Why I Survive AIDS

In 1985, therapist Niro Asistent tested HIV positive. Facing what many saw as a death sentence, Niro created her own programme of emotional therapy, daily meditation, and healthy diet and exercise. Since 1986, she has tested HIV negative. In this personal account of struggle, Asistent shows how she turned fear, shame, denial and anger into strength, self-acceptance and courage that then gave her the power to heal herself. She desribes the specific techniques she used from journal keeping, meditation, and emotional self-therapy to the vital benefits of sound nutrition and daily exercise, to the importance of setting new priorities. Niro Markoff Asistent is the founding Director of SHARE (The Foundation for the Self Healing AIDS Related Experiment).

Essentially a self-help book, this is Asistent's story of her recovery from AIDS-Related Complex and her subsequent work with People With AIDS (PWAs) to challenge the belief that AIDS is always fatal. Part 1 is autobiographical and lays the foundation for the second half, which addresses the self-healing process as she sees it. Asistent's change from HIV-positive to HIV-negative is minimally addressed and summarized through the notion of allowing healing to happen--there is no silver bullet. Therapists and PWAs will find the second part more useful because of the discussion of the healing process and the exercises that are included. Recommended for large public libraries and AIDS collections.
- John W. King, Univ. of Maryland Libs., College Park
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.