Being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS can be a very traumatic event. So many questions swarm your head. Why did this happen to me? I know plenty of people who are living an unsafe lifestyle, why not them? How'd this happen to me?

Many people who are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS are shortly diagnosed with suffering from depression. The stigma attached to having this disease is stifling. Many people are blissfully ignorant to the facts surrounding the disease making it more difficult than it has to be to confront having this virus.

HIV/AIDS has many different faces attached to it. At first it was known as the gay man's disease. Now it is known as a dirty disease. It can be attached to having a death sentence pronounced over your life. It can make you feel despondent about your future. Concerned whether you will ever be able to find someone who will understand the burden you carry and be willing to share your life despite of it.

You can become angry/frustrated at yourself because you now have this disease. Amazed or disgruntled that this fate has befallen you. Many HIV/AIDS patients find it hard to reconnect to friends and family members due to feelings of isolation and embarrassment. Many feel that they have failed others and even themselves.

The key to getting through this phase is to work through it. Isolation and depression are not permanent situations. You have to find the strength to push yourself to get help to conquer these obstacles. Find a friend, a counselor, a therapist or a confidant and express the feelings that are troubling you. Keeping these feelings bottled up is a guaranteed way to deepen the depression/isolation.

You are able to live a perfectly normal life even though you have HIV/AIDS. It is just something that you live with not a part of your personality. The disease lives with you... you don't live with the disease. You deserve health, happiness and a normal life. You just have to fight for it.

Life is a gift. Life is also a choice. You have to make the decision to live life everyday to the fullest. Just because you have this virus doesn't fate you to an existence of doom and dread.

Get up.... Get out... and LIVE!!!