When you check into a hospital, it is because you think there is something wrong with you, or because a doctor tells you that there is something wrong. When you check into a cardiac unit, is because you think something is wrong with your heart; when you check into a dialysis unit, you think something is amiss with your kidney. Naturally, therefore, when you check into a psychiatric hospital, you think something is wrong with your mind. Since mind is nothing but a modern day word meaning the same as soul, you think there is something not quite right about your soul. A thought like that is enough to make anyone feel terrible. It certainly can do a great job of lowering anybody's self-esteem!

Think again! There is nothing wrong with your soul or your mind or anything about your essence at all. If you feel sad, even terribly sad, it's just part of being human. If you feel so terrible that you can't pick your head up off the pillow, that is just part of the human condition too. You may end up needing someone to pick up your head for you temporarily in order to feed you a bowl of soup. You don't want to disappear into a vacuum, so if you can't stop crying long enough to fix your own salad, someone might have to fix it for you. Think of it as human kindness rather than any kind of medical treatment. There is no pathology going on here, no wrongness, and no badness. In this society, we use the idea of a medical model where it is not always appropriate, and this is just such a case.

Human beings need help from one another, and sometimes, you help others also. There's nothing to be ashamed of going on here. Perk up and don't lose self-esteem! If Big Nurse tries to make you feel ashamed, tell her (maybe safest to tell her silently in your mind, though), to go suck a lemon!