Terri:
“People need to separate having herpes from being herpes. And they get stuck there fairly often that they can’t separate those two things out. That’s an important step and I think it comes with time.
“It doesn’t happen right away. At first, it’s too overwhelming. You can’t make that distinction.
“But that’s a key to doing better is to say I’m a person with herpes. That is only one part of who I am. I come to the world with lots of attributes and some limitations. This may be one of my limitations. I probably have others, but I have lots of attributes and I need to have a balance somewhere. And when people start seeing that I think they do better also.
“The most important thing, I think, to know about herpes is that it does not define you in any way whatsoever; only if you let it. And it can be managed. And you can reduce the chances of infecting others. And you can have families and live full, sexually active, satisfying lives beyond this diagnosis.”
|
