Hi, I’ve had an HIV phobia for a number of years, and have previously received great risk advice on the HIV Prevention forum.
My reason for posting here however is to gain opinions on the anxiety side of things. Namely my issue is that the thought of HIV following any ‘perceived’ exposures is always in the back of mind, and quickly enters the front of my mind through physical ‘symptom’ triggers, or HIV related news articles, movies, billboard posters etc. Even after the advice given by the HIV forum here, the only thing that seems to settle me is a negative test.
Questions I guess as follows.
- is therapy definitely the way to go? I’m onto my 4th therapist but perhaps haven’t stuck with it long enough to see results.
- should I do all I can to avoid testing over the latest no/low risk (depending on who you talk to) incident: i.e. does testing perhaps CONTRIBUTE to my anxiety in a feedback loop, rather than fix it?
Thank you