The envelope can carry more apprehension than the page inside deserves.

An unopened envelope can hold more dread than anything inside it. Imagination fills the gap with the worst available content, and the apprehension is generated entirely by the not knowing rather than by the letter. The waiting is frequently the hardest part of the whole exchange.

So open it. Whatever the equivalent is for you, the email, the message, the result, the bill: the actual content is nearly always more manageable than the version you have been carrying. And if you cannot face it alone, open it with someone. What makes it hard is rarely the information; it is being alone with the anticipation.