Anxiety

[junilesta_89]

how to get rid of anxiety about HIV, I am in torment, please help

[lilacbabe2021]

what was your exposure? I am also fighting the fear of HIV. Hang on there my friend.

[junilesta_89]

I'm afraid of catching it from blood

[Paxiled]

There is an HIV forum on here, but frankly, almost nobody who posts on it has any chance of having gotten HIV.  This is a reflection that you are not alone, there appears to be a lot of people who for different reasons are terrified of getting HIV or other STDs.  You don't say how much this fear is affecting your life, and whether it's attached to one event or several or is just something you obsess about completely irrationally.  You also don't say if other things also cause you to have great anxiety or if it's just HIV, in case it could be an isolated phobia which is a very different thing than a disorder that affects lots of things in your life.  The first thing you can do yourself is learn what actually causes it and how to avoid it, and then do the things that minimizes the chances you will get it.  Since HIV is a real thing you can get but only by doing a couple of things without protecting yourself it's something you can try to avoid, unlike being anxious about, say, driving, which is very hard to avoid in our society and is actually much more likely to be harmful to you than the chances of getting HIV if you take proper precautions.  So it's something you can actually do something about without anyone's help, you just need to learn how one gets it and not do that.  As to treating anxiety, all anxiety isn't the same but all chronic problems have a first step treatment, which is to see a psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety if it's not something you have the discipline or knowledge or it's too out of control to fix yourself.  If the problem proves to be too much for therapy, you will be referred to a psychiatrist for medication, but if it's just this one phobia you have that shouldn't be necessary but it is there if you need it.  What won't happen is, it won't go away if you do nothing but obsess over it.  You will have to do something about it, which again, is either you doing enough study to learn how you get it and how not to get it and/or seeing a professional who will help you move on.

[junilesta_89]

Previously I was very grateful, ,,,, it started after I gave birth in June last year, I accidentally read on the internet about the viability of the HIV virus outside the body which is said to live up to 7 days at room temperature, since then I am afraid,  especially my cousin who is suspected.  dying of this disease, I became more and more afraid.

[junilesta_89]

peak in December 2020, I went to the hospital to see a doctor for a medical checkup, when the nurse was going to draw my blood, I saw the nurse put a tourniquet on my arm and I saw that the tourniquet was very dirty, at that time I was not suspicious, but after  finished, I stood up and saw that there were a few drops of dried blood on the table, after that I was worried that the tourniquet might have the same blood that dripped on the table, the tourniquet stuck to my arm for about a minute and on my arm there was a small one  open wound, two weeks after this incident I had sore throat, headache and diarrhea, I was really scared every day, finally I did the third generation rapid test 91 days after the incident, and the result was negative, but I am worried that the prolonged stress from June will affect the system  my immunity and causes antibody production to take a long time.  Is there a risk of getting the tourniquet dirty with blood stains on the arms and open lacerations?  Will prolonged stress really not affect my test results 91 days after the incident?  because I am so afraid that prolonged stress will weaken my immunity.  I read that immune suppression can affect seroconversion, isn't stress also causing immune suppression, and this is what I'm very afraid of, sorry..I'm not good at English

[junilesta_89]

I'm really scared, especially I'm still breastfeeding my baby, I'm so scared

[Paxiled]

You were never at any risk of getting HIV from any of this.  I'm guessing you were on the HIV forum and were told this.  Focus on getting help for your phobia, that's your problem.

[junilesta_89]

Okay, for the last question, I need your opinion, in general if a person acquires HIV from a general risk, for example, will prolonged stress weaken the immune system causing delayed seroconversion and make the results of the third generation rapid test three months after exposure inconclusive  ?

[Paxiled]

The HIV forum is the place to go for getting into the weeds of testing.  This is the anxiety forum.  But you don't have HIV and the question of stress and its effect on the immune system differs depending on the individual.  Again, HIV isn't your problem and never was your problem, but anxiety and an obsession with it is.  Make an appointment with a psychologist soon and get to work on it so you don't have to sit and worry about this for the rest of your life.  Peace.

[preciouschimoto42]

Hello Junilesta_89, Depression from HIV is very real because you hear a lot of negative things surrounding the disease. I understand your situation on depression i have lived for 2 years with someone who had depression and i know the anxiety that can come from it. What i can advise is remain positive and HIV is just like any other disease. If you remain positive you will also see that you will do other thing better and with energy.

[junilesta_89]

I'm so scared, what should I do, I'm still breastfeeding my baby

[GuitarRox]

What should you do.  Well, you have clear anxiety.  This forum does not allow risk assessments for HIV here and you've already been answered that on the HIV forum that you do not have HIV.  So, what should you do. Well, for the sake of your child and yourself, get help for the anxiety.  ANXIETY is the illness to treat for you.  It IS treatable.  psychotherapy and medication may be needed but you should begin the process of working with a professional to know what is the best way to treat you specifically for the mental health issue you are facing of health anxiety.