HIV crippling anxiety

[Sadaty]

Hello, Joggen,everybody, really appreciate your help in the anxiety group, and hope you could help me, I have been tested after a potential exposure to HIV 4 months and 3 weeks later,I was negative, however my extensive reading through the internet, knowing about the rare cases that take long time to seroconvert to the virus, and also knowing about that false negative ELISA testing-like the false positive one- can occur, keeps me in confined in a terrible mood, is it true that ELISA sensetitvity if 99.5% can miss 5 infection cases in 1000 people? and why is that disregarded?
Have a good day

[Sadaty]

Can I at least describe my appreciation? Thank you Joggen, everyone in the forum for everything, I am booking a meeting with a therapist..

Be well, nice and loved

[joggen]

"...however my extensive reading through the internet...keeps me in confined in a terrible mood.."

Not surprising. I've looked through your previous threads, and it seems that you've made a deliberate point of continuing to search on the subject of delayed seroconversion after every single time that you were advised by Teak and others in the HIV Prevention Community that your test result is conclusive. If your anxiety isn't letting you trust the advice that you are given in public forums, and motivates you to search for more information, I guarantee that you will eventually find something that keeps you 'in a terrible mood'. But what you don't seem to recognize is that all your effort is just creating a futile cycle: whatever I tell you is likely just going to fuel more searching on your part, and you'll want to come back with more questions, etc.- just like you did with Teak.

I will provide a single answer to your question, NO follow up questions permitted please. And you will only be allowed to return to this forum under limited circumstances (explained below). To answer your question: ELISA tests are ULTRA sensitive. They are not 100% accurate (no diagnostic test is, whether it is for pregnancy, cancer, or HIV), but the 0.5% error rate is primarily due to this extra sensitivity, not a lack of sensitivity. In other words, testing errors are primary comprised of false POSITIVES, not false negatives. The tests are so sensitive, they have a tendency to falsely identify people as having antibodies reactive against HIV, when in fact they do not- not the other way around. False negatives are simply not something you need to be concerned about, since you tested outside the window period.

I also read the answers that you received in the Anxiety Community, and agree with their advice: stop trying to resolve your anxiety though the Internet and seek treatment for it through a mental health professional. You have more than 20 posts on this issue: if you cannot accept your negative serostatus at this point, it is time to try something else. A professional counselor can help you identify the root causes of your anxiety and provide you with constructive ways to address it.

You may return to this thread to report that you have met with a therapist; otherwise, I will have nothing more to say. At this point I just don't see how continued discussion is going to help you.