I have lived with the gift most of my adult sexual life which has been over 20 years. I received this as a survivor of sexual assault. As painful as that early time and trauma was, I worked through many issues, and became a stronger person for it. A benefit to having it for so long is that I have learned self-acceptance. I feel that there are plusses to having it. It has forced me to be sexually responsible, and by being careful, most likely protected me from contracting HIV/Aids. My outbreaks were horrible in the early years. I also did not take very good care of myself then. I try to eat organic food, and I take a combination of supplements that have been effective (for me) in keeping the virus at bay.

I do think that the prevalence of this illness, may be partly caused by the levels of toxicity in our environment, but that is just my personal opinion.

I remember dealing with this before the Internet, and I did not have any friends with H in my support group. I currently have one close personal friend that I met on my own, in addition to those who I have connected with courtesy of various H websites.

Feel free to drop me a line if you are feeling down or need to share. There are many of us with the same condition. You are not alone!