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Rating and
definition | Example-giving | Example-receiving* | Example-self |
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1
CL negative or harmful | A participant, who does not disclose his HIV status and has unprotected sex, describes: “I feel like just having sex with him just to give it (HIV) to him because of the way he used to talk about people with it.” | Someone perceives that nobody is helpful to her. She felt bothered by her family staying at her house: “I already have my own stress, and then I’m taking on their stress” | Participant got HIV as a child from a blood transfusion after an accident. He blames his mother for being HIV-positive because she did not let him die after the accident. To end living with HIV, he tried to commit suicide. |
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2
No expression of CL | “The loneliness was nearly unbearable” stated someone living in social isolation, spending his days with TV, daydreaming, and drinking, avoiding human interaction | “I have myself and God. I rely on me, my instincts, my intellect,” explains an engaged teacher, who feels that he has “not really” someone who is helpful to him. | A heavy depressed smoker feels overwhelmed by his life, HIV, and taking care of his health: “I’ve become hopeless, more frustrated, I’m not healthy. I’m not like I used to be. I got fat.” |
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3
CL attempted but not beneficial | “I want to tell my mom but then I don’t want to hurt her heart” explains someone who keeps “important things, like the HIV, locked up.” | A boyfriend’s double-edged reaction to her diagnosis showing empathy and fear. First, he promised: “Baby I will be there for you. Don’t worry. I love you.” But in daily life she perceived his fear. “He would steam out the shower after me and make me use my own glass and plate. I felt very dirty and very isolated, like a porcelain fragile doll.” | Someone “thinking positive” and “talking to God everyday” believes “He [God] has the power to heal.” On the other hand he struggles with substance use and medication adherence. |
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4
CL beneficial but not empowering | “I’m keeping myself up and healthy, on account of her”, explains a mother, who sees her main motivation to live in her daughter. | “I couldn’t move! I woke up and I was just sick. So he and his sister’s took care of me.” described someone who suffered from a severe flu.
Another participant receives financially support from her sister: “She just walks up to me, gives me checks,” but there is no empowering relation. | A woman describes her positive self-affirmation: “I had to look in a mirror and say I love myself and other people still love me and they’re not afraid of me.” |
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5
CL beneficial and empowering | Participant who changed his life after being diagnosed. While previously substance abuse was his way to deal with problems, nowadays his most considered coping strategy is to “establishing meaningful friendships and relationships with people and I’m doing service. I’m giving back some of the support and love that was given to me during my time of need”
“I’m always talking to people and helping them with connecting with meeting s and that sort of thing.” | A participant feels motivated by his brother: “He’s really concerned about me because I’m the youngest. He tries to encourage me to go to meetings, come to church, hang around positive people.”
Just after her diagnosis, someone met another HIV-positive woman for founding a support group. “She was like my mentor. She was empowering me.” | “I try to lead the most positive life I can, eating right, not worrying so much, not letting a lot of things stress me out, and always staying happy,” explains a woman’s empowering optimism: “I’m trying to get a house built on some land and getting married.” |
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6
CL is a central element in the person’s life* | The founder of a HIV support group describes herself as a “workaholic,” spending all her energy on the project. “This is my life and there are so many people who need me.” | | “I think that my house is very therapeutic for me” stated a woman who installed a Jacuzzi in her backyard. She centers her life on her wellbeing, starting work after 1 pm so that she can rest. |
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