The Denver Principles

5. Treat People with AIDS as whole people, and address psychosocial issues as well as biophysical ones.

What is AIDS Survivor Syndrome (ASS)? And Why It Matters.

AIDS Survivor Syndrome (ASS) describes the spectrum of sustained trauma survivorship resulting from living through the AIDS pandemic. It’s a unique “psychological syndemic” — two or more interrelated factors were working together to worsen the intensity of the elements.

When AIDS first arrived in 1981, unnamed, deadly, feared, and first erroneously reported to only affect gay men, it created fear and scapegoated an already marginalized community. It created a new form of stigma and discrimination. The collective experience of the1980s and 1900s AIDS pandemic was characterized by the mass casualties of young men and extraordinary caretaking. AIDS forced young people to do the work of elders. For nearly twenty years, having The Virus was considered a death sentence.

We were told to get out affairs in order before having enough life experience to have many affairs.

Before I describe the signs and symptoms of AIDS Survivor Syndrome, I want to stress that ASS awkwardly includes our remarkable strengths and resiliencies. It is also a natural response to an extraordinary experience.

What we lived through in the early years of the epidemic, and what we are facing now as the first generation to be aging with HIV, is the stuff of heroes and “the definition of brave.” It is the hero’s journey personified.

ASS is a natural response to an extraordinary experience — living through decades the AIDS pandemic.

Also, ASS is not limited to gay men with HIV, but also anyone, including HIV-positive heterosexual women and men and as well as people who are HIV-negative LTS, also experienced tremendous losses and had their lives deeply affected by the epidemic. But since, ASS describes heterosexual women and men who are living with the virus and those who are affected by the trauma and casualties of AIDS.