Lived Experiences of Malaysian Female Individuals with Humanimmunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Who has Undergone Emotional Healing: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This research was undertaken to understand the thought process and perspectives, emotional experiences, and social life of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) patients who are living in Malaysia. HIV/AIDS can be deemed as a taboo subject especially in Malaysia because those affected by this disease are stigmatized and neglected by the community. Therefore, this attitude of the community has impacted the well-being and mental health of these patients. Six participants were adapted in this study and the data had reached saturation after these six participants were interviewed. They were selected through purposive sampling. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the data and four themes emerged from this study. The results from this study showed that the themes were: depressive and sad feelings emerged, anger as a result of discrimination and humiliation, glimpse of hope for the future and demolishing the stigma around HIV. The most prominent strength of the current research is that participants shared detailed experiences from the time they were diagnosed up until now. However, the limitation of this study is the low number of participants. In conclusion, this study clearly demonstrated the emotional healing process of these women from the time they were diagnose up until now.