‘Challenges of being a young person today and HIV…’ by Jason Mackinnon

Friday, December 16th, 2011

So, being young these days is a challenge. Youth unemployment is at record levels, many of us are perceived as no hoper rioting yobs, university is looking increasingly unattractive and many of those who do go are stuck with student loan repayments for years to come.  Although huge steps have been made those of us that are seen as different we still get monstrously bullied at school and even further on. Let’s not even get started on the hormone and puberty thing.  So yes, being young can defiantly be a challenge.

Now imagine all of the above is happening to you and your friends and now you’ve just been told you have HIV.

There’s a lot of misinformation and stigma out there so getting support from your family or friends might not be a simple task.  HIV isn’t like diabetes or even cancer, in which support of your nearest and dearest is expected and almost always unquestionably given.  HIV is one of the few medical conditions that people still whisper about rather them openly discussed.  All too common is the belief that “HIV is bad ergo, people who get HIV are bad.”

There’s still perhaps unsurprisingly a lot of angst about telling the people whose opinion matter most to you that you have HIV.  Fear of their negative reactions is one huge motivation for keeping quiet. Or even fear that they just won’t understand.  I have seen many cases where newly diagnosed people themselves have had to support their friends and family come to terms after telling them. The irony was not lost on me.

There’s still a belief today among many that was so deeply ingrained in those 80s ads that HIV = AIDS and AIDS = tombstones. The magnitude of the untruth of that in the UK today is staggering.  In 2009 there were 516 HIV related deaths, that’s about 0.6216% of all the people in the UK with HIV (estimated at 83.000 in 2009). To put that into a little context you’re almost twice as likely to die from “asthma” then you are from complications with HIV (believe it or not).

It’s only natural that when you’re going through something difficult you seek out other people going through the same experiences.  And thus the support group was born.  But wait, not everyone with HIV has the same experiences, some are mothers, some are gay men who have HIV since the 80s, some are sex workers, some are injecting drug users.  So we try to get everyone into a group that suits there need.  After all, HIV is indiscriminate.

Since July this year I help at a new group for HIV positive young people (aged 16-27), who want a social space where they can talk freely and discus what they often cannot elsewhere. The group takes [place on the first Tuesday of each month from 7:30pm – 9:30pm at Terrence Higgins Trust’s centre on 61 Ship Street.

Now all we need a support group for people struggling to pay to go to universities… or are they called bars?