Hello - Thank you in advance for reading this post and considering responding. My 18-year-old son got diagnosed last summer. It's been a rough year with many outbreaks and he is currently on 1000 mg of Valtrex twice per day. He is currently dating a girl that he cares for very much and has told her about his diagnosis. She has been very accepting - the trouble lies with his anxiety in giving it to her and his feelings of hopelessness (which many of you have shared). My heart is breaking for him as he is ready to enter college in a few weeks and he feels like his life is over. He stresses about giving someone this albatross as well as constantly still having symptoms through his meds. He uses condoms, but has outbreaks/irritation after sex and then freaks out about having given it to his girlfriend - to the point of vomiting because he is so stressed (which he knows, makes everything worse!)
As his mom (and thankfully his confidant through this), I am at a loss what to tell him and help prepare him to deal with this during college when all the things that trigger outbreaks will be around him - lack of sleep, stress, drinking, etc. He wants to join a fraternity and experience "the whole college experience" but he is so depressed because of his constant anxiety over breakouts and possibly giving it to his girlfriend. Are there any college guys out there that can share some advice or your experiences that I can share with him? I'm going to encourage him to join this group as many of your postings have helped ME - but I know he feels completely alone and hopeless.
Thanks in advance for helping me to help him.
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