Religion\Spiritual Activities and HIV\AIDS among African American Women

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION1

LITERATURE REVIEW2

Difference between Spirituality and Religion2

African American Women and their Involvement in Religious\Spiritual Activities4

African American Women and their Involvement in Religious\Spiritual Activities to Deal with HIV\AIDS6

DISCUSSION7

Positive effects of spirituality among HIV/AIDS infected African American women7

Spirituality Is Much More Common among African Americans as Oppose To Whites as Positive Factor in the Healing Process8

IMPLICATIONS9

Experiential Therapy9

Experiential Therapy and HIV/AIDS and its Connection with Religion and Spirituality10

Berman's Death Awareness Exercise10

Relaxation Techniques11

Recommendations12

Creating Churches and Groups12

Meditation13

Implementation of Other Exercises14

REFERENCES15

Spirituality/Religion Is Used As a Coping Mechanism among African American Women with HIV/AIDS

Introduction

Life is beautiful! But we also know the fact that life is not a bed of roses. There are different things that destroy and diminish the beauty of life. Sometimes a crippling disease can take away all the pleasures and joy of life. One such crippling disease is of HIV\AIDS. Over the period of time there has been an increase in the percentage of people suffering from this disease. This is an illness that affects the well being and deteriorates health of an individual suffering from it day by day. If a person is diagnosed with HIV positive, it means he/she is infected with a virus that can develop itself into AIDS. HIV is not curable which means if person becomes HIV positive, he/she will remain HIV positive for the rest of hi/her life. Over a period of time, white blood cells, also called “T cells” and “CD4 lymphocytes”, are infected and eventually killed by HIV which makes the body unable to fight off certain kinds of cancers and infections. World has become an unsafe place as health related issues in humans are rising with an immense increase in diseases that are uncontrollable and lack efficiencies in precautions and such diseases and infections are life threatening for humans. HIV is one of these infections, which surrounds the human body leading to threatening attributes.

In order to deal with this disease there are a number of medications that the sufferers get. Besides the medication there are other techniques and ways that are adopted by the individuals suffering from it in order to deal with this illness and to enjoy life as it was before this disease. One such technique or way that is used by the individuals is indulging in spiritual and religious activities. People get associated, adopt and indulge in various exercises of spirituality and religion to get strength and to make themselves feel strong so that they can fight with this disease. The aim and objective of this paper is to talk about the same concept of indulging into spiritual and religious activities in order to cope up with this disease. This research particularly focuses on the indulgence in spiritual and religious activities as a coping mechanism among African American women who are suffering from HIV\AIDS.

Literature Review

While conducting any research it is imperative to develop immense knowledge and information about that topic. To get this information literature review plays vital ...