thanks man, i will now wear protection every single time, you have saved me before I get the hassle of having weekly blood tests and daily combo drugs, good luck
I've been HIV+ since 1992 and have never considered suicide,so I guess I'm incredibly lucky. I guess I felt,in a small way,that I had a duty to show that there IS life with HIV.Now,in the last 2 years I've had major problems with my lungs,severely restricting my day to day life and I would say that on occasion I've thought it'd be better to not be around anymore.Ah well,it's a queer world in which we live.
Hi Sylvester - I know life can be tough. Obviously I can't say I know what you're going through in particular as I'm not in that particular situation. What I can say is: hang in there; you ARE wanted; your life still has meaning and value, and you can still find joy in spite of the difficulties and bring joy to others by your presence. If you are feeling depressed or feel like life's not worth living, please consider talking to a licensed professional counselor of some kind. Best wishes, Eric
Hi Jabra - This is Eric. Sorry to hear you're experiencing such pain right now. Please go to see a licensed mental health professional (a psychiatrist or a psychologist) for an evaluation of the problems you're experiencing. Hang in there. If you make changes in your life, address the issues that are causing you problems, and get whatever help you need, you can improve your life and end up much happier.
I think promiscuous risky sex is per se a form of long-term suicide. Certainly, gross recklessness to one's person, assuming they understood the possible consequences of their behavior. Some gay men would rather risk their lives than live without sex, which for them is substitute for real love. It's a terrible dilemma: AIDS vs. life without love.
Cass, at the moment I'm raising 4 kids. One is a teenager. She's 16. I hope and pray that she is careful with her life, but I often wonder with the spread of HIV, what the odds are that one of my 4 kids may someday have HIV effect their lives in some way. But I come to realize, that HIV effects us all. We all worry, we all wonder, we all hope that we have raised our children with awareness. Your strength gives us all hope. Take care of yourself and keep up the good work. God's work
@bqureshi21: If a person thinks that the absence of negative emotion equals happiness, it sounds like they might be suffering from depression. Sadness = negative feelings, neutrality = no feeling, happiness = positive feelings. Anyone feeling depressed or suicidal please refer to the depression management/suicide prevention tips I've posted in the profile for this account and take steps to address your emotional state. Life is precious and meant to be experienced in joy, not sadness!
Thanks for the kind offer. However there's no need to delete the exchange. I think the back-and-forth addresses a common reaction and is educational for viewers. Do remember that anyone who is contemplating suicide is almost my definition not in a rational state of mind, so what's obvious to you and me (suicide is not the right answer) may not be obvious at all to a person who is in a deep depression. That's part of why depression is so dangerous: it distorts thinking.
Hi Kengi - Cass doesn't claim to be a medical professional. He's providing his own viewpoint on the importance of diet, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle choices to managing HIV. He runs his own HIV peer support hotline and has counseled many away from suicide. Studies clearly show that people who have a smaller or no social support network are at higher risk of depression or suicide on average. But as you rightly note, having a support network doesn't guarantee a person won't kill themself.
Hey, don't encourage people to commit suicide!!! That's the LAST thing you want to communicate to people who are feeling suicidal. They may follow your advice! Anyone feeling suicidal should remember that they are unique and special and that they and their life has meaning, even in the darkest times. Just take life one day at a time and don't do anything rash. Friends and family are there to support you and happy to do so. Don't ever think you're a burden to others!
I would say this to anyone, there is time enough for the grave, don't rush it. There is no reason to. Life can also surprise you with good things as well.
That sounds like an urban legend. If they contracted HIV on holiday in Brazil, it was via sex or injection drug use, not via eating food. Eating food is not believed to pose a risk of HIV transmission for numerous reasons including the fact that cooking kills HIV and HIV dies quickly (within minutes) when outside the human body and/or its fluids.
@kilikhan1: Couple of points to keep in mind: (1) User AIDSvideos = Eric, not Cass Mann. Cass Mann was HIV+ and knows of what he speaks. He was HIV+ for 34 years and had a long, happy, healthy, and fulfilling life in which he helped countless others. Other HIV+ people have the chance to do likewise. (2) User AIDSvideos = Eric is HIV- and not claiming to have any personal understanding of the experience of being HIV+.
This is Eric; I'm not a doctor. ARVs can't guarantee a normal life expectancy. Perfect or near-perfect adherence by the patient is critical to prevent HIV from developing resistance to the ARVs. Used as prescribed with perfect or near-perfect adherence, ARVs may be able to prevent HIV from ever progressing to clinical AIDS; with typical use, they delay it by years or decades.
