Mariah Wilberg

Mariah Wilberg utilizes her lived experience with HIV, trauma, homelessness, survival sex, substance use, mental illness and incarceration to inform an award-winning career in public service that spans from public health to justice reform. This column is a project of TheBody, Plus, Positively Aware, POZ and Q Syndicate.

I had to get past the stigma of having HIV. Then I had to do the same for mental illness

I was 19 years old and pregnant when I received my HIV diagnosis in 2006. ā€œThis is punishment,ā€ I thought, just rewards for the survival ...