TY - JOUR
T1 - Living positively : the experiences of Thai women living with HIV/AIDS in central Thailand
AU - Liamputtong, Pranee
AU - Haritavorn, Niphattra
AU - Kiatying-Angsulee, Niyada
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Living with an incurable illness such as HIV/AIDS is a stressful experience. However, many HIV-positive individuals are able to maintain their emotional well-being. This begs the question of what strategies these individuals employ to allow them to do so. In this article, we examine how Thai women living with HIV/AIDS learned about their health status, what feelings they had, and how they dealt with the illness. In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 women in central Thailand. The women adopted several strategies to deal with their HIV status, including taking care of themselves, accepting their own faith, disclosing their HIV status to family, and joining AIDS support groups. These strategies can be situated within the "living positively" discourse, which helped to create a sense of optimism to combat the HIV epidemic among the women. Additionally, the acceptance of their HIV status played an essential role in the meaning-making process because it assisted the women in sustaining the equilibrium of their emotional well-being.
AB - Living with an incurable illness such as HIV/AIDS is a stressful experience. However, many HIV-positive individuals are able to maintain their emotional well-being. This begs the question of what strategies these individuals employ to allow them to do so. In this article, we examine how Thai women living with HIV/AIDS learned about their health status, what feelings they had, and how they dealt with the illness. In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 women in central Thailand. The women adopted several strategies to deal with their HIV status, including taking care of themselves, accepting their own faith, disclosing their HIV status to family, and joining AIDS support groups. These strategies can be situated within the "living positively" discourse, which helped to create a sense of optimism to combat the HIV epidemic among the women. Additionally, the acceptance of their HIV status played an essential role in the meaning-making process because it assisted the women in sustaining the equilibrium of their emotional well-being.
KW - AIDS (disease)
KW - HIV (viruses)
KW - Thailand
KW - women
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:35112
U2 - 10.1177/1049732311421680
DO - 10.1177/1049732311421680
M3 - Article
SN - 1552-7557
SN - 1049-7323
VL - 22
SP - 441
EP - 451
JO - Qualitative Health Research
JF - Qualitative Health Research
IS - 4
ER -