How to live with an HIV diagnosis?

Finding out that you have been diagnosed with HIV can come as a shock to most people. Panic, fear and despair are a typical and expected reaction in such a situation. However, you need to convince yourself that an HIV diagnosis should not prevent you from living a full and healthy life. Indeed, with the modern level of development of medicine and pharmacology, an HIV-positive person has every chance to live a long life and realize all his plans. Read our article about how to live happily ever after with an HIV diagnosis.

Get rid of fears and find support

Taking care of your mental health and emotional health is just as important as taking care of your body. News of an HIV diagnosis is stressful for many people, and it may take you some time to accept this fact and move on with your life.  

To avoid falling into depression and despair, enlist the support of family and friends. Connecting with other HIV-positive people will also help you learn more about how to live with HIV and find like-minded people.

Also, professionals from psychological assistance centers for HIV-infected people, which today operate in almost every city, can help you in a difficult situation.

Once you accept your diagnosis, it's time to think about what you want out of life. What are your goals? What is important to you? Maybe you want to study, travel, start a family or change career? Don't let HIV ruin your plans and put an end to your life.

Start treatment

If you have been diagnosed with HIV, starting treatment as soon as possible is the first step to taking care of yourself and strengthening your immune system. Although antiretroviral treatment is not a cure for HIV, it does keep the virus under control.

Some people may experience side effects . If they do not go away after a few months and affect your quality of life, you should consult your doctor and replace the prescribed medications with others.

Remember that the key to effective treatment and good health is taking your medications regularly, as prescribed by your doctor. Most antiretroviral drugs must be taken at the same time every day. Skipping doses or taking medications at different times can weaken the immune system defenses that HIV infection is designed to destroy.

Eat well

The human immunodeficiency virus attacks the immune system and significantly weakens it. Because the body uses nutrients to defend against germs, proper nutrition can help fight infections. In addition, proper nutrition helps increase energy, maintain strength, and help avoid or alleviate complications and health problems caused by HIV and its treatment.

Dietary recommendations for people living with HIV are essentially the same as for people living with HIV: eat a balanced diet and consume less unhealthy fats, sugar or salt. These nutritional rules will help your body get used to the treatment and fight other infections.

So, with HIV infection, the diet should contain as much protein as possible, namely meat, poultry, fish, legumes, nuts, dairy products, as well as as many vegetables and fruits as possible.

In addition, taking multivitamins will also be beneficial - they help slow down the process of weakening of immunity.

Read more about nutrition in our article “How to eat properly if you have HIV?”

Play sports

Being active and playing sports should be a part of your life. Exercise strengthens muscles and bones, maintains cardiovascular health, and burns excess fat.  

Some people with HIV infection rapidly lose muscle mass and endurance, and regular exercise can help prevent this process.

Exercise can also combat feelings of stress and symptoms of depression.

Get rid of bad habits

Excessive drinking or smoking weakens the immune system, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of antiretroviral treatment for HIV infection. In addition, smoking and alcohol combined with treatment may increase or cause unwanted side effects from HIV medications.  

Taking drugs while living with HIV is absolutely unacceptable. If a person uses hard drugs, such as heroin, which suppress the immune system, it becomes doubly difficult for it to fight the human immunodeficiency virus. In addition, appetite disappears, exhaustion may begin, and HIV will progress.

Visit your doctor

If you are living with HIV, it is very important to see your doctor regularly. This is important because the doctor needs to monitor for other diseases that a patient with HIV infection may encounter as they age and adjust treatment as needed.

Also, a patient with HIV needs to share information about their sex life and bad habits with their doctor, since these factors entail various risks. For example, complications during the treatment of HIV infection or infection with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

If you have any medical conditions or STDs, it is important to get treatment for them as well. Sometimes different treatments interact with each other, so your doctor should know what other medications you are taking.