ABSTRACT
Don was a company C E O when he went on disability. His intention was to preserve and strengthen the level of his health by an early "retirement." He had not experienced an opportunistic infection but was having difficulty taking A Z T , which caused anemia and nausea. We spent months preparing for the day he would tell the board of directors and his staff of thirty employees that he had AIDS and had to retire. He had grown up on a ranch in Montana, and he faced coming out as gay and HIV positive to his rural family. To his surprise, all of these events went very well, with much support from those around him. However, two months after leaving his job, he became suicidal. Don had few interests beyond his work, and without it he felt lost, with no reason to live. Needless to say, I was very concerned and feared I would have to hospitalize him. I went so far as to draw up seventy-two-hour hold-and-treat papers and discussed his case with the inpatient intake team. Fortunately, Don did not need hospitalization; he pulled out of his depression and lived a productive life for another four years before dying of multiple infections and weight loss.
