Positive - A Play about Living with HIV

[pauldecle]

If Britney can get through 2007, then I can get through today.

Benji's mantra has just about got him through his first year with HIV, but it's not so much the virus that's the problem - it's everything that comes with it. Afraid of stigma and rejection, he's stopped going out, he's let himself fall out of contact with his family and God only knows when he last had sex. But that's enough of that. His self-confidence may be at an all time low but it's time he finally grabbed life by the balls and started properly living it again. How hard can it be...?

Inspired by true stories, Positive is a refreshingly honest and ultimately uplifting comedy breaking down the out-dated preconceptions surrounding HIV and the 100,000+ people living with it in the UK today. While it's certainly no sunny walk in the park, it's not the death sentence it was 30 years ago either - and Benji's slowly beginning to realise that the only thing standing between him and normality is not some stupid virus, but his own apprehension. And possibly his terrible taste in shoes.

See more at: parktheatre.co.uk/whats-on/...

Ann Pinnington Productions in association with West Avenue.

[10olive]

Thanks for sharing Paul. It's amazing the impact that self stigma can have on ones life. I found out after a lot of depressed days that as long as I get to the point where I can accept my diagnosis , it stopped to matter what everyone else thinks. I then Found that the voices in my head that seemed like everyone else was really me. I informed myself and it was hard and it took a lot of practising and numerous trials , failures and successes but I eventually found that once I got real with myself and bagan to confront my fears I got to accept my status and now it feels normal. I must say that counselling helped me a lot . I have been in counselling for the last year and still am and I remember once my counsellor asking me if I had mourned my old life. I was surprised to discover that I had really not wanted to face the fact that my life has changed. When I eventually did ,with the support of my counsellor, I started re-building my life and this time I was in control of deciding what I wanted to take and what I wanted to leave behind . but it did help to even acknowledge my life has changed ,only this time because I was making a decision . I told myself I will make the best of it. It hasn't been easy but it's possible and it has got better over time . Sometimes I look in the mirror now and cannot believe how much I have changed from where I was about this time last year. We are still who we are

And we can still be who we want to be . I told myself no one was going to stop me and most especially , I will not stop myself; which can happen so subtly but yet so easily.

[10olive in reply to 10olive]

I forgot to mention that I am also on anti depressants after a lot of struggle and those have helped as well