STDs and Relationships – The STD Project’s Guidebook – Friends

STDs and relationships; you mean to say, they can coincide harmoniously?!?! Yes.

Baloney. Er, Bologna. Total rubbish and I’m leaving your website right now, because STDs and relationships have always resulted in epic failures of colossal proportions.  

Epic failures of colossal proportions, huh? That’s one Hiroshima-esque STD, if you ask me! Lucky for you (and me) that statement is the exception and not the rule.

Although, it’s true, contracting an STD can feel emotionally and sometimes physically as if a sexually transmitted bomb has gone off in your genitals; generally, it does not mean the end of your relationships – family, friend, or partner.  

So, let me back-track a bit. Today’s post will be part one in which I’ll refer to as The STD Project’s Guidebook about STDs and Relationships.  art one focuses on STDs and friendship. Part two will focus on STDs and family, and finally, part three will address STDs and partners (ie. intimate relationships).

STDs and Friends

Contracting an STD is devastating – to say the very least – and can be nearly debilitating or conversely, uplifting, depending on the support group one already has in place.

Friends are your chosen family and an integral part of that support group. Consequently, the response one receives from friends as a result of contracting an STD is often the most reassuring or can be the most devastating of blows.

After-all, one expects a lover to be taken aback; one does not always anticipate a friend’s unkind reaction.

I have experienced both positive and negative reactions.

Most of my closest friends were loving, understanding, supportive, and provided a shoulder for me to cry on, bang my head on, or bury my face in. A couple others (a very very few number of others) were vindictive and spoke poorly of me while I wasn’t around.

Albeit, the malicious reactions I’ve received have been quite few and far between, I cannot write this without telling you how heavily it weighs on my heart there were any thoughtless reactions to begin with – especially among people I once held in high regard – my friends. (Another reason why eradicating the stigma and The STD Project is so important – YEY!)

‘Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.’ ~ Oprah Winfrey

Simply, they do not understand.  

Herein lies the first of my messages to you – you who may have an STD, may not be sure if you have an STD, may know someone with an STD, etc. More often than not, a friend’s pernicious response is a result of fear, insecurity, or ignorance.

This means there are  a large number of people who don’t understand how near an STD is to them or how having one can truly feel. We, as an STD-laden kinda people, must embrace those misunderstandings and take them as just that, misunderstandings.

The friends who are your closests and who love you unconditionally as good friends should, will not regard you poorly. They will not speak badly about you to others and they will hold their judgments.

Those are the friends you must treasure and to which you must focus your energy. A person who is willing to see you for who you are, regardless of your STD is, by definition, a good friend.

The rest are fleeting.

Misunderstanding does not = crappy people.

You might be reading my last paragraph and thinking, ‘Yeah, she’s right; the rest are all assholes, and I don’t need them.’ Wouldn’t that be fun?!?! Unfortunately, that’s not the whole of my message.

Dang it!

It’s so much more fun to say, ‘Screw them all!’ (I’ve been there; mental swear words can be relieving – temporarily – I get it.)

All the same, those people who may harm you now and may say incredibly damaging (to you and them – their feebly chosen words are a direct reflection of their minds and hearts) things about you (I swear, those things can sting) are also the same people who may come around, grow, and learn from their own experiences to become beautiful loving individuals.

So, while you may need to separate yourself from the harmful nature of their words right now (which, I highly suggest you do), there may come a time when those same individuals either need your help or reach out to you again as a friend.  

‘Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.’ ~ George Washington

Be the Change You Wish To See

Where did that come from??! I don’t want to be the change I wish to see – these people have been mean to me!!!!!

Well, when those same individuals come to you for help, forgiveness, or maybe they never come to you again, take this entire experience as a lesson in friendship.

Be amazing to those who have stood beside you, and be as gracious as possible to the ones who do return. All people change and grow – you will too as a result of an STD.

Don’t let it ruin you - let it empower you.

‘But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.’ ~ Thomas Jefferson

• Part 2 of: STDs and Relationships – The STD Project’s Guidebook – Family
• Part 3 of: STDs and Relationships – The STD Project’s Guidebook – Partners

What was your experience with friends? Did this help you to view their reactions differently or do you have some advice for others? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

More On This:

• STD? What Now? Your Ultimate Reference Guide
• STD Stigma
• When Do You Have to Tell Someone You Have an STD
• How To Tell Someone You Have an STD
• A Healthy Helping of STD Hater-Aid
• Anger and The Person Who Gave Me Genital Herpes/Scabies