Worried Well syndrome
This syndrome can grip into anyone who became scared of becoming infected with hiv due to some
action of their own. Even healthcare workers are sometimes plagued by this syndrome. This can cause
severe monetary loss and affect the mental health of the sufferer and family.
Majority people experiencing this problem are those who once or few times visited a prostitute.
Most of the people visiting brothels or prostitutes are married people and most of them are in the
age group of
but stay monogamous and were good husbands. Due to some circumstances like - On a tour to another
city or country, wife is away for a vacation, attending a loose party with alcohol etc. they engage
in a risky behavior sans their hiv/std knowledge. At that time they may be under the influence of
alcohol and having an elevated mood. Their hiv/std knowledge at that time will be too little. Having
done that stupid act, they start surfing web for hiv/std information.
Imagine his shock when he finds that, he need to wait for 3 months for a clean HIV chit. He was
thinking, it is like another VDRL test and can be done in the same week to get cleared of the scare.
Then some websites write exaggerated stories about HIV and transmission and also lot about other
STD's. Especially Hepatitis B, C, Herpes etc.. and he reads all this without sleep, food or rest. He
is become more than a PhD in HIV and STDs by this time. How HIV originated? What are all the
genotypes? How is the HIV replication? What is HIV RNA, DNA? Why CD4 counts are important? What are
the HIV conspiracy theories? You ask anything, all the answers are ready. Some people becomes a
pseudo HIV activist too.
He might have been using a condom or not, his roller coaster ride of hiv scare already begun.
Sometimes condom slipped during withdrawal, condom broke, found blood on condom, even if condom
intact (but who knows there was some small tear?), he did oral on her, she did oral on him, sucked
her nipples, did open mouth kissing (bleeding gums), you name it, there are one hundred reasons for
him to worry. He recounts the events again and again after he went with that prostitute. He also
starts self diagnosing for hiv ARS (acute retroviral syndrome) and finds usually acne (for him it is
hiv rashes), night fever (due to anxiety), oral candidiasis (many reasons), peripheral neuropathy
(numbness and pain in legs and hands - either withdrawal symptom of some medicine or just a
feeling), diarrhea (food problem), swollen lymph nodes (just a feeling or due to frequently checking
whether it is swollen) and things which may be associated with other infections. If someone is still
a bachelor, this prostitute-adventure will happen when he is just engaged or the marriage is fixed.
For married people, this will happen when they are just planning to have their first baby. See the
misery. For a few months the ISP, Labs, Psychiatrists, MD doctors in the city is going to make a
nice money. He visits numerous websites for HIV information. Each one gives different versions of
the stories of transmission of HIV. He is the sufferer and within weeks he goes for a ELISA and STD
panel and all the results are all negative.
By the time his wife returns or he returns home. The family notices that
he used to drink alcohol occasionally, he drinks now lot more. They wonder why?. The wife starts
exerting pressure on him to reveal what really happened to him. He breaks down and tells his
wife the whole
a prostitute. Depending on the nature of wife, she tells the story to her family or keeps it as
secret, but surely she is not going to believe
and if he has children, they too suffers. He also looses his inhibition of telling others and tells
this story to some of his friends (another foolishness) hoping to get support from them. These
friends instead of treating him as a victim, keep a distance from him, as they believed that he is a
friend with good morale, but he is not. Friends spread the news in the town and now he becomes an
isolated guy. Poor chap. All
Those who are rich enough goes for a PCR test. No viral load. Still he could not convince himself.
He makes one hundred calls to CDC hotline if he is in US. CDC guys gets irritated and he gets
scolded for his impatience. If he knows the prostitutes phone number, he calls her and plead with
her for a HIV test. He offers to pay for the test and even some extra money. What a shame to go back
to the poor prostitute and ask her to do a HIV test for him. The reaction of the prostitute, most of
you can guess. US guys also have another workaround for HIV testing. They go and line-up for
donating blood to Red Cross. Free testing for full hiv/std bundle!. If he is working Arab countries
he flies backs to his home country for a HIV ELISA test. He keeps on changing MD doctors for not
sympathizing with him. The guy used to save every penny by eating two square meals a day or not
smoking, can be spending money like a sultan . He also makes overseas calls to HIV/AIDS hotlines
umpteen times. But no solace.
He looses his sleep and having insomnia. The testing for HIV goes on and on and all the results are
negative. The Lab girl can recognize him from 200 meters far and she pleads him not to come until 3
months are passed. But no avail. Every 15 days he is there. Who knows when the antibodies will
suddenly pop up? He may loose interest in his normal activities and can get depression. Or he may
become alcoholic. A full blown worried well. At worse he may attempt suicide. He may loose his job.
His brain is really screwed up and there is no solution in sight. He may not recover even after 3
month negative ELISA since the feeling of guilt and loss of self esteem is deep rooted in his mind.
Psychiatry does not offer much help and only can prescribe benzodiazepine drugs to control his
anxiety. Depression or Bi-Polar drugs takes enough time to act or the psychiatrist himself need
ample time to experiment with drugs to make this person stable. Worst of all, he may relapse into
prostitutes again, the very cause of his distress. Prostitutes - Testing becomes a compulsive
behavior. The very fact is, some prostitutes are very service minded and can be addictive as you get
much better treatment from them compared to your wife.
But time cures every thing. After about 6 months continuous ELISA test and psychiatry help the
person can become normal again. Counseling can reinstall the persons lost self esteem, self
confidence in a due course of time. He can be normal again. May be a sum of money is lost or a job
is lost he can start everything from scratch. Those who are religious, can pray regularly and gets
god's help to get out of their agony.
All the people who are going to prostitutes are not becoming "worried wells" for that matter. It is
generally who are weak in mind gets this syndrome. They may be already having some underlying mental
diseases like depression, bi-polar or alcoholism. There are also people who regularly test for hiv
and regularly visit prostitutes. They are the
family.
Single-handed crusade against AIDS Copyright 2003©2004 Manoj at manoj.bizhosting.commanoj.bizhosting.comOpen ↗
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