I Have Herpes

By Vance Larson

Having an STD can be scary. Do you know what is even scarier? The stigma that comes along with it.

Actually, I don't. But what was your first thought? Did your opinion of me change? I ask, because this is a very real situation that many have to face on a daily basis. Let's talk about stigma.

Let me start with a quick story that happened to me. About 30 years ago I was working as a crisis counselor for the HIV/AIDS communities. And while many of my clients had multiple health issues and co-occurring disorders, it seemed like so many people wanted to know what it was like working with someone with AIDS? While it is true that I entered the AIDS era at a time {late 80's early 90's} when we were still learning about the modes of transmission and pathology, there was a stigma attached to it that scared, upset and downright pissed some people off. I can recall at one AIDS march in Washington DC, there was a church group there screaming the most vile things to us as we peaceful marched. I think it was then that I realized just how powerful the stigma was.

But one day, my good friend asked if we could grab lunch together. Being always up for a meal, I accepted their invitation. I could tell something was weighing heavy on their mind. After we got our table they said they had something that they really needed to tell me. I was bracing for the worse. It was at that time they disclosed that they had Herpes. Without hesitation my response was... "And"? They said "That's it." That they just needed me to know. I exhaled feeling relived. I wasn't sure where they were coming from? They explained that they had been carrying for some time now, and they were afraid of being judged. All I could think and say was "You know I have been an HIV/AIDS counselor for a decade. What makes you think I would judge you"?

The thing that surprised me the most, is just how small they felt. The fact that the population that I was serving was {at the time} considered to be the outcast like the addictions population, shocked me that they thought Herpes would cause judgement on my side. It did not. It did however open my eyes to the stigma and judgement people who share these diseases feel on a day to day basis.

We are a culture of blame, pointing the finger and shame. We don't look at someone with cancer and cast judgement. Nor do we when someone has Epilepsy. But when it comes to addictions, STD's and even obesity, it seems that opinions change. It is almost like these people do not deserve compassion.

A few years back I was part of a group venture that was to provide Methadone to addicts in their environment. It was a mobile Methadone center. I was being interviewed by one of the local papers and I was asked being the staff chaplain, "What was my plan to convert these people?" My first thought was "These people?". I simply bit my tongue and said "I'm not here to convert them. I am here to love them." I am not sure why we feel the need to convert, shame or judge people who are in need of help.

I think the take away from my experiences is that people get sick. Some by chance, and as some would say by choice. Bad things happen. And at times, horrific things happen. Stigma and judgment play no part in healing or changing behaviors for the good. When I think back when my friend was scared to tell me about Herpes, despite knowing what I did for a living, made it real for me. Being sick is scary. Being sick and being judged, is downright terrifying.

We can do better. We must do better. Mental health, addictions, obesity or AIDS, we have the power to create an environment that fosters healing. Because at no time in my 30 plus years of mental health work have I ever witnessed someone making healthy changes due to judgement. Acceptance, education and compassion pave the path to change, health and recovery.

The Nature of HIV

The contagious nature of HIV places it in a different class than other chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, and so forth. The contagious nature of HIV has a more debilitating psychosocial and psychological impact on the ill person's mental and emotional state than non-contagious diseases and often leads to self-imposed isolation and a feeling of being totally inadequate.

HIV medications can help the body of the infected person but that person's feelings of self-worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence suffer from a staggering blow that must be attended to just as directly as the treatment of their physical body.

Healing the mind of the HIV infected person goes a long way in healing the body of that person because the healthy mental state of the mind will produce far more antibodies to combat intrusions than a mental state that is depressed and dispirited about the condition of its physical health.

The most dangerous mindset that a person who is infected with the HIV virus can allow themselves to fall into is that of denial. Denial is so dangerous because it refuses to accept the existence of the disease which hinders the infected person from taking the necessary actions to treat the virus and also places other people in grave jeopardy.

Denial also has the side effect of confusing the brain where it will send wrong or mixed signals to the protection mechanics of the body and weakens the responsiveness of this system to both positive and negative external and internal stimuli.

A person can live a long reasonably healthy life with HIV, but that is not good enough when that person is living in a despondent mental and emotional state because of their constant awareness that a deadly plague is actively resident within them.

The powerful human nature of sexuality becomes a burden and a curse for those who are infected with any sort of sexually transmitted disease, and being infected with the HIV and Aids virus also has a good deal of shame and embarrassment that comes attached to them.

There is nothing that hinders a person infected with the HIV and Aids virus from living a productive and rewarding life if they do not wallow in the mindset of a defeatist. Being HIV positive may seem like it's the end of your world, but it is not, it is merely one of life's many obstacles and challenges that must be faced with a determination to overcome it.

Self-pity and denial are psychological contraband that must be removed from the mind and replaced with goods and services that are reinforcing and empowering personally and societally.

The nature of Hiv is silent and deadly. It feeds upon the cells of the body like and leech.

Hiv is: "Definition By Mayo Clinic Staff "

"Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging your immune system, HIV interferes with your body's ability to fight the organisms that cause disease.

HIV is a sexually transmitted infection. It can also be spread by contact with infected blood or from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding. Without medication, it may take years before HIV weakens your immune system to the point that you have AIDS.

There's no cure for HIV/AIDS, but there are medications that can dramatically slow the progression of the disease. These drugs have reduced AIDS deaths in many developed nations. But HIV continues to decimate populations in Africa, Haiti and parts of Asia."

The symptoms of HIV and AIDS vary, depending on the phase of infection.

Primary infection (Acute HIV):

The majority of people infected by HIV develop a flu-like illness within a month or two after the virus enters the body. This illness, known as primary or acute HIV infection, may last for a few weeks. Possible signs and symptoms include:

� Fever

� Headache

� Muscle aches and joint pain

� Rash

� Sore throat

� Swollen lymph glands, mainly on the neck

Although the symptoms of primary HIV infection may be mild enough to go unnoticed, the amount of virus in the bloodstream (viral load) is particularly high at this time. As a result, HIV infection spreads more efficiently during primary infection than during the next stage of infection.

Clinical latent infection (Chronic HIV):

In some people, persistent swelling of lymph nodes occurs during clinical latent HIV. Otherwise, there are no specific signs and symptoms. HIV remains in the body, however, and in infected white blood cells.

Clinical latent infection generally lasts around 10 years if you're not receiving antiretroviral therapy. This phase can last for decades in people taking antiretroviral medications. But some people progress to more severe disease much sooner.

Early symptomatic HIV infection:

As the virus continues to multiply and destroy immune cells, you may develop mild infections or chronic signs and symptoms such as:

� Fever

� Fatigue

� Swollen lymph nodes - often one of the first signs of HIV infection

� Diarrhea

� Weight loss

� Oral yeast infection (thrush)

� Shingles (herpes zoster)

Progression to AIDS:

If you receive no treatment for your HIV infection, the disease typically progresses to AIDS in about 10 years. By the time AIDS develops, your immune system has been severely damaged, making you susceptible to opportunistic infections - diseases that wouldn't usually trouble a person with a healthy immune system.

The signs and symptoms of some of these infections may include:

� Soaking night sweats

� Recurring fever

� Chronic diarrhea

� Persistent white spots or unusual lesions on your tongue or in your mouth

� Persistent, unexplained fatigue

� Weight loss

� Skin rashes or bumps

When to see a doctor:

If you think you may have been infected with HIV or are at risk of contracting the virus, see a health care provider as soon as possible."

For more on this go to: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hiv-aids/basics/definition/con-20013732

Everyone say that there is currently no cure for the HIV and Aids virus and widely promote medicating the virus. This is great advice for the benefit of pharmaceutical companies but falls far short of the mark for those of us who are HIV positive.

The cure for the HIV and Aids virus is with those of us who are infected by forming our own independent research and development groups that are solely interested in finding and releasing the cure for HIV and Aids and not making money by only developing medications for it.

By monkeys or by man, however, HIV and Aids reared their hideous heads is a lukewarm topic compared to self-reliance, corporate action, and creative initiative that we who are HIV and Aids positive must undertake as a formidable unified body to cure ourselves of this plague and not depend on others to do it for us.

Your starting point for making your personal stand for life is by becoming a member of http://hiveaid.org. Join Now and reassert your individual and collective independence and humanity.

We must not allow HIV and Aids to be relegated to being just one of many treatable illnesses because that will be like abandoning the ship before it has hit the iceberg. We are the pioneers of our own health and destiny and will forge ahead until we are safely at anchor within the docks of the new city.

Our enemy gropes in the darkness attacking our immune system by using the corridors of our life-giving blood to assail us. There should be a way to induce our quiet enemy to feed upon itself and in so doing annihilate itself.

The cure for HIV and Aids is in the creative energies of women and men and can be developed, if it has not already been, and dispersed among HIV and Aids infected individuals free of charge. There is no such thing as being no such thing as far as human imagination is concerned. The ability to achieve is a gift that is embedded within all of us, some having more of this gift while others less, but we all have this gift if we are willing to cultivate and exploit it.

Our hands are not tied to the whims and the goodwill of others, therefore, we muster our collective forces, pool our resources, and get busy with the job at hand, taking our lives back and dislodging our silent enemy from the tables of nations.

Use http://luciditybooks.com as your Internet shopping mart. Shop and Save Now!


By Herbert Leon Hilliard


Article Source: The Nature of HIV