First Christine Miserandino came up with spoon theory to describe managing limited resources in the context of chronic illness. Then Jen Rose came up with fork theory to describe the cumulative effects of stressors. The mental illness cutlery drawer incorporates those concepts and adds a few more elements into the mix, like knives (traumas), whisks (sources of overwhelm), and meat tenderizers (things that beat the crap out of you and just keep on beating).
You can read more about mental illness cutlery in this blog post:
https://mentalhealthathome.org/2020/11/24/mental-illness-cutlery-drawer/