Helping a Person With HIV
Clinical psychologist Dr Joseph M Carver, PhD, offers replies to reader questions submitted anonymously to Ask the Psychologist.
Reader’s Question
Please advise me: how can I help a person who is HIV positive keep their spirits up?
Our Consulting Clinical Psychologist’s Reply
Emotional support is very helpful. In combination with emotional/social support, you might encourage them to seek professional mental health care. Another way of helping is to encourage them to report depressive/anxiety symptoms to their physician. Some medications may actually increase depression for example. Their physician may add an antidepressant to their treatment program which might be helpful. Additional support can be found on the internet through various support and discussion groups. Your personal concern and support is probably the most valuable.
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This article was last reviewed by on Friday, 21st September 2007. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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