Disclosure of HIV seropositivity

Deciding whether or not to disclose one's HIV‐positive status to another person is an important decision; the way each person experiences and copes with the illness is reflected in this choice. We conducted a study of 174 patients (29.3% of women) to examine how the decision to disclose or conceal was made, as well as its subjective and social consequences. We discovered that only 3.5% of the individuals remained silent about their illness. Most spoke about it, regardless of how they had been infected or of the advice they had received to be discrete. The confession often did not bring them the relief they sought. Revealing one's HIV‐positive status is not a sign of social responsibility, or of a special trust in someone, but rather a compulsive act to release suppressed tension. Individuals who do not confess need attention; their silence is a sign of their inability to adapt to their illness, as well as of their self‐imposed exclusion from society. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 55: 1041–1049, 1999.