Please, please, give me less choice. I don't want any more. I am drowning in a sea of decisions, overwhelmed by the responsibility, stressed by the stream of obligations. Won't somebody help me?

The psychology is simple. Too little choice: bad. Too much choice: bad. Somewhere in the middle: good. This government is taking precisely the wrong route to help its citizens become happier because we are already far into the "too much choice" realm.

Yes, it's certainly true that people with no choices are unhappy, and giving them more choices gives a sense of freedom and control, and reduces anxiety. The same is true for rats, dogs and birds whose behaviour in the lab has been thoroughly tested. But what about the other end of the spectrum?

Every choice we make demands time, effort and emotional investment, and the more choices we have to make, the greater the burden becomes. Let's take a tiny, little one: shall I have tea or coffee for breakfast? I know how they taste, I imagine each, feel more inclined to the tea, and I decide. I might regret my choice later, but generally I cope with such small things countless times a day - unless I'm already under stress.

Now think about something tougher. Which university shall I apply to? Shall I accept this job? It's the same process writ large; weighing the choices, estimating how I feel about them, making the decision, then dealing with the result and any regrets, and this time it matters. The tougher the decision is, the harder is the sense of responsibility, and the heavier the burden of regret if things go wrong. Even if they go well we go on making an effort - it's called cognitive dissonance. After any choice we tend to look back and justify what we did, looking for reasons why we did the "right thing".

All this is hard work. When we are relaxed and life is easy, choices too are easy, but when life gets tough and stressful, choices become a burden, and the more choices we have to make, the heavier the burden becomes.

So what's the situation like now? I would say that most of us are stressed and have too many choices; we have choices at home, at work, in the shops, and there seem to be more all the time. So what does the government do? It tells us that we want more choice. Worse than that, it tells us that we want more choice at just the most stressful times of our lives - when we are ill.

When I am well I can stand the burden. I was glad to be able to choose my own GP when I moved to a new area. But when I visited the surgery last week there were notices all over the place about the new system of choice. I don't want it. Really I don't. If I get ill I do not want the responsibility of choosing which hospital to go to. If I'm really ill I won't want to read the league tables, ponder the payoffs between death rates, recovery rates, hospital food, and décor in the wards. I won't want to get out the maps and work out how far away each hospital is, nor do I want my family to have that burden on my behalf. And once I've chosen, I won't want to lie in bed, feeling ill, and worrying about whether I made the right choice or not. I just want someone else - the doctor or the nurse - to tell me where I am going and make sure I get there.

Patient choice is an utter disaster. It's not just the waste of money, the way it will exacerbate differences between rich and poor, and the bad effects it will have on morale in the health service - it is fundamentally bad for us all.

This is my government. I pay my taxes willingly, but in return I expect to have some of the basic choices made for me. I want good local schools, and a good local hospital, so that I can get on with my life. So please, if anyone's listening - give me less choice.