Has HIV given or increase your anxiety or depression? Or is it just life?

Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits > Mental Health & HIV

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Tonny2:

ojo. Dust the attitude!!

leatherman:

--- Quote from: idontknowhowbuthereitis on April 19, 2024, 03:20:26 pm ---For example, the meds I am on, no one really knows what will happen in 30 years time

--- End quote ---
LOL you say that like it's an unknowable thing; but it's simply that you don't have enough information yet or trust in the information to understand what being on the meds for 30 yrs will do. We actually can very easily extrapolate what is going to happen being on meds for 30 years - you'll be alive and you'll probably be healthy.

Historically we know that there are plenty of us around who have been on meds for 30 yrs....and even though we started off on less effective drugs that often had negative side effects, we're doing fine and dandy. Statistically we known that PLWH often are healthier in the long run because our health is tracked and measured more often and issues are found and treated early.

Thirty years from now, both you and I will be living our lives - quite possibly healthy lives. I know I'm eating better, sticking on my ARVs and exercising regularly so that at 92 (that's 30 more years for me) I'll be doing as well as my Nana who was still playing golf at 92 and had another decade and a half left to go. Heck, at 62 I've barely passed middle age. LOL

idontknowhowbuthereitis:

--- Quote from: leatherman on April 19, 2024, 08:03:09 pm ---LOL you say that like it's an unknowable thing; but it's simply that you don't have enough information yet or trust in the information to understand what being on the meds for 30 yrs will do. We actually can very easily extrapolate what is going to happen being on meds for 30 years - you'll be alive and you'll probably be healthy.

--- End quote ---

Thanks for your feedback, but the medication I am on is BIKTARVY which was approved in 2018, so how can any documented patients have used it for 30 years time and how can an end patient make actual data driven decisions regarding long time impact (30 year usage), if no one has ever used it for that long (lol). Yes it might be the result of years of trial and error and hard work by scientists, but expecting no side effects doesn't compute with me (although I have none at the moment). ARTs are a powerful drug, has to be some sort of side effect other than just keeping your VL down..

I am very comfortable and don't have future concerns personally but I think its a fair call out for patients to ask about the long term effects of HIV and ARTs, when much of the medication being mass produced and distributed is fairly new or has a previous commercial agenda by big pharma.

Again new to this club, I just take a logical approach to things, at one stage in life opioids were aggressively prescribed, I wouldnt encourage anyone not to take meds, but yeah blindly saying you will be fine and live a healthy life and blindly trusting big pharma, isnt for me. Although I actively take my meds and so grateful, I wouldnt be surprised if there was side effects down the line (not trying to scare monger)

The reality is, this is the cards we have been dealt so there is nothing we can do about it, follow our doctors advice and enjoy life.

Much love, dont take it personally :)

leatherman:

--- Quote from: idontknowhowbuthereitis on April 19, 2024, 08:19:14 pm ---I think its a fair call out for patients to ask about the long term effects of HIV and ARTs, when much of the medication being mass produced and distributed is fairly new or has a previous commercial agenda by big pharma.

--- End quote ---
"fairly new" isn't really a good description. These are medications based on prior meds or medications that are combinations of long standing meds, and all of these are based on 40 years worth of treatment science. Each generation of ARVs have become more effective, with fewer negative side effects, and better long term effectiveness.

Comparing ARVs with opioids is apples to oranges. Compare ARVs with insulin instead.

--- Quote ---blindly saying you will be fine and live a healthy life and blindly trusting big pharma
--- End quote ---
blindly trust? heck no. LOL.

I quit taking ARVS in 95 and 97 because the side effects for me were too terrible. but it was still a choice of dying by AIDS or dying from the side effects. However that said, I'm been taking a range of ARVs since AZT monotherapy back in 1992 and even though I suffered through lots of serious side effects and nearly dying from PCP pneumonia a couple of times, I'm 62 and pretty darned healthy. Knowing a lot of fellow long-term HIV survivors (30+ years), I can tell you there a lot of people in my same situation of good health after enduring a lot of meds up until now.

The point I'm trying to make is that plenty of people have lived 30+ years and are healthy having started on very ineffective early meds. Understanding how much better/improved the meds of today are, it's not irrational to predict that someone starting meds in 2024 will easily live 30+ years on these newer meds with fewer side effects and better health. This prediction is based on the historical reality of the improvement of HIV treatment.

Kirat:
I've always had depression and anxiety. So, having the diagnosis of HIV was, and still is, took a huge toll in my life in that way. But, I must say, I'm possibly with other chronic disease still mysterious to me that is making my life miserable, so maybe that's why my happiness never came back. I associate it with HIV because so far I was not diagnosed with anything else. But since I'm undetectable, apparently it's not hiv, it's something else. If I could exercise regularly and not have brainfog, I think my depression and anxiety would reduce immensely.

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