Self-esteem was considered a key factor in psychological well-being and health, however, there are certain groups that, by a certain condition, are stigmatized, rejected and displaced, which negatively affects the self-esteem of their members. happens, but less and less, with the self-esteem of people living with HIV. I invite you to think: would you feel comfortable working with an HIV-positive person, or if your child shared a classroom with an HIV. -positive child?
Knowing the disease, it’s more than likely that these problems won’t worry you, however, recent research indicates that more than half of the population would be willing to change jobs or change their child from school for the above reason.
- What effect can stigma and prejudice have on the self-esteem of people living with HIV?Can self-esteem prevent HIV-related risky behaviors?Let’s see more about this.
Stigma and prejudice can be real, by the perception of health threats, or symbolic, in the sense that HIV has been associated, from the very beginning, with behaviors contrary to certain ideologies or behaviors traditionally considered immoral.
Much of fear and rejection comes from ignorance. However, this is not the only explanation. Because HIV infection is associated with preventable behavior, some people take the liberty of blaming people with HIV and believe they are getting what they deserve.
What is more immoral: considering that a person deserves a certain illness, or the same behavior that some call immoral?Let us not forget that, in the origins of the disease, was it associated with homosexuals and drug addicts?
The results of a study by the Spanish Interdisciplinary AIDS Society indicate that more than half of the population is uncomfortable in the presence of an HIV-positive person and would try to avoid contact with them, resulting in discriminatory behaviors and attitudes, such as promoting making the names of HIV-positive people accessible to the public to prevent them.
This fear is probably due to a lack of information about the disease. 17% of the population thought they could get HIV by sharing public baths and up to 34% with a mosquito bite, leading to misunderstandings about the virus’s ease of transmission. , which encourages prejudice, stigma and discrimination.
Prejudice and stigma put many people at risk, even preventing them from receiving social support, which can make HIV-positive people ashamed of their condition, blame themselves, and self-stigmatize.
The self-esteem of these people can be very low, leading to fairly high levels of anxiety and stress, if a decrease in self-esteem is not detected early, a depressive disorder can develop, in the most severe cases the person may come to believe that the only way to end suffering is suicide, which is 66 times more common in the HIV-positive population than in the general population.
Another serious and dangerous consequence of low self-esteem, as well as other emotional disorders, is interference with adherence to antiretroviral therapy, which is severely affected in these patients; in fact, psychological intervention is performed with the aim of increasing adherence to treatment. , because, to be effective, an adhesion of 95 to 100% is necessary.
Studies indicate that low self-esteem is associated with early sex, more sexual partners, difficulty asserting sex, and a higher frequency of unsafe sex.
On the other hand, higher self-esteem scores were linked to positive attitudes towards condoms and a greater perception of effectiveness in negotiating their use, and a third trend suggests that young people with high self-esteem may have risky sexual behaviors due to their low perception of risk vulnerability.
Knowing the importance of self-esteem in the development of sexuality and more specifically in the prevention of associated risky behaviors, in this case, in the prevention of HIV infection, in addition to providing young people with adequate sex education, a working module on self-assessment. -estimate should be included in these programmes.
As to how our attitude can affect the self-esteem of people living with HIV, it is necessary to provide truthful information about the disease, increase social awareness and promote tolerance and understanding. The goal: to end the stigma and discrimination that do so. a lot of damage.