3 Tips to Move Forward After Your HERPES Diagnosis!

I can give you three tips to move forward with your life post-diagnosis now; whether it's HSV-1 hsv2 up here down there doesn't matter. These are the three tips that I suggest you guys implement that help me figure out how my life will be even better now that I have herpes.

Researching The Virus:

Number one will be researching the virus, so when I got first diagnosed, I googled everything about how this works, the commonalities, the transmission, how it works, and where it stays in your body. I wanted to know as much as I could about the actual virus not only for my knowledge of how to live with it but also so that I could educate others or provide information to potential partners.

So they feel more at ease, and this is genuinely going to help you understand like the virus never leaves your body, symptoms are not always there, like where it live, it's in your nervous system, stuff like that, and more information. The better you are, the better you will be able to articulate those thoughts to future partners. Also, on researching the virus, you're probably going to find out that herpes is also not just genital herpes. It's cold sores, aka oral herpes as well. Its chickenpox is also herpes. These are all things that I only then realised were encompassing in the idea of herpes. Then kind of like opened my eyes more to why this stigma doesn't make sense and why terminology doesn't make sense, how herpes is essentially more minor than the actual virus, and more about having sex and the stigma. It's doing your research on the virus, and that'll help.

Research the Stigma:

Research the stigma, why is there a stigma, where it comes from, how did it start, and what is the stigma actually about? Then you can kind of base your own opinion of yourself by fact-checking the stigma. So does the stigma have any weight, or is it just fabricated? Is it because of drug companies? No, it's not, but the stigma is primarily because of media like articles and stuff, judgment, or society's expectations or views on sex.

 It is based on medical facts. It's mostly based on someone sharing their thoughts about being sexually active or what people should do in society or painting an image of the kind of people that would contract herpes and then the reinforcement of that idea throughout the years.the other thing I'm going to say about the stigma is there are no long-term health consequences to herpes people are going to make Herpes jokes and get a laugh. Still, if you make a cancer joke, it's probably going to hit too close to home. Hence, the fundamental idea that herpes is not going to cause any lifelong issues directly causes the stigma to be prevalent because, hey, let's throw in a herpes joke and get a laugh. Then if that gets a laugh, people will reinforce the idea. Hey, herpes is funny. Living With Herpes is gross, and the sad part about that is that the people who feel so ashamed of their herpes and want to speak out against it are too embarrassed to speak out, thus meaning that no one is ever going to call out the stigma and be like hey I wouldn't say I like this stop. It wouldn't make a difference because stigma is going to, but maybe I can make a difference.

Self Development:

 The third point is going to be self-development. Throughout my life, I looked into many different self-development stuff regarding philosophy or other aspects or techniques, and I looked into stoic philosophy. I realised that you couldn't have control over the things that happen to you. Still, you have control over how you react to it now. Not to go too in-depth, but getting herpes improved my life, and while it may be difficult for some people to initially think that you can't change what happened to you. Still, you can find a silver lining or find a reason why this won't hold you back because even if your life seems doomed, do you want to spend your whole life feeling like it's doomed, feeling like this is the last thing you wanted to happen and the worst thing that could have happened and what's going to ruin your life completely.

For some people, it will, but I hope that at some point, you realise, like, hey, I can't just let this loom over me my whole life, and I do have proof that other people are living their life, and I don't know how good my life can be until I snap out of this. I guess mindset, and it's normal to feel this way, I felt terrible, and then I realised like hey, I don't want to feel so awful about this long term, so what can't un-get herpes but I can try to make myself the best possible version of myself.

Try dating because you're going to be single forever. Unless you try Dating, you can't get an acceptance unless you put yourself out there. There are dating sites for herpes people to find support and love, so look into stoic philosophy and self-improvement, whether it's your physical health, mental health, spiritual health, or financial health. Make yourself someone that people would want to date regardless of your herpes status, and that way, you're going to be at your best so that people don't see your herpes as such a big deal anyway.