Question
Do HIV positive people need to reduce stress?
5 September 2012. Related: All topics, Living with HIV long-term, Support.
I am HIV+, I haven’t started my treatment as my CD4 is still ok and I do my best to exercise and eat healthy.
As part of my job I tend to go through work stress, mostly it is positive stress in the sense that it does not have any side effect on me as I enjoy what I do and the stress is usually related to working hard to meet a deadline etc. Being busy helps me keeps my mind off any health concerns and as I result I tend to be optimistic and have a positive attitude which gives me the energy that I need to have a productive day.
I read in many publications that HIV patients need to avoid stress and have enough rest. I think if I do that, it might have the reverse effect on me as I will be spending any more time that I am not putting into work, thinking of my health and what could go wrong. This is how I am wired.
I have decided not to slow down or avoid work stress as the alternative is probably a depressive mindset. Am I taking any significant risk by doing this? Also can you tell me why they advise that HIV+ people avoid stress and have more rest / sleep than those are not infected?
Thank you for your help
Answer
Hi
It sounds like you are doing pretty well at coming to terms with HIV and have made good lifestyle changes in terms of keeping active and looking after youself. Positive stress for work is not going to have any bad impact on your health and it sounds like it is helping you take your mind off HIV.
Stress can also relate to very different aspects of life including physical, mental, emotional, financial and psychological situations.
Although stress is such a commonly used word it is difficult to measure in a scientific way. You can know that one day is more stressful than another, or that certain events are generally stressful but also that different people handle different situations very differently. Some people get stressed by things that are easier for other people to deal with. Some people also handle stress differently, or learn skills to cope with stressful situations. Learning skills to deal with stress are an important part of learning, at any age.
Your are also right that there is probably stress that is broadly good/positive and bad/negative.
Good stress is an important part of life. It can contribute to an energy or drive to achieve certain goals that otherwise maybe wouldn’t happen. Again, this varies between people, but it sounds like you are happy that the stress you are referring to broadly fits in to this category. Exercise can be another example of stress (on your muscles) – and this is good so long as you warm up first and rest properly afterwards and bad if you don’t.
Examples of bad stress include being over-worked, under-appreciated and under-paid. If stress affects the rest of your life in a bad way, this may not be healthy. For example, if you are always thinking about work or stop doing other things you used to enjoy, or if you are too tired for a social life, or never take breaks or holidays.
Bad stress is related to poorer health, including mental health and depression, fatigue, tiredness and not sleeping properly. It also relates to other lifestyle activities: people under negative stress might drink more alcohol or take less care over their health including taking more risks for catching HIV.
A lot of information about HIV and stress was produced before there was effective treatment. Early HIV studies reported faster HIV progression in people who experienced especially stressful situations including bereavement. Back then, reducing stress could have a impact on your health because lifestyle changes were all we had. The biological mechanisms for the link between stress and immune function and how this occurs are not really understood though.
For someone on treatment with an undetectable viral load, HIV is no longer exerting a direct impact on your immune system. A few researchers suggest there may be a residual effect of very low levels of virus, but this is tiny compared to pre-treatment years. On this basis, the connection between good stress and HIV is unlikely to harmful and likely to be good.
Bad stress though is never good for anyone. In someone on treatment, bad stress has been linked to poor adherence for example, which increases the risk of drug resistance and treatment failure. Cutting out bad stress was pretty good advice in early HIV days: if life is short, why waste it on things that cause you to be stressed. But it has always been pretty good advice for anyone irrespective of HIV status.
Life is a balance between good and bad stress. It sounds like you have a balance that you are happy about at the moment. For this reasons it is unlikely to have any negative impact on your health.
But it also sounds like this is part of your way to deal with HIV. At some time in the future, when this is right for you, you may want to look at other ways that you could deal with some of these issues relating to HIV directly.
Hi Dee,
Stress isn’t something that’s good for anyone, be this positive or negative people. At the moment due to the current pandemic a lot of people are suffering from stress, many are overworked, over burdened and in all honesty scared. As to how this can be managed, this varies from person to person. Some people find comfort in going for a walk, others may need some support from a health care professional. As to what will work for you I really can’t say. But if things are bad, why don’t you start with talking to your family about how you feel.
Good day I am HIV+ and on treatment. We have a family business and I have been taking my treatment as prescribed and never miss any doses. I try to maintain a balanced diet but my rest has been affected by the business and day to day of its running. I feel a lot stressed out in a sense that I get more pains in my body than I was when starting treatment. I want to leave the family business but I feel it will be hard getting a job under lock down. It’s even affecting my eating schedule. What can I do to reduce the stress? I don’t want my health to suffer for something I can prevent
Hi Aaron,
I’m sorry, it sounds tough at the moment. But as Simon says on this question, can you ask for support for dealing with stress at the clinic? You can also talk to the doctor if you are taking Tribuss or Odimune because of a side effect that can change your mood. And if you are living in South Africa you can try contacting the Treatment Action Campaign for support too.
Hie my name is Aaron i’m on HIV treatment lately i developed what i would want to refer as stress .When i started my treatment i was formally employed but i lost my job due to the situation in our country’s economic problems. Nw being job less with a family to feed i find myself being isolated by other family members&that situation is killing me i have a son who is still at school and a doughter who is 1yr 6months my wife is HIV negative but does go to work we leave in a rented house I have no source of income fend for my family i love my wife I’m afraid of losing her as she nw compains that the landlord who is a who is a lady asks her about the rent right now I’m just feeling very very low and don’t know where to go or start.please help me if u can.