In Treatment: Jamar Rogers

One in a series of articles about Black people living with HIV/AIDS who are considering treatment, successfully adhering to their regimen and/or getting to undetectable.

Jamar Rogers has come a long way since appearing as a contestant on NBC's hit talent-show competition, The Voice.

In addition to having recently dropped his second single, "High," on iTunes, the New Orleans native -- who was a finalist on the second season of The Voice this past May -- has been touring in advance of his first album, which he plans to drop this spring.

"My life has completely changed," says Rogers following his reign on the top-rated reality show. "It's kind of crazy. A year and a half ago I was walking dogs in New York to get by, and this week alone I was in four different cities speaking at universities and performing. In March I'll release part 1 of an EP; part 2 will come out in August," he adds. "I'm also writing a book. Plus I have the honor of being a correspondent for [the TV show] The Insider during The Voice season 3," he says. "I think that's just incredible."

But the changes the 30-year-old has made in his professional life aren't nearly as incredible as the ones he's made on the personal side.

Seven years before Rogers took the stage to perform before Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and the other celebrity judges, he kicked a life-threatening drug addiction. It was around that time that he realized he was also HIV positive -- a diagnosis that marked a turning point in his life.

"I'm a former crystal meth user," Rogers explains frankly of his troubled past. "I had unprotected sex with men and women, and I had sex for money and drugs because I was chasing the high, so to speak," he shares. "Two months after I decided to walk away from crystal meth, I discovered that I was HIV positive. Something about that encouraged me to live and not give up on my dreams."

The first step in Roger's journey was to get his viral load to undetectable, which he proudly declares it is today. "I'm really fortunate that I only take one pill a day," he says of his regimen. "I take it at night right before bed -- it's part of my nighttime routine. I do understand that not everybody has the luxury of taking one pill, and that it can get a little cumbersome to take many more. But what I try to encourage my HIV-positive brothers and sisters to do is take the pills anyway.

"If you really take ownership of your health and you want to live, then you can put up with the side effects," he continues. "They're really temporary. If you get past those first two weeks of side effects, you really will be okay, but you have to approach it from a soul aspect. Your soul has to be right in order for you to want to take care of your body. That's why I watch what I eat. When I'm tired I've learned to say, 'You know what -- I've got to lay down.' It's all part of taking good care of yourself.

"I don't have any problems with adherence," Rogers adds. "I don't miss my dosage. I don't miss doctor appointments, but that's because I want to live."

Getting support -- and offering it -- to others living with HIV has also given Rogers a new sense of purpose. In addition to partnering with the Black AIDS Institute to encourage folks to get tested, he currently serves as the face for a new social media campaign launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's called "Let's Stop HIV Together," and both Rogers and his manager-mom are featured.

"Because of the amazing work I have done with organizations like God's Love We Deliver, I got to remove the stigma from myself and take a look at some of my own prejudices about people living with HIV," he says about his own healing. "I began to meet other people with real ambitions -- with real dreams. I didn't see the status anymore; I saw people.

"I decided that I wanted people who were HIV negative to understand that people living with HIV are not lepers -- we are not the dregs of society," he insists. "It's your cousin -- it's your brother. We're people with dreams and ambitions and hopes. My goal and hope is not to make people comfortable with it, but to just bring an awareness so that people don't have to whisper about it behind closed doors."

Tomika Anderson is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her work has appeared in Essence, POZ, Real Health and Ebony magazines, among others.