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At the same time, personality characteristics or psychological features may also play apart in how the physical body copes with the disease. Speaking of a friend (anotherparticipant) who was so sick in the past, and who recovered:“No hope already because dia dah tinggal tulang dengan kulit je. Dia inisebagai orang kata - dia punya will power. Everybody say that.”(“No hope already because she was nothing but skin and bones. She’s like,what they say – has will power. Everybody says that.”)(Transgender, 53 yrs, Upper secondary education, SW)“When we really talk about HIV <strong>AIDS</strong>......to me…..I’m not thatstressed….. I’ve seen friends…. I’ve seen lots of friends of mine comingfrom stress to depression and, after a couple of days, they die. So, Irecognise stress and depression as one of the things that will kill me. Anda lot of NGOs….err.....like home care. I don’t know what they do about<strong>this</strong>….. Basically, I mean, I’ve been living with HIV now for 14 years. I’mnot on meds. My CD4 is 470 which I’m very happy about. My viral loadis 1300, so I look at my life and I know I got to take care of myself becauseI’m not on meds. One day maybe I will but for now, I make sure I haveproper meals and proper rest.”(Male, 50yrs, Upper secondary education, DU)On the contrary, although affordable healthcare is available through public hospitals,apathy, fatalism or other negative attitudes may exacerbate health through irregular orinsufficient healthcare monitoring or failing to take drug treatments properly or not at all.In particular, active DUs tend not to have regular visits or maintain their medicationbecause of the nature of substance dependence. In fact, a few of the participantsmentioned what little difference HIV made to their own life, not to mention others thatthey might infect, as the only thing they care about is their continuing drug supply. Theywill go to a clinic or hospital only when they are sick. This apathy extends to seekingHIV-related services, including counselling following diagnosis. This negative attitude isillustrated in the following comments:“And then, she asked me to go down to P2 [floor level in hospital wherecounselling service is located]. Go there and find out, they will tell youhow to take care….counselling. What’s your CD4 and all….I just couldn’ttake it! I didn’t go there!”(Male, 38yrs, Lower secondary education, DU)“Same thing with me - I couldn’t be bothered!”(Male, 36yrs, Upper secondary education, DU)“Most of us can’t be bothered.”(Male, 44yrs, Upper secondary education, DU)However, it is evident that access to the appropriate resource enables DUs, and other HIVcommunities, to cope with various issues, such as overcoming denial, gaining acceptanceby their families, and learning to accept it themselves and live with HIV:49

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