Emotional Effects of HIV and AIDS

Learning that one has HIV has many of the same effects on a person's emotional health as the diagnosis of other potentially terminal diseases, such as cancers. Many people go through the grieving process, sometimes thinking themselves to be a different person than who they once were.

Grief

• There are stages of grief that most everyone goes through when they've experienced the death of someone close to them. Learning that one has HIV is very similar, as diagnosis can often bring about a grieving phase.

An Emotional Roller Coaster

• Along with the grief that many people feel after diagnosis, most will also go through stages of fear, sadness, anger and denial in the weeks or months that follow.

Depression and Mental Anxiety

• People with HIV often suffer severe bouts of depression, and later in the illness can experience many cognitive problems due to virus in the brain. This can not only lead to feelings of being scatterbrained, but can also cause a significant amount of anxiety as the cognitive problems become more noticeable.

Realization and Acceptance

• Many people go through these periods of sadness and depression because HIV was once a death sentence. Now it's often referred to as a chronic but manageable illness. When an HIV-positive individual realizes this they will begin to experience fewer negative emotional outbursts.

Positive Outlooks

• Some people are very adaptive and use their illness as a way of trying to do some good for others. They can use their disease to educate, they can volunteer and they can be important in the well-being of others suffering with the illness. This can lead to them feeling like a significantly better person than they were before diagnosis.