly the tools to balance their academic and social life. As also described by Hadi, Martel and Raupp, this pressure leaves them feeling disconnected, anxious, isolated, overwhelmed, and perhaps even depressed (Elmer et al. 2020; Kerstin et al. 2021; Langin 2020; Mills 2020).

The cumulative stress of constant worry and lack of control without a buffer leaves students and early career scholars vulnerable. Vulnerability is anacademic reality, especially if they do not have supportive mechanisms present in both their academic or personal lives necessary to allow them to succeed in an increasingly precarious and unpredictable situation.

Spoon and Fork Theory or “Spork Theory”

One way of understanding such vulnerabilities is to acknowledge the causes and limitations of a person. This can easily be explained through the use of allegories involving everyday objects, as Christine Miserandino did. She answered the question of a friend about what it was like to be sick by using the allegory of a bunch of spoons that were on the table to explain how the chronic illness of Lupus affects her “energy levels” every day.

“The difference in being sick and being healthy is having to make choices or to consciously think about things when the rest of the world doesn’t have to. The healthy have the luxury of a life without choices, a gift most people take for granted […] I used spoons to convey this point. I wanted something for her to actually hold, for me to then take away since most people who get sick feel a “loss” of a life they once knew. If I was in control of taking away the spoons, then she would know what it feels like to have someone or something else, in this case, Lupus, being in control (Miserandino 2013).”

Junior academics have many obligations and roles that they are expected to fulfill such as, the pressure to innovate, create academic output and publish, which are daunting even in normal circumstances. However, the pandemic has added to these obligations, which threatens to de-stabilize their very essence, their minds. This is where the ‘Spoon Theory’ can help in explaining the impact that the pandemic has had on students and early-career scholars, both physically and mentally. It is this feeling of lack of control, whether it is: being able to access one’s research field, struggling with pre-pandemic deadlines, or trying to maintain the motivation and the energy required to complete projects.

It is no wonder that students and early-career scholars feel depressed or drained under the current circumstances, why their abilities to fulfill their goals are curtailed and their creative energies compromised by everyday uncertainties. They are like artists that need room and an environment to innovate and create. When this is compromised, the energy that is normally used to innovate is ‘shifted’ to manage the everyday stressors caused by the pandemic. This situation can result in even less energy to complete tasks. Just like a spoon can hold or retain so much, the same logic applies to an individual. Much like the ‘Spoon Theory,’  the ‘Fork Theory’ refers to a person’s energy levels, but more specifically stressors or triggers, which are “a psychological stimulus that prompts recall of a previous traumatic or bad experience,” (Coburn 2019; Foa et al. 2008; Miserandino 2013). The phrase, “Stick a fork in me, I’m done” is a reference to how much a person can cope with their triggers. Triggers like forks can vary in size, and both ‘test’ each person and their limits.

Mental Health: A Call for Solidarity with the Invisible Sickness

Both ‘Spoon and Fork Theories’ help explain and illustrate the impact that the pandemic has on the mental health of students and junior scholars, and of the general population (van der Velden et al. 2020; Zhai & Du 2020). This is also why society as a whole must pay more attention to mental health and its everyday causes and triggers.

Under normal circumstances, society retains the traditional association of mental health being a sickness that is not a social problem, but rather an individual medical problem. However, the pandemic has blurred these traditional boundaries and forced society and governments to look at mental health, not as an individual problem, but one that can be felt upon the whole of society; which is essential in breaking the stigma that surrounds mental health. Junior academics feel this all too acutely, given the pre-existing mental strain that comes with undertaking an academic life.

It is, therefore, up to society and its institutions to utilize this dreadful pandemic situation for a positive change, to not only provide the much-needed support to students and early career scholars to survive and thrive, but also to have solidarity with those who are normally excluded and misunderstood, due to having mental health challenges.

Leslie Ader is a doctoral student and researcher in migration and mobility at the University of Neuchâtel associated with the nccr – on the move in the project on “Historical Perspective on Mobility in Welfare States” and focuses on History of Welfare States, Discourse, Claims-Making, and Welfare Policies.

References:

– Coburn, J. (2019). Spoon Theory and Fork Theory. Medium. (8.12.2019)
– Elmer, T., Mepham, K., & Stadtfeld, C. (2020). Students Under Lockdown: Comparisons of Students’ Social Networks and Mental Health Before and During the COVID-19 Crisis in Switzerland, PLOS ONE 15(7), e0236337.
– Foa, E. B., Keane, T. M., Friedman, M. J. & Cohen, J. A. (2008). Effective treatments for PTSD: Practice guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.
– Kerstin, M., Hadi, A. A. & Raupp, M. (2021). Researchers Stuck in Immobility, nccr – on the move (17.02.2021).
– Langin, K. (2020). As the Pandemic Erodes Grad Student Mental Health, Academics Sound the Alarm. Science.
– Mills, K. (2020). Speaking of Psychology: How Students and Academia are Navigating COVID-19, American Psychological Association (Bonus Episode April 2020, retrieved February 25, 2021).
– Miserandino, C. (2013). The Spoon Theory. But You Dont Look Sick? Support for Those with Invisible Illness or Chronic Illness (25.04.2013).
– van der Velden, P. G., Contino, C., Das, M., van Loon, P. & Bosmans, M. W. G. (2020). Anxiety and Depression Symptoms, and Lack of Emotional Support Among the General Population Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic. A Prospective National Study on Prevalence and Risk Factors. Journal of Affective Disorders 277, 540–548.
– Zhai, Y., & Du, X. (2020). Addressing Collegiate Mental Health Amid COVID-19 Pandemic. Psychiatry Research, 288, 113003.