@2006TJS: It doesn't have to be like that. HIV positive people who follow their doctor's instructions and take good care of themselves may be able to have a relatively normal length and quality of life.
someone told me about a group of people he knew who went on holiday to Brazil and while on holiday they came down with food poisoning and had to go to the hospital, when they got back home they all found out they had contracted hiv, some of them committed suicide so if you ever go abroad don't eat any fruit or vegetables or drink unbottled water!
How about you (1) discuss your concerns with your doctor, (2) follow their instructions, (3) get counseling from a licensed mental health provider to help you deal with the stress or unhappiness you're feeling, and (4) see how things go for a while, talk with trusted friends and family, and not make any drastic and irreversible decisions? Just take life one day at a time. If you feel suicidal now, go to the nearest emergency room right away.
This is the second video that I have seen from this gentleman that I have issue with. The last was all the medical advice his gives out and he isnt a medical professional. Now he is talking about a person who does not have a support system and how they may or may not kill themselves. First off how does he know this and furthermore I know 15 people who have killed themselves with a support system in place. 11 of them left notes saying the "support" helped them make the choice they did...death
Without a doubt, getting health care coverage in the U.S. can be a problem. Anyone who is HIV+ in the U.S.: please be aware that you should be able to get free health care coverage through the Ryan White Care Act. Due to funding shortfalls, there are sometimes waiting periods, so sign up ASAP if you're HIV+ and you don't have health care coverage.
A "fact" is something that is independently testable and verifiable. Your statement that "some people are better off dead" is your personal opinion, not a fact, and it's one that I strongly disagree with. Post no further comments here suggesting that suicide is an acceptable or preferable option for anyone. We created this channel to save lives, not for the enablement, condonement, or encouragement of suicide.
I'm not sure if you're addressing me or gribae. If me: we have no illusions that if a person sees a video it guarantees they'll never commit suicide. However, you also have no proof that videos and/or moral suasion are guaranteed to fail. We have evidence that the videos are being effective for suicide prevention from the cases where suicidal people have contacted us and then gotten help instead of harming themselves.
I wonder what, if any, was the subconscious trigger that made each seemingly spontaneous example of suicide that he listed be related to vehicles except for the pills.
Stop researching suicide techniques. Please be evaluated by a licensed mental health professional (psychiatrist, psychologist) immediately. Suicidal thoughts are a health emergency that require immediate medical evaluation. Also ask a doctor for a referral to a substance abuse treatment program. You will get through this, but you have to address the issues you're facing directly. Good luck and hang in there!
The jury's still out on this from a scientific standpoint, but there's a fair amount of evidence that there may be a genetic predisposition towards sexual orientation. That would make it rather hard for a person to take your advice, to say the least.
More to the point, even if there really are "thousands" of long-term non-progressors, that's a tiny percentage out of the 58 million people who have died (25 million) of HIV/AIDS or are currently HIV+ (33 million). HIV/AIDS is a serious, potentially deadly condition. You're right that no one should ever commit suicide due to HIV (or for other reasons for that matter), but HIV/AIDS is not a "scam."
@lleejj123: This is Eric; I'm not a doctor. Talk to a doctor before making any changes to your ARV medication regimen. Normally, if a person is on ARVs and goes off them, it increases the risk and speed at which their HIV infection will progress to clinical AIDS, opportunistic infections, and death.
@pyromaniaknl: There is no cure for HIV. There is no cure for cancer either. In fact, it appears that probably everything you wrote is equally false. Great plot for a movie, but no evidence it's true. When people tell you things like that, ask them "What's the proof?" Learn to be a skeptic. Read "Everyday Irrationality" by Robyn Dawes.
@2006TJS: Yes. By all means let's hope and pray that a vaccine and/or cure are found. In the meantime, we all need to take steps to reduce or eliminate our risk of contracting or transmitting HIV.
No racial epithets please. There's no evidence that HIV was created by humans. It has been found in stored blood samples as far back as 1959. At that time, humans hadn't even discovered retroviruses, much less developed the technology to design a new one. Genetic studies provide evidence that it jumped to humans from a similar virus in primates. For some old stored samples, we even have the clinical history of patients who died of then-unexplained symptoms which in retrospect were clearly AIDS.
emsing2001 - LippyNSkippy didn't say any of the things you groundlessly accused him of. He's spreading positivity and light and a message of honesty, responsibility, and hope. You are misrepresenting his statements, putting words in his mouth, calling names, and being abusive. Plus, he obviously hasn't infected his HIV- partner. Your message is useful only in that it highlights the ignorance and stigmatization that so many people continue to display towards people who are HIV+.
we know how to prevent AIDS. let's just do the right thing by doing the right guidelines. its not cool not to have sex these days. for some. but, hey! its NO cool to have HIV virus. -I'm a teenage gurL.
