If you struggle with addiction, depression or mental health, please know how important you are and reach out. I shut down, now I need to relearn self love and self esteem.
If we don't speak up about what we are dealing with regarding treatment side effects (or whatever it is), who will know? Who will listen? Who will care? And how will things ever improve for those who come after us?
Check out The Well Project's A Girl Like Me LIVE!, an interactive, livestreaming series created to advance health and wellness education among women living with and vulnerable to HIV.
After I got my diagnosis, I automatically started to apply what I knew, to ask questions, to better understand. You might not believe it, but we're still so far behind in terms of information.
Becoming a nurse taught me how to live with HIV.
Being an avid traveller, I do have extra exercise and motivation to stay adherent and loyal to my medication. Otherwise, how can I enjoy holidays or work abroad when I am not healthy?
You don't have to go through having HIV or AIDS alone. Even if you don't have them, create your own extended family.
It doesn't have to be perfect to be just right. If not art, some hobby or venture that allows you to be in a moment that is not tied to HIV, or responsibility to anyone but yourself.
Having navigated the challenges of living with HIV, I've experienced firsthand the stigma and misconceptions surrounding this virus.
It doesn't matter how you became positive; what matters is how you live your positive life.