Don’t Cry, Don’t Die: A Case Study Exploring the Psychological Well-being of People Living with HIV

People these days can easily involve themselves in everything, including sexual activity, relationships with other people, and a lot more. Although some of the people are unaware what are the possibilities, and even the consequences of all this in their lives. A person's life might be changed because of disease, and it will continue to carry it for a very long time. In other words, the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) continues to exist nowadays, and a lot of individuals who are living with HIV have had difficulties all throughout their lives. And it can be acquired by getting into someone who has been infected by having fluids from the body, exchanging a syringe with blood, breastfeeding, or having sexual intercourse are all possible sources.  This research study aims to explore and observe the specific situations and problems that encountered of the people living with HIV including the lived experiences particularly; (1) to discuss the lived experiences of People Living with HIV (2) to discover the challenges faced by People Living with HIV (3) to identify the coping mechanisms of people living with HIV. With the use of Thematic Analysis (TA), the study findings are the following; (1) Some of the people in the Philippines easily jumps into conclusions wherein in their perspectives when a gay (Bakla) they easily addressed and tend to assumed that this person are associated and normalizing that they contracted on the HIV diseases resulting that this is a discrimination and misconception for them especially to LGBT which this can be also have a big impact on their overall well-being as a person. (2) People living with HIV are facing and experiencing anxiety and depression regarding their HIV status wherein these individuals tend to overthink and cry because of the situations that they had. Other than that they also struggle when it comes to services, and finances including; the laboratory-based diagnosis, transit for care access and limited availability in healthcare. (3) Lastly, despite the situation and experiences that they had, people living with HIV had coping strategies at which point the advocacy really helps them to understand and to cope up their HIV status to understand their situations as a HIV individual. And they also distancing themselves from negativity that could also affect their emotional and mental health well-being as a PLHIV.