Sorry - It wasn't meant to be mysterious.
It frequently seems that when someone has a difficult decision to make, there is someome with an agenda who pushes them toward it by playing on their natural concerns - using phrases like "we like to do this" (as if it were a concensus among some unseen multitude of experts), or "let's go ahead and do this, just to be sure," (when there really isn't enough logic or fact to support needing to be "sure" of anything at all).
FUD stands for the three leverage points played on by most people who want to control other people: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. It's often referred to as "the FUD Factor." Unscrupulous insurance salesmen (sometimes dubbed "fear merchants") offer an example of how elements of the FUD Factor can be used to one's advantage.
If you can convince someone to yield to one of these three, non-logic-driven motivators, you can control their actions through its power, even when your reasons and arguments are faulty or weak. When this type of persuasion is used by a medical professional, it has a devastating effect. Even if the patient isn't moved by it, the spouse or parent often caves to this extension of their own concern for the patient and works with the doctor to wear down the patient's resistance. The result is to make it appear that the patient's reluctance is foolish or self-destructive. This evolves because the perpetrator establishes a united front by creating a supposed common enemy, which is in actuality a vaporous element of fear, uncertainty, or doubt.
It's sometimes difficult to balance knowledge, intellect, instinct, concern from your loved ones, personal advice, and expert advice to make a decision. However, as these decisions affect the rest of ours lives, we do all owe it to ourselves to try our best to accomplish it, for our own sakes.
This is only an explanation of FUD, by the way, and doesn't necessarily bear on the decision you need to make for yourself. I am sensitive to (okay, I resent) cheap manipulations of this sort, and talking about them does get me up on my soap box.
Best wishes,
