A victim's dilemma

The sarcasm that Adoley was mourning her beloved husband after a week of his burial was one thing we all thought has resulted in her continuous growth to leanness, little did we know she wanted to take her own life to join her dead spouse. when she has failed at several attempts of committing suicide, she then channeled her grave and anguish to heavy intake of alcohol.

Apparently, the stern looks from public and relatives when they found out her husband died from the incurable HIV/AIDS was not just enough to make her disappear from the face of the earth; however her real nightmares is she visiting the hospital for checks every 3weeks.

She couldn't hold her tears as she lamented how nurses run away from her when she approaches their desk and made her feel she was a living-dead person. The agony of becoming the days topic when she passes-by crawls slowly through her moments and forces her to re-live the pains of social discrimination and stigmatizations everyday. The greatest shock of the whole dramatic trauma was how her HIV+ results traveled faster after the doctors gave her the assurance the news is sealed. She couldn't trust anyone, and of course she didn't have any friends. The fear of stepping out was another course to overcome everyday. In every three weeks, Adoley either has to go to the hospital very early in the morning and leave at very late at night or she forgo her checks. This was her pain and that was her dilemma of becoming an HIV/AIDS victim by circumstance, shared with audience in a social anti-stigma campaign.

The action of describing or regarding someone or something as worthy of disgrace or great disapproval; is what we term as stigmatization.

In many cases, people have been suffering from this trauma of being tagged as not worthy of living or being accepted the way they are or by the situation and circumstances that have be fallen them.

Social stigma is when the society or the whole population turns away from someone that has or appears to have a challenge in behaving or living normal; as society wants.

Social stigmas arises when by will or by circumstances something negative (Incurable diseases, mental illness, biological mishaps and or accidents) befalls some one.

People get heart broken and fears to open up or keeps to them selves their problems; avoiding the needed help they should be getting for the fear that they will be stigmatized.

Several studies show that stigma usually arises from lack of awareness, lack of education, lack of perception, and the nature and complications of the anomalies, of the victim. for example odd behaviors and violence, extreme signs of some sicknesses will aways push society away from the victims and some victims with self-stigma will do same.

But let me start from the very beginning. Over 90% of stigmatized persons first suffered this trauma in the hospitals, this is because almost all (communicable) sickness that required people to isolate themselves are revealed in the hospitals. It's quite sad saying this but the very recent traumatic incidents or sickness the world is fighting now; the novel coronavirus reveals so. It screams fear and stigmatization right from contact tracing to the process of exporting the suspect to the hospitals. Professionals already announced the super deadly nature of the persons' conditions even before they get tested; causing the public to also retaliate with stigmatization chaos, "you are a dead-zone" attitudes.

The people think the ambulance escort to pick people from their homes even sends excessive shivers to the public and the suspect , even before they are confirmed either positive or negative. Already anyone that contracts this sickness is self-traumatized and literally do not need another dramatic scenes from doctors and nurses. But from the look of things, they made them appear as dead-zone areas that the public should shun from because they themselves shun away.

I have personally seen a couple of videos that reveals how doctors pray before they enter into the covid19 isolation wards to check up the patients and how they jubilate after they return as if they went to a war field and they didn't get their heads cut? please let's call a spade it name and not a big spoon, doctors and nurses started the discrimination amongst patients and the public did follow what they saw. Stigmatization started from our hospitals, The public was not aware, how deadly this is until they told us. People see the way health professionals sometimes treat or interacts with public patients and people are also avoiding or should i say preventing themselves?.

Let me suggest the need to educate the public on this topic and the need to put a stop to that. Not just on covid-19 but to all persons that have been labeled or stigmatized. Health professionals should show us how to curb stigmatization with their actions, because the public is always watching. This can be simple if you try to speak good or soothing words to them in their situations, or better keep quiet.

On the other hand those that cause the act sometimes literally do not have any knowledge of what they are doing or the harms being caused. Have you ever thought of how this happens? Have it ever crossed your mind of what stigmatizing or labels do to people? Do you know of any stigmatized person? Have you or any friend of yours been or reduced someone into that awkward situation?

Hhmm... the truth of the matter is, even if you have, you may not know, cause sometimes our attitudes and actions says something different than what its in our heads and hearts. Well if your actions sends negative vibes then probably you made someone felt like that without knowing.

Let's help victims to come out and get the help they need.