Dont Worry Till You Get Tested For HIV

It is true that the HIV prevalence all over the world has started getting under control but the people who keep on worrying about HIV are not reduced. I was thinking of dedicating a post to the worried people who keep on worrying about their HIV status.

I have seen a couple of forums where people keep on asking the same question again and again after having an HIV exposure. Let me tell you a short story of how one of my friend wasted almost a year of his life thinking he was infected with HIV. Once Ashok( one of my friend) was exposed to the virus and yeah he went paranoid as well. Ashok kept on worrying and even went paranoid to think how many years of life, he will be living from now. All day, all night long he was unable to think anything else than to worry. With HIV in mind, he was not interested in work, neither interested in playing games. His work seniors started to doubt his abilities. Finally he got tested after 6 weeks of exposure and the result turned out to be negative. He was happy, went to Goa (a tourist place in India) and enjoyed a lot. But the fear returned when he started thinking about the 3 month period which is know as window period and most of the doctors suggest testing after 3 months of exposure to HIV virus. Ashok got tested again and this time too the result was negative.

You might think this all ended up here but no there's a lot more to this. When Ashok went to get tested for the second time, he was accompanied by many HIV +ve people who were there for CD4 count ( regular blood checkup once diagnosed with HIV ). Both were made to sit on same chair. Due to Ashok's paranoid nature , he started thinking of all the possible scenarios in which he could get infected from the earliar patient sitting on the same chair. The cycle of 3 months started all over again. Finally he was able to fight to this non sense fear for 3 months and get rid of the HIV fear all together.

What do you think Ashok gained> He gained very less compared to 9 months of life, he wasted due to fear and worry, which he will never get back compared to the HIV knowledge he earned during these months. So I want all you people to try and not worry if you are not sure about your HIV status till your results are out and I beg you people to use protection whenever having ... you know what I mean.

Those who want to read more about HIV can take a look at HIV INFO