I think he means that his treatment in a psych ward was so poor that he would rather hide whatever mental issues he ' s having than face having to go through that again . I ' ve known a couple people that have been to the psych hospital in my city and it ' s . not pretty . They ' re not allowed contact with the outside world even family , the can ' t eat past a specific point in the day and medicine thay needed to be taken with food was given out three hours after this point , they would basically just sit around all day and nobody told them when their therapy appointments , court hearings , release dates , etc . were . You ' re only supposed to be held for 3 days against your wishes there if someone else checks you in and it ' s obvious you ' re suffering from a mental breakdown , but there was apparently someone in there for 2 weeks asking to get out every day . My friend was convinced that if his family hadn ' t asked about him , then he would have stayed there indefinitely . It ' s not a place to heal . As for your brother , the best thing you can do for him is care about him . Make sure he goes to his therapist appointments , is eating every day , showers regularly . If he ' s suffering from depression try and be around him more often , or take him out of the house . Know that no matter what there will be bad bad days and there ' s nothing you can do to help that besides be there to help him pick up the pieces . I know it ' s hard but try not to get frustrated with him because he ' s probably trying his best to get better too .