Herpes is a silly, silly thing and we will all be just fine!

[lifeislovely]

Hi guys,

 

I'm new to the H community and was diagnosed with ghsv1 6 months ago. I just wanted to share my feelings the past 6 months and offer some hope to the newly diagnosed. You are going to be just fine. I promise. I remember back in February sitting on the doctors table, waiting to hear that I have a bad yeast infection or UTI. I've only been with a handfull of guys so when I was told immediately "that's a herpes blister", I cried so hard I even made my doctor cry. (unprofessional, huh?) She handed me a herpes pamphlet with a man and woman on the cover. The man was holding the womans arm and had his head pressed up against her with a woeful look, as if she had one month left to live. Come on. Who designs these things? Anyway, at the time I thought I would never have sex again and would be alone forever. Fast forward 6 months. Herpes is rarely on my mind. I haven't had another outbreak, I take care of myself, I take dating slow, and I carefully chose a support system to talk to about it with. Herpes is so misunderstood, I find it comical. The other night I was watching "John Tucker Must Die" and to ruin his reputation, his ex girlfriends put a picture of him with the words "I have genital herpes" on a movie theater preview. The girl he is with covers her mouth and spits out the soda she was sharing with him (so incorrect for so many reasons) and runs away. Sure, this scene stung a little bit post-diagnosis but the scenario could have been "I have foot fungus" or "I'm secretly gay". Anything could have potentially caused a reaction like that. We really can't take these things seriously- people are so uneducated and we know as a community it isn't this constant gross, crusty, dirty, thing. In that sense, we just have to shake our heads at people's lack of education and continue to set people straight instead of taking it personally and shamefully. If everyone knew the reality of what herpes is, it would have the same reputation as something silly like acne. That being said, dating is not over. sex certainly is not over. Get to know someone, and once they get to know the amazing you, herpes won't be a big deal. It's not cancer or HIV or a life threatening illness- think of how those people may feel about being alone! Herpes is a silly skin condition that just happens once in a while. Take care of yourself. Take some medicine. Life your life. Love yourself! Nothing else should change. People who are meant to stay in your life will understand and will be willing to take the tiny risk. I think it helps to compare transmission rates to risk of getting pregnant (if they are willing to risk a pregnancy, this should be no different) or dying in an automobile accident (I think thats a 1.8% chance of occurring in a lifetime, a similar percentage when having safe sex with certain strains of herpes). (Correct me if i'm wrong!!!)

 

Herpes is dumb. More manageable than my frizzy hair that I have to deal with every morning. You're gonna be juuuust fine!

[normalprofessional]

Thank you! Needed this right now!

[WCSDancer2010]

@lifeislovely

 

Sooo sooo true! thank you for sharing...especially so soon after your diagnosis!

 

I wrote a blog here in response to a guy who was fearful of being outed like the guy in the movie... we can't life our lives in fear of all the things that could go wrong.... and if you can be confident in yourself and who you KNOW you are, then Herpes won't define you ;)

 

http://herpeslife.com/if-you-live-your-life-in-fear

 

((HUGS)))

[Athena]

/cheer! Thank you! I needed to see this today :)

[lm44]

@lifeislovely THANK YOU ❤️ Copying and pasting this post to read everytime I feel down!

[Unbroken]

No fear. You rock LIL :)

[lt05]

Thank you @lifeislovely. I seriously needed to read this!!!