battling stigma

In just a few days I will turn 50. Years. Old. I have to spell it out like that mostly because it’s hard to fully comprehend. I realize that I am not the first to feel this way. In fact, more and more of us (women living with HIV) are doing it. It’s nuts really. And awesome.

I have a confession, I am a medication hoarder. I first started taking medication in the early 1990s after finally finding a doctor who was willing to see me. At the time I had great health insurance, but doctor after doctor refused to see me. Much has changed since then.

Every year, World AIDS Day provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the incredible advances that we have made as a community over the last three decades and to honor the advocates and activists who have changed the course of this epidemic, including those we have lost and those who continue to tirelessly move us forward.

I write a lot about mental health because my mental illness has shaped my life into what it is today. I hear people say all the time that they wouldn’t change a thing in their past. I can say without skipping a beat, there are things that I would change.

What happens when you receive an HIV positive diagnosis?

¿Qué pasa cuando recibes un diagnóstico positivo de VIH?

I realized as I saw my computer screen with my grandkids, I never saw any kid grow up. Not my child, not my family’s children. I guess having the experience of being a mom I felt as if I should have had the courage to nurture, to raise a child. I put too much on my own shoulders so I can never be satisfied with the outcome. I am more of a perfectionist than I knew.

I'm a 44-year old single mom with, HIV, bipolar, and learning disabilities (ADHD and Dyslexia). I've started college for the first time. This is my journey in parenting, HIV, managing mental health...

When I finally understood that HIV is not an infectious contagious disease, I understood that I don't have to self-discriminate, I stopped seeing myself as a ticking timebomb, and began to befriend a...

I may never forget the night I got the email from Bruce Richman (founder and Executive Director of the Prevention Access Campaign U=U) asking if I would be interested in joining a campaign.