I used to be a very open person, shared food and drinks with everyone. The transmission rates are pretty high for me rn cause I just contracted it last month. It says I can be shedding up to 30% of the days during the first year, it terrifies me. I got it from simply kissing a girl who had no visible sores so the whole talk of only worrying during an outbreak doesn't work for me.
I've been seeing supportive comments but also people who don't have it and are terrified with it wanting as much distance from it as possible. And I understand, before I had it I would be terrified as well but I didn't even know anything. The sex Ed at school didn't even talk about common stds or stis only taught to use protection and guess what, many can be transmitted just by sharing utensils. I've even seen that people with hsv1 are 80% more likely to get alzheimers later in life, this is from recent studies done in 2025 so even tho lots of people have it, it doesn't make it less serious unfortunately.
I will first just try to avoid sharing as much as possible but it might raise questions since that's not who I used to be, and I will probably have to tell them. Does anyone has experience with this?