Navigating Rejection with Herpes: Shifting Your Response
Here’s this weekend’s reminder: We can’t change someone’s rejection of us for having herpes, but we can work to shift our response over time.
If someone rejects you due to your herpes status, which of these is most similar to your reaction:
💅🏻 Shrugs and says “your loss”
🫣 Spirals into stigma and self-blaming tendencies (e.g. “I’m not worth it. I deserved this.”)
Maybe you’re somewhere in between. Maybe it depends on the day, the week, or what ever else you have going on in your life.
How we respond to a partner’s rejection after sharing a positive herpes status is also a reflection of our beliefs about people with herpes and, ultimately, ourselves and our worth.
Rejection is not an ideal experience for anyone, however, it is a part of the human experience.