#fluidityofneeds

Friday, March 15, 2024

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How to Explain the Fluidity of Needs Based on Energy Levels

Neurodivergent community, I have figured out a way to explain the fluidity of our needs based on our energy levels. Although, if one thinks about it, it applies to everyone. Imagine everyone has a Stamina/Energy Bar above their heads; we’ll use the color Yellow to represent the stamina available, and Grey to represent the stamina used. And every task, every action, has a set amount, a number, assigned to it. Now imagine every time someone picks up their bag, turns their head, moves in any way, speaks, does ANYTHING, the yellow area either steadily shrinks, or drops all at once to a specific point, while the rest of the bar it is greyed out. Now imagine when someone eats, drinks, sleeps, relaxes, RESTS, the yellow area of the bar steadily increases over time, shrinking the grey area. But what happens if we use all our energy during the day? Or go into the negative? If we don’t recoup stamina/energy throughout the day and while sleeping, then our Stamina Bar, going into the next day, is mostly greyed out. If there’s any yellow at all. We could have pushed the grey area past 0, into the negative. Now, because we’re either running on empty, or borrowing from tomorrow, tasks we could easily do yesterday cannot be done today, or they’re done “half-assed”, because we don’t have the Stamina to do them “properly”. We’d need more REST to replenish our stamina. We’d either need to INCREASE the size of the yellow area of the Stamina Bar and/or DECREASE the size of the grey area to bring us above 0. If we borrow too much of tomorrow, if we extend the grey area of the Stamina Bar too far past 0, it WILL cause burn out. AND irreparable damage if done too often and/or if we’re burnt out, in the negative, past 0, for too long.