For as long as I can remember I have had various labels that have become part of who I am today. For a period of my life, I liked the idea of a label as it was an answer to what I was feeling. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety in 2013, during that time I felt somewhat relieved that there was a word/label for what I was feeling. For 3 years I experienced different methods of therapy, such as CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), counselling and group therapy.
It wasn’t until I met my last counsellor at Off the Record, that my thoughts changed. She suggested that in order for me to fully recover I should stop blaming certain scenarios on depression or anxiety and I should stop needing to find an answer or find a label to fix whatever is happening.
As well as finding labels to explain what I am feeling, labels regarding sexuality is another thing I struggle with. I have never been in a relationship with a woman, only men. But I am attracted to women; I don’t label myself as bisexual, nor heterosexual so for some time I was confused about who I actually am. I done loads of research on different sexuality’s and the closest thing I could find to my sexuality is called Heteroflexible, which defines as ‘mostly straight’. After spending an hour on the internet searching for something to label my sexuality it was kind of humorous, because it didn’t achieve anything or even change anything.
It is okay to be who you are, without having a label to identify as, whether its gay, straight, schizophrenic, an addict or transgender. We are all human and deserve an equal amount of respect.
Chloe Burford 