S.R.
3 min readJul 31, 2024

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You make a great point. Not everyone needs to have labels for every little thing.

Personally labeling myself has been very helpful, and I had to work hard to get these labels. For example, I worked hard to get evaluated for lipedema, a condition that explains my struggles with weight loss. For years I got the message I was fat because of my diet and exercise. This continued even after spending 4 years on a keto diet and extensive exercise. Yet all around me I saw other people doing minor things like not drinking soda and walking a few times a week and suddenly they lose weight. Meanwhile I’m working out 8-12 hours a week and don’t eat carbs or sugar and am still labeled as obese, with thin people giving obvious advice line “stop eating junk food (I don’t touch any of it)” or “try gentle exercise!” and I was like WTF is going on here? Getting that assessed, which lead to a diagnosis helped explain what was happening to my body.
During my intense exercise sessions, massive disassociation kept cropping up with crippling ptsd. I did a lot of therapy and found all sorts of ptsd from just going to school as a kid. I was like WTF is going on here? It made no sense. Eventually I was evaluated for autism and diagnosed. The friction between the way my brain worked and schools expectations, and my sensory issues lead to intense trauma, that shouldn’t be there and doesn’t make sense without the label of autism. When I tried to explain it to people I was always gaslit as it not being a big deal and told to grow up. But the trauma is pretty intense and I had to figure out what the hell was going on to understand and confront it. For me, that label of autism was very freeing. Not having my labels of autism and lipedema felt like being gaslit my entire life, it was beyond confusing.
But those are labels I sought after, I was ready for them, I needed them.
It sounds like you’re being placed with labels you aren’t comfortable with.
I get that. I don’t really like having to label labels my sexuality. I stick with queer because it’s very vague, but don’t really feel like explaining in detail the exact details of my sexual attraction, and don’t care to examine them, label them, etc. it doesn’t feel helpful. I wish it didn’t have to be a thing and we could just stop assuming people are straight unless noted.
It’s interesting, sometimes other people label you for their sake, and expect you to behave. I once had a woman label me as “bi-curious” and she didn’t very sternly. I thought about trying to explain it to her, but realized it wasn’t worth my time to get into it and I just walked away.
I remember others debating when I was married on if my marriage was mix-raced. Some thought it was, others didn’t. Whatever, it was dumb, and I didn’t care.

Pick whatever labels work for you, and walk away from the ones that don’t. It can suck being labeled.

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S.R.
S.R.

Written by S.R.

Cheese Enthusiast. Fat and Feminist. I can’t help but write. Trying to learn as much as I can.

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