December 1st is World AIDS Day. Podcast episode 6 “Mind Matters!” – How can I strengthen my mental health? – online on Spotify
Vienna (OTS) – “Positively Spirited” – the first Austrian podcast for people from the HIV community for the HIV community – on Spotify and on https://livlife.com/de-at/
Just in time for World AIDS Day (December 1st), GSK/ViiV Healthcare has launched another episode of the Austrian podcast “Positive Spirited”. The podcast series shares personal stories, experiences and tips to empower and inspire people living with HIV and those who support them. After the episodes “A taste of what’s to come”, “HIV diagnosis – what now?”, “How does it feel to be HIV positive?”, “The challenge of lifelong therapy” and “HIV and Women”, the new episode on the topic of “Mental Health” is now online.*
Podcast episode 6 online on Spotify: Mental Health
Christopher Klettermayer is a guest in this episode. Christopher has been living with HIV since 2014 and is a respected artist and author who lives in both Vienna and Barcelona. Also invited is Ms. Michaela Walchshofer-Pecka, an experienced clinical and health psychologist, emergency psychologist and psychotherapist from Vienna. Together with Birgit Leichsenring, who has worked in science communication and in the field of HIV for many years, the protagonists discuss how HIV affects mental health and what active steps you can take to deal with the diagnosis on a psychological level.
“In a positive mood”: “Mind Matters!” – How can I strengthen my mental health?
How has being diagnosed with HIV affected your mental health and how do you deal with it? What approaches are there to better understand those affected? How should partners, relatives and family behave if someone from their private environment receives the diagnosis?
Christopher: „The diagnosis was of course a terrible shock. It was very unexpected and it felt like it somehow ended my life so far, but something always comes after that – it also opens new doors.
“
Mag. Michaela Walchshofer-Pecka: „Meet personally, without distance. Don’t judge, just be there, ask how you can help. Get support for yourself, talk about your own fears and feelings.
A difficult situation must be mastered; it helps if the environment conveys that it trusts that this will succeed.
“
After a period of deep depression, Christopher pulled himself out of the dark hole with the help of talk therapy, friends and family. Since then, he has become one of the most important investigators about the virus and is using his crisis as an opportunity.
“Positive mood” podcast
The podcast “Positively Spirited”, which was launched in 2020 in collaboration with GSK and ViiV Healthcare as the first Austrian podcast by the HIV community for the HIV community, is on Spotify and all previous episodes are also on https://livlife.com/de-at/ listen. Livlife is a platform for people with HIV and, above all, co-developed by PLHIV (People living with HIV) to clarify the most important questions about the infection, learn from each other and support each other.
About ViiV Healthcare
ViiV Healthcare is a global HIV-focused company founded in November 2009 by GSK (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) to advance advances in the treatment and care of people living with HIV and people affected by HIV. Prevention options could benefit. Shionogi became a shareholder of ViiV in October 2012. The company’s mission is to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV and AIDS than any company before and to take a new approach to providing effective and innovative medicines for HIV treatment and prevention and communities affected by HIV to support. For more information about the company, its management, portfolio, pipeline and commitments, please visit www.viivhealthcare.com.
About GSK
GSK is a global biopharmaceutical company that combines science, technology and talent to work together to stay one step ahead of disease. Find out more at www.gsk.com/about-us.
*If you need medical advice, please contact your treating doctor. NP-AT-HVX-PRSR-230001; 11/2023
Questions & Contact:
GlaxoSmithKline Pharma GmbH
Mag. Barbara Masser-Mayerl
Corporate Communications Lead
+43 1 970 75/518
barbara.b.masser-mayerl@gsk.com