@gribae: I agree that suicide is never the answer and that it's a mistake to think it is. But you do not help when you tell people contemplating suicide that the world would be better off without them--then you are making an error yourself. When a person kills themself, they hurt everyone who knows them and all the many people they have not met who might have benefited from knowing them. Please try to care more about other people and their value, even if you find suicidal thoughts frustrating.
tyrexden: It is 2009. For a person to have been HIV+ for 30 years, they would have had to have been HIV+ in 1979. But there was no way to determine that a person was HIV+ in 1979; the syndrome wasn't recognized until 1981, and HIV wasn't isolated until 1983-4, after which the HIV blood test was developed. So although there may be some long-term non-progressors who were in fact first infected 30 years ago, there would be no way to verify that. I don't see how you can substantiate your claim.
Zenome: no stigmatizing terms please. Also, when I read the Bible, the message was that God desires us to lead a good life on Earth and experience eternal life thereafter, not that either God or the Bible wants anyone dead.
Fifth, in saying simplemindedly that anyone who works on the sabbath day should die, you're overlooking Jesus's teaching that it is permitted to do the Lord's work on the sabbath day. Sixth, in treating Leviticus law in its entirety as binding, you're ignoring Peter's vision. (Acts 10:9-15) Seventh, note also your exclusive reliance on Old Testament verses and complete failure to reference or apply the Gospels. Discussing Christianity and ignoring Jesus's teaching is missing the point.
@Ramiromasters: You're suggesting an impossibly large conspiracy. Think of all the HIV+ doctors and scientists who want to find a cure for their own benefit, or for that of an HIV+ loved one, or child, or friend, etc. If a cure existed it would become public knowledge and demand for it would be unstoppable. Unfortunately, there is not yet any cure.
Yeah there is such a thing. I call it 'stupidity' for short, but if more people had the courage, they'd simply end it all and quit putting their family and friends in the same misery that they are in. Suicidal people are perhaps the most annoying of all, it is the ultimate form of being an 'attention whore'.
@thecommercialedge: Relax. You're doing the right thing by getting tested. There's a good chance that you'll turn out to be HIV-. Even if you turn out to be HIV+, that's not the end of your life. You're not a horrible person. Believe me, you're not the only person to think they may have been exposed to HIV! You can do wonderful things in life. You have a purpose -- just find it! Good luck.
We live a horendously selfish society in Britain. Its depressive because our society if bankrupt, incapable of feeling for others unless they are paid!
Congratulations, master of the obvious. Cass was openly gay, as noted in the video's description and credits. What's more significant is that you're focusing more on his sexual orientation than his message. Your comment says more about you than Cass.
Zenome: First, your statement that I've not read the Bible is simply incorrect. Second, your abusive namecalling is unnecessary, inappropriate, immature, and will get you banned if you do it again. Third, you're making the classic mistake of cherry-picking isolated verses and taking them literally without interpretation. Do you also believe, for example, that it's OK to own slaves? (Leviticus 25:44-45) Fourth, you're overlooking more recent teachings by Jesus: grace, forgiveness of sins, etc.
Sigh. Do you notice how you seem to have dehumanized people who are HIV+? They are human beings just like you, and their life is priceless just like yours. In your zeal to eliminate HIV, you're considering their lives to be worthless. So would you like to see every other person with a contagious disease commit suicide? Let's focus on ways of stopping the spread of HIV that DON'T involve further loss of life! Remember, preserving lives is why we're concerned about HIV in the first place!!!
I meant they had to be put on drips and because it was somewhere that had bad health care they all used the same needle, but yes it sounds like a urban legend to try to scare people from going on holiday
@AIDSvideos Being a chemistry student I'll say most money for research its going for anti aging, skin diseases, fat burners, pain suppressants, sleeping pills, and every other project gets cut off withing 3 years or so, and many projects start from scratch as the previous research its owned by a different company. I can also see billionaires defying the 75 life spam average, you say its a "conspiracy" or impossible... I statistically just can't vouch for you.
Terrible sentiment, and so misinformed. If HIV is "nature's way of keeping the gay population down," why does most HIV transmission worldwide occur heterosexually? why are millions of babies infected in Africa through mother-to-child transmission? IV drug users? hemophiliacs before heat-treated Factor 8? It *is* accurate to say that HIV creates an environment where it's very dangerous to have promiscuous or unprotected sex--straight or gay--and many are infected by other means too.
