Hospitalization is often a positive, reassuring experience. Patients become aware that others do care and that, if life becomes especially stressful, there _are_ sources of professional help and encouragement available to fall back on. Most hospitals encourage former patients to maintain contact through follow-up services of some kind. Leaving the hospital is made easier for many people, for example, knowing that the psychologist or psychiatrist is still there and that they will be seen on an outpatient basis. To help former hospital patients ease back into more normal lives, groups that were formed in the hospital sometimes will also continue to meet on an outpatient basis for a time. The decision to be hospitalized is difficult for anyone. Hospital care may help turn your life around and put you back on your feet. Or it can, if you are your own worst critic, give you another burden to carry. It is important to try not to block potentially helpful treatment with excessive pride and to try to listen to people who care about you. If they are in favor of the decision, their convictions should be considered. If your doctor or minister agrees, this adds weight to their advice. Once you have listened, try to make your decision your own, not anyone else's. {257} 19 CONFIDENTIALITY Your Privacy THE NEGATIVE LABEL OF EMOTIONAL ILLNESS Society has attached an undeniable stigma to so-called emotional or mental illness. The public is afraid of conditions that are not concrete and physical and are less easily understood. Emotional or mental difficulties seem more "hidden" and mysterious. The body is _tangible_, and we feel we have more control over it. Setting a broken leg, having your appendix removed, even open-heart surgery--they are not difficult for the public to grasp. However, depression, anxiety, intolerance to stress, disorientation, unsettling fears, unusual behavior--these are much less readily understood by nonspecialists. There is a tendency for many people to judge rather harshly what they do not comprehend. When many individuals who are ignorant of psychology hear of someone in emotional distress, the inclination is often to condemn. Condemnation is frequently an expression of fear--fear of what is not understood. During the last two to three decades, society has gradually become more psychologically aware and more intelligent about nonphysical problems. And yet, the stigma of emotional or mental illness has still not been erased. It will take time. {258} As a result, many people who are in serious emotional distress hesitate to go to a therapist. They are afraid of the negative label that others may apply to them, if information about them ever "got out."