Helping persons with AIDS find meaning and hope

In helping persons with AIDS recognize and understand their spiritual needs, it is beneficial to distinguish between spirituality and organized religion. Spirituality is concerned with meaning, hope, self-identity and self-worth, and forgiveness and reconciliation and is determined by the way persons structure their relationships with God, the world, others, and themselves. Organized religion is concerned with the human experience of the holy. It embodies this experience in a particular creed, cult, and community and is meant to serve the spirituality of its members. From a psychosocial standpoint, persons with AIDS live with great uncertainty and extreme anxiety. They must deal with the social stigma that the disease has assumed, whether they belong to one of the high-risk groups or not, and with the alienation and isolation that association with such groups engenders. In some cases, disclosing one's sexual orientation often creates additional pressure. Spiritually, persons with AIDS experience a profound need for meaning and hope. Faced with physical debilitation and psychological and social losses, they must rediscover a reason for living and a sense of self-worth. They need unconditional love and acceptance from health care professionals, family, friends, and clergy, as well as from their God. Many persons of the gay community in particular, whose organized religions have rejected or condemned them, need to discover an image of God as love. Some persons with AIDS also may seek forgiveness and reconciliation for harmful attitudes and behaviors. Finally, persons with AIDS may have a need for spiritual conversation or for rituals and other religious practices that can help them cope with their disease and enhance their spiritual growth.