When everything changes

Our new article in Patient Preference and Adherence is now available open access. (I try to publish open access when I can, but don't always have the funding.)

I really like this piece because we gave voice to people who have been through really tough times and in most cases, overcome. But it required fundamentally changing how they thought of themselves and how they related to the world.

This is one of the consequences of a chronic disease diagnosis -- in this case HIV, but it happens to some extent with heart disease, chronic kidney disease, cancer. The doctor pronounces the word and the world changes. You are still the same person, but in a sense your identity is altered, where you are in the world is different.

Most of these folks, ultimately, made the most of it. But I don't know what the magic pixie dust is that can get people to successfully incorporate the new reality and move ahead courageously. Nor can they say what it was. At some point, it just happened.