Do not Stigmatize Yourself

Before I got diagnosed, I thought I had my life in control. I always tested and wanted to keep my status negative because I saw what HIV/AIDS did to my best friend who died from an HIV-related illness. I did not want to go through the same thing. We were so close; did everything together and shared everything. By the time she started getting sick, I was out of the country. She was very sick and was admitted in hospital and diagnosed with HIV. When I asked her about her diagnosis, she denied everything and said she had low blood. I told her to be open with me, but she insisted it was low blood. We went on with the friendship though it hurt me so much that she did not trust me with the truth. I realized she was stigmatizing herself. She feared negative reactions and that hindered her efforts to accept her status, disclose, and adhere to medication. She continued to live behind a wall of silence and shame. This fear of stigma and discrimination broke her confidence to seek care and support from her loved ones I tried all my best to show her how much I cared for and loved her, but she never opened up to me. Along the way she left her medication and started drinking and smoking a lot. I told her how bad it was for her but she never listened. She lost weight, lost her sight, and then became mentally ill.  She was later admitted to Sbrana Mental Hospital where she passed on. I was so sad when I heard of her passing. I felt like I failed her, like I could have done something to prevent her death, pushed her more to accept her status and adhere to medication. The way my best friend passed was most painful. She was not supposed to die like that, especially when ARV medication is freely available. She died of silence, ignorance, denial, lack of knowledge and worst of all, spent her final days in a mental institution. For as much as I will live, I will not want any of my friends or loved ones to die the way she did; not when I have so much knowledge and information about HIV/AIDS. In 2018 I do not think we should be fighting self or external stigma and discrimination. We should arm ourselves with as much knowledge as possible. Whenever HIV/AIDS has won, stigma, shame, distrust, discrimination and apathy was on its side. But every time AIDS has been defeated, it has been because of trust, openness, dialogue between individuals and communities, family support, and human perseverance to find new paths and solutions. The beginning of the end of AIDS starts with me.