12/27/2019
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Below the surface, living with HIV can
mean isolation, depression, social stigma, and side effects of medication.
There's so much more to life with HIV than meets the eye. We know that HIV
comes with symptoms, medication side effects, relationship challenges, and
emotional turmoil, much of which appears invisible to outsiders. Most people
don't see half of what we experience.
Anger
Anxiety
Blurred Vision
Depression
Diarrhea
Cardiovascular Complications
Cramps
Dermatological Complications
Family Stress
Fatigue
Fever
Headaches
Inflammation
Internal Struggles
Isolation
Joint Pain
Loneliness
Loss of Confidence
Loss of Mobility
Mouth Ulcers
Muscular/Skeletal Issues
Nausea
Neurological pains
Neuropathy
Night Sweats
Overall Weakness
Rash
Rejection
Relationship Challenges
Self-loathing
Shame
Sleepless Nights/Insomnia
Stigma
Suicidal Thoughts
Swollen Lymph Glands
Thrush
Vomiting
Weight Gain/Loss
These are just a handful of
symptoms people living with HIV might have. Everyone who has HIV has a
different story and different symptoms. Yes, these are a lot of the common
symptoms people living with HIV could have with each other but there are so
many more.
Because we don't look
"ill" people forget that every day we are constantly at battle with
the virus that shakes us to our very core and they all think that because we
are on medication that our life is
suddenly back to where it was before we got HIV.
There are days when you just don't
think you have the strength to go on with the simple tasks of the day... laundry,
grocery shopping, meal prep and so on…
It is hard to deal with people
who say they “understand” when they do not. People need to learn how to
communicate with each other better. Unless you are going through the same thing
as the other person you cannot understand what is going on in their life. You can empathize with them but you will
never understand.
Have you ever
heard someone say, "That's
just semantics?" Basically,
they're saying you're picking apart the meaning of a word to draw a different
conclusion but it all means the
same thing. It's possible the person saying, "It's just semantics," is wrong, though.
I was told recently “That’s just
semantics”, when I a person that they could not possibly understand what I go
through on a daily basis living with HIV and all the side effects of the
medications I was taking, because they said they understood what I was going
through when really they were just trying to be empathetic.
Those words really felt like an
attack on me because I was trying to get them to understand why I get offended
when people say they understand what I am going through when they themselves
have never dealt with a life changing illness of their own.
If you know someone who is living
with HIV please learn to choose your words wisely because you do not know what
they are going through at that very moment of your encounter with them and your
words could be the catalysis that helps send that person over the edge.
If you are living with HIV and
need emotional support there are many organizations
that are run by people who are living with HIV or who are sympathetic to people
living with HIV who are there to help you.
National HIV/AIDS Hotline
Each service has its own telephone number--English-speaking,
1-800-342-2437; Spanish-speaking, 1-800-344-7432;
TTY service for the deaf, 1-800-243-7889.
CDC
Support
If you are friends with someone
who becomes HIV Positive, please keep in contact with them. Those of us who
have lived a long time with HIV have gone through the loss of friends because
they stop calling or coming around because they do not understand all the
changes that are taking place in our lives as HIV begins to destroy us from the
inside out.
Thank you for reading and I pray
you will now have a better understanding of how HIV affects a person well
beyond what you can see on the surface.
