Finding out you have herpes can be devastating because symptoms are painful and unpleasant and the disease cannot be cured. But there are ways of coping and managing life after herpes.

Once the shock, sadness, fear and embarrassment start to fade, it’s time take action.

People who are dating have a major issue with dealing with herpes because it must be revealed to potential partners. While no one wants to be stigmatized, revealing the condition is essential. And in many cases, the response from the potential partner is that he or she also has the disease. As many as 25 percent of people do. When a strong non-physical relationship already exist, revealing a herpes diagnosis doesn’t necessarily kill a romance.

Lifestyle changes can help manage herpes. These include:

• practicing positive thinking to keep the immune system strong and limit the likelihood of a stress-induced outbreak,
• identifying outbreak triggers like sunlight, cold, lubricants, hormonal changes or depression and working to eliminate them,
• avoiding chafing or irritation while having sex to reduce the likelihood of systems occurring,
• maintaining a strong immune system by eating healthy food, drinking more water and staying at a healthy weight,
• taking nutritional supplements including a multivitamin, antioxidant supplements and antiviral supplements as well as additional herbs, olive leaf extract, goldenseal, Siberian ginseng and other preparations,
• avoiding known triggers like chocolate, dairy, nuts, raisins, corn, wheat, seeds and anything you suspect may cause outbreaks for you.

Coping and managing life after herpes is easier when you’re vigilant and take the right actions to keep this incurable but manageable condition in check.

While coping and managing life after herpes is a lifelong commitment, there is support available from doctors, counselors and others who can help you make smart decisions and limit the number and severity of outbreaks you experience.