Mr Beißel, you are HIV positive and have chosen not to speak also in their professional environment, their infection – although you are not legally obliged to do so. Why are you taken this step?
I am a very open and honest person, even in my professional environment. But eventually I reached the point where I felt I had to adjust to me and something to hide. An example: I go every three months Wednesday morning for the Blood test to check the viral load in my blood. This date is fixed. Then the date for our Team Meeting has been moved to this day and I have informed my supervisor about the doctor’s appointment. He knows me very well and knows that I was never actually at the doctor. Of course he was Worried. In addition, he has established that me does anything bother. I was not as free and creative as I used to.
Have you told your colleagues, finally, of their infection. What do you expect of it?
To be able to free life. But what a back is, in fact, you realize when you took this step. I always say: It gave me my Foundation back. I was more myself and had more room for creativity; for a natural interaction with each other.
Jörg Beißel, 37, works as a Senior Facility Specialist with a focus on foreign investments with the software manufacturer SAP. He is the face of the campaign #is positive, the favour lives for a discrimination-free HIV-Positive in the work. The photo shows Jörg Beißel the signing of the Declaration of the German AIDS help.
How did you go: Did you tell it first to your supervisor? Some Friends And Colleagues?
First of all, I have my closest friends in the Private entrusted. Then the professional environment followed. I have a work colleague who I work very closely together, and superiors, is also very close to my. The two I said it first. My boss has responded great: He jumped up, hugged me and said he was grateful to me that I have something so Personal with him. This is the reaction I have seen more and more people see that you give them something really Private entrusted. Thus, relationships in business are changing. The people are grateful that it brings you respect and trust. I feel significantly since then, clearly more comfortable at work.
They were surprised by the reactions?
Yes and no. Of course, I had hoped that the two will understand it and try to normally deal with for me. But that you react emotionally – and so good – which surprised me actually.
You will also learn exclusion?
At my company, SAP, I had not only a discriminatory Situation. Instead, I have learned that exclusion is also what I used for the part itself is. I believed that people are not able to deal with a certain amount of Information. Now colleagues come to me, with whom I had professionally so my differences. You tell me: “I’m not often agree with you, but what you’re doing in terms of the topic of HIV: ‘hat, I think it’s really good’.”
In order to have great happiness. Many HIV-positive people are experiencing today, as before, exclusion and rejection, although the infection is now treatable and in everyday use no risk of Contagion.
That’s true. I’m in a self-help group, in which a young man recently about his experiences with exclusion reported: Due to unfortunate circumstances came up in his company that he is HIV-positive. It was then added that he may change his training location. Exclusion is still there, and also a lot more common than you think. She has many faces. Exclusion is no longer sometimes starts with the fact that you get HIV-positive people so much and don’t think that you were professionally so resilient.
How can exclusion be prevented?
Through information and education. The topics of HIV and Aids are no longer caught up in the last few years, unfortunately, a bit forgotten, because you see the positive people, the infection due to new drugs. Felt, the disease has moved far into the distance. The knowledge of many people is listening to somewhere at the end of the nineties. You have still pictures of AIDS sick in the head, where you look at that you have a deadly disease. Fortunately, no death is HIV today, more judgment, but it is important to protect themselves from HIV. There are still New infections. HIV is still not curable.
How did you know in the spring of 2015 from your infection?
I have to say, I’m one of the rare cases, because I’ve noticed it myself, actually. Of course, I didn’t expected that I have HIV. But to me it was very bad and I have to leave my house doctor, and a blood picture. My doctor said then, the whole blood picture would look as if you have Mikado sticks in wild confusion thrown in. Then you can further test and the Virus directly prove made. The infection was still fresh. The shock was first deep.
You know how you have attached?
Yes, I know that. There was only one Person who could have infected me. But I always say: in the end, is the way how you got infected, no matter. It is important to protect yourself with condoms or Prep pill that you take before a risk of contact. Also regular Tests are important. The one who has infected me, would have to leave early enough to test, it would not come, perhaps not so far.
Have you told your family about it?
Yes, I initially told my friends and my parents and my sister. That was certainly one of the most difficult hurdles. I have to say that When I was infected, my mother was getting her chemotherapy done. She has an incurable form of cancer. It just went back reasonably well, and I wondered at the time: Could I live with the fact that she’s dying, and I have a feeling it has to do with my message? My mother said afterwards to me: “you Know, I will never cease to be your mother and to make my thoughts and Concerns, even if I’m lying on my death bed.” This reaction touched me the creeps, but also a lot of peace and Serenity returned.
How are you today?
I take medication to reduce the virus reproduction and, ultimately, in my blood curb. These medicines are very effective. Three months after the diagnosis, I was under the detection limit, this means that The virus count in my blood is so low that standard Tests, striking and, above all, a Transfer is not possible.
The Declaration of the German AIDS help promote a discrimination-free HIV-positive people in working life. More than 50 renowned companies from diverse industries have signed the Declaration already, including Bosch, Daimler, Deutsche Bahn, SAP and the techniker Krankenkasse. For more information, click here.
You are the face of the campaign #is positive, the German AIDS help, a non-discriminatory and respectful treatment of HIV-positive people and also to all the other touts in working life. What would you advise other interested parties, who are themselves faced with the decision: do I Say it to friends and colleagues – or not?
I would advise: trust your environment. You piece for piece – it opens but doesn’t jump into things. Tell perhaps first of all a good friend. Or of the family. Every positive experience has encouraged me to openly deal with the issue. You return a Poise and security.
What are your hopes for the future?
I would hope that people much more often, without prejudices to each other. You go back a step, a Situation from the outside view and ask yourself: How would I feel in this Situation? Tolerance really to live also means “Different,” to Be aware of to allow.
New in health
