077: The Herpes Virus And Perception with Alexandra Harbushka

Dealing with your worst possible situation and herpes.

Life With Herpes

Welcome to today’s episode on Life With Herpes, as always I am humbled that you are here and I am glad we can talk about herpes. Thank you!

Today I want to talk about what is worse, having herpes or the perception of having herpes. After talking to you, after doing my own research and of course experiencing this first hand I have come to the conclusion that the perception of having herpes is worse than actually having it. Don’t get me wrong, there are some outbreaks that are really really really painful especially your first outbreak. However, they go away and you go back to your normal life. It is a different story when it comes to the perception of having herpes. The emotional toll and  journey that we go through is far worse. Perhaps this is an aha moment for you?

The stigma that is placed on us leads to fear, tears, all of our goals dreams are gone, we go into complete shock and the list goes on and on. Depending on your situation you may be wondering where or how you contracted herpes. Basically, our mind plays horrible games in our mind. Then let’s take the mental games that are playing in our head and add this to a social setting. The utter fear of keeping your secret. The utter fear of what if somebody knows plays through your head. I combined the fear of OMG what if someone knew to the mean girl phase. For me it was the 6th grade and man was it tough. I still would be mortified and I emotionally go back to that phase in my life if I had to talk to those girls about having herpes. I know that I have told the world that I have herpes but it is different when you are faced to have that conversation with some of the girls who used to make you cry. Taking herpes aside when I run into them or see their photos on Facebook I am happy for them and genuinely glad to see them but still I wouldn't want to have the conversation with them about having herpes. I wouldn't want the snickering. So I get it. I get the fear. I get the devastation. I get the idea of wanting to crawl into a cave.

The bottom line is take your worst possible situation and that far supersedes the emotional pain vs the physical pain.

So why is this a big deal? It is the stigma that is associated with having herpes. It’s used to control us or make us feel bad. How do we move through it? We educate ourselves on the virus. And the secret is self love. We learn to love every part of ourself including our herpes. Until we are able to do that the perception will pay a role and control your emotions.

Keep in touch with Alexandra Harbushka

www.lifewithherpes.com

www.instagram.com/alexandraharbushka

www.facebook.com/lifewithherpespodcast  

www.pinterest.com/lifewithherpes

Join the community

If you are ready to join a community of people who are living with herpes also then you will want to join our slack group. It is FREE and it is a great way to find the support and comfort that you are looking for. Head on over to www.lifewithherpes.com and join our community. You will receive a slack invitation as soon as you sign up. See you in there.

Ways you can support the Life With Herpes show

 

And if you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it for you, please give the Life With Herpes show a review. It is a way to pay it forward to fellow friends who are living with herpes. You can Subscribe, Rate and Review the show through your iTunes app or on the desktop. Seriously, it helps out a lot more than it is a hassle for you. You see, iTunes has an algorithm that organically promotes the show, so the more ratings and reviews the Life With Herpes Show receives then the higher it gets ranked. This is your way of paying it forward and helping someone find the show who really needs it. Oh, and you can totally use a fake name, so don’t worry about a friend finding you in the iTunes review. Talking about herpes needs to be spread as far and wide as possible. You are totally a part of this movement so THANK YOU!   Subscribe, Rate and Review

More Episode Resources

   

 

 

herpes medication, herpes, herpes on lip, herpes zoster, herpes virus, herpes ulcer, herpes symptoms, herpes rash, herpes blisters, herpes treatment, herpes research, herpes outbreak, herpes kissing, herpes genital, genital herpes, herpes blood test,

 [podcast src="https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6233884/height/360/width/450/theme/standard-mini/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/" height="360" width="450" placement="bottom" theme="mini"]

0 comments

There are no comments yet. Be the first one to leave a comment!