During our brainstorm we were addressing issues/themes we should focus on and someone suggested living positively. And this is where i’m going to be (slightly) controversial. I wasn’t totally sold on the idea. I think it’s something we need to promote, for people who are already positive, but I have concern about promoting it to people who aren’t infected. Having recently lost my brother to this deadly virus and seeing what he suffered through, I believe that it’s time to go back to talking about the reality of living with HIV/AIDS. I don’t mean scare tactics, though in some cases, is there a difference?
I think we need to get people, especially young people, to understand what it truely means to live with the virus. How your life changes, your family and friends want to support you, but don’t know how, the complexities of dating, when to disclose your status and to who? The implications of the medicines, if you have the opportunity to access them in the first place. I think it’s important to support our brothers and sisters living with the virus, but being too politcally correct, i.e. ‘we don’t want to offend PLWA’ is also irresponsible in my opinion. Complacency is partly a consequence of pushing the ‘living positively’ message.
I’d like to see us handle it in a different way, to show a rounded picture of living with the virus – the good, the bad and the ugly. Let’s see if we can get the funding to do that, hmmm.
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January 13, 2010 at 12:45 pm
LP
It is very true that in this era of treatment and positive living, the message that HIV/AIDS Kills can no longer be tolerated…but the reality is that HIV/AIDS, whether it kills or not (and for many in developing countries it still does)..is never going to be an easy illness to live with. It has complications like few other chronic illnesses in that it is still a disease rife with stigma and discrimination.
Its only recently that the US lifted its travel ban but many countries in the world still have laws restricting entry of people living with HIV. It will affect your dating life and every other aspect of your being.
I do not know how to take that message across, I guess we need more people to share realistic pictures and not just pretty ones. Taking medication every day, always worried about infecting your partner (if you are in a mixed status couple), being afraid to seek out medical care because you don’t want people finding out, worried about whether you will ever have children, burying friends and family and wondering if it will be you next, feeling so exhausted of trying to remain healthy that giving up seems like the only alternative.
People live with HIV because they have to. as Human beings we adapt to challenges. Thats the best that we can do.