Living with HIV: Beginning treatment

People may live with HIV for many years after diagnosis with little or no noticeable change in their health. However, sooner or later it will be necessary to start antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in order to slow the progression of the disease. This can be a very challenging time as the realisation that ARV drugs will have to be taken daily for life is a stark reminder of being infected with a chronic disease. Any antiretroviral drug side effects from the treatment will also serve to bring home the reality of HIV.
For antiretroviral therapy to be most effective, patients must adhere well to the regimen, meaning they must take their medicine at the prescribed time at least 95% of the time. Such a high degree of commitment means that someone should be in a fit mental state before beginning HIV treatment. It has been shown that of people with HIV who had depression, those who took antidepressants adhered better to antiretroviral therapy. Furthermore, adherence rates among those taking depression medication were similar to those without depression.14 Results such as this underline both the need for depression to be both diagnosed and then treated as a means of positively affecting HIV treatment.
My CD4 was in double digits and I found out that I was resistant to all of the medication I had been taking. I couldn't beleive what I was hearing and ANGRY is putting it mildly as to how I was feeling at that moment, as well as betrayed. I wanted to sue everyone involved and make them pay for their inability to treat me properly.”Mark
Needing to switch treatment if it is established that the original drug regimen is failing to work or is not tolerable can also be distressing. It may be upsetting to know that some treatments do not work effectively and that switching drugs, for perhaps not the first time, is one more step in exhausting all available options. People may also recall bad experiences from previous drug regimens and be anxious about what the new drugs may bring. Adjusting to a new treatment regimen may be mentally draining if dosage, frequency and time of administration differs from the one the person became accustomed to.
For people not able to access HIV treatment, they have to live with HIV knowing they cannot take the most effective action against the disease’s progression.