I have this obsessive thing where I research something excessively, so labels for me can really be bad. My pdoc (because I agreed to his suggestions) did not give me a specific label for several years. Finally, only recently really, he did say that I was bipolar (among several other things). This label has been good in that it has helped me to