Abstract
The HIV/AIDS “worried well”—persons who believe themselves infected with HIV in the absence of any objective medical proof—have been well documented in the psychological literature but not the sociological literature. Adopting a symbolic interactionist perspective, I use George Herbert Mead's theory of the past to conceptualize the HIV/AIDS worried well experience by analyzing narratives written by persons who have been worried well. Empirically, I provide sociological evidence of the existence of the HIV/AIDS worried well. Theoretically, I expand concepts derived from studies of persons with chronic illness to the worried well and speak to the influence of Mead's theory of the past to sociology.
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