HIV: ON LIVING-TAKING CONTROL: RELABEL THE NEGATIVE; FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE
Relabeling means redefining a troubling situation so that it seems more benign. Relabeling is related to thinking positively: any situation, no matter how bad, contains the possibility for something good. The idea is to focus on the possibilities for good and define the situation in those terms. “If I approach it with the right attitude,” says Steven, “I can see the blessings.” Call something a challenge rather than a struggle, a preference rather than a need, an opportunity rather than a problem, caring rather than dependency. People who have to quit work say they are not losing their usefulness but gaining freedom and opportunity: the chance to volunteer, to read certain books, to learn to paint, to teach, learn a language, put together models, and especially, spend more time with the people they love. Helen knows that even though HIV infection is not curable, it is treatable, and seeing the disease as treatable, she says, “does a lot for me.” Dean, who has lived a long time with the virus and has weathered several serious illnesses, defines himself not as a sick person but as a survivor, a winner: “I’ve survived a lot of illnesses, and some even the doctors thought I wouldn’t,” he says. “So even if I die, I’ll still feel I’ve won.”*241\191\2*
