Cuomo and Ronacher (1998) say that rebellious teenagers, unhappy housewives, dissatisfied workers, or lonely old people are often diagnosed as mentally ill, in which similar to what MacDonald says, is less a medical, scientific description than it is a judgment that the person being labelled has, in some way, behaved improperly. People labelled mentally ill are usually thought to be incapable of exercising their decision-making power in their own best interest. People labelled mentally ill usually end up confined in a mental hospital, which is widely perceived as an unpleasant and undesirable fate. Mental patients who protest being locked away are seen as being unable to understand their own best interest; and often, once someone has been so diagnosed, when they express that their place of confinement is unpleasant it is considered a sign of mental illness, although they are doing nothing but stating their opinion, much like any "sane" person would do if he or she was forced to live somewhere that they did not want to live.
Some people realize that their actions are different and get so disturbed by themselves that they voluntarily go to a mental hospital; family, friends, or the police unwillingly bring others there. These people don't perceive themselves as ill; their "symptoms" are bothersome to others. Frequent hand washing, staying out late at night, crying, spending a lot of money, expressing an unusual religious preference, wanting a divorce, having trouble in school or on the job, changing one's life-style--all these and many more have been called symptoms of mental illness. Cuomo and Ronacher (1998) give an example of this by using the situation of thirty year old Leonard Roy Frank of San Francisco, who lost his job and rather than get a new one, he decided to live off of his life savings for a while. He became interested in Orthodox Judaism, and grew a beard and followed this religion's dietary rules.