Interview Section : Healthtalkonline

Full list of topics

Experiences of health care :
Getting a diagnosis
Getting health and social care
Making decisions about treatment
Taking anti-HIV drugs
Challenges of anti-HIV drugs

Looking after yourself :
Coping with mental health problems
Dealing with your thoughts
Talking about it
Becoming informed
Gaining power and strength
Spirituality and religion
Holistic health

Disclosure, discrimination and other challenges :
Secrecy and telling people
Support groups
Dealing with difficulties, finances and benefits
Work and routine
Prejudice, stigma and discrimination
Telling children and parents

Negotiating Sex :
How people became infected
Casual sexual encounters
Sex in relationships
Telling sexual partners

Looking ahead :
Living now & in the future
Illness and death
Finally, what people with HIV want you to know

Search the whole site
Search in this condition

HIV

People's stories

Aged 41-45

Interview 22

Interview 22

Age at Interview: 43
Sex: Female
Age at Diagnosis: 42
Background: A 43 year old woman from Africa who describes herself as 'coloured.' She was diagnosed when she went to hospital very ill with TB.

Brief outline:Her anti-HIV drugs (Kaletra and Combivir) brought her viral load down to undetectable at the time of interview. She has strong faith that Jesus has healed her in combination with her medical care.

More about me...

To watch or read an interview clip, click on the heading that interests you. Either a video,audio recording or text will open, depending on the clip

To close transcript boxes, click here
To print the interview’s text, click here

Describes how people with HIV can shift their thinking to do what they want to do and avoid feeling like victims.
Print It's not a disability. It's not a disability. I've got 2 legs. They move. How am I… How do I have a disability compared to the person that's in a wheelchair? They can't walk. I've got everything. I've got my faculties. Everything works. May not be working in the order I want it to work in, but the point is it works. So get out there and do something. I mean that's, that's the only way. You've got to, you've got to get yourself into that right frame of mind. You've got to think of your future. You've got to think of the things that you've always wanted to do. Especially for the people that are recently diagnosed. They should think of the things that they've always wanted to do and haven't been able to do it. And decide, right, they're going to do it. Put a fra- time frame on it. And get out there and do it. And not to just look at yourself as, [squeaky voice] I'm sick, I'm going to die. We're all going to die. Yes, I've got HIV, I'm HIV positive. You might be negative. But you cross the road, you die. 10 years down the line… lane… down the line, every time I walk past that sight, I realise, oh, that's where Damien died. But I was supposed to die before you. No, I wasn't. We all got our time.

Mail to a friend