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December 21, 2009

Crazy for the Holidays

"Depending on how you slice and dice the numbers, up to 15 million people in the United States will experience major depression each year. Forty million people suffer from some degree of serious anxiety ...

"Stats show that for people living with HIV, incidences of depression are even worse. Up to half of HIV-positive people in most studies have struggled with depression. Nobody can say for sure whether the increased rates are due to the fact that people who get depressed are more likely to become infected, or whether people who get infected are more likely to become depressed. I suspect it’s both. ...

"One of the most tragic things about living with mental illness, just like with HIV, is that you often feel like you are the only one. The illness also keeps you silent. You just feel like you can’t tell anyone how bad it really is."

Read more in POZ, December 19, 2009.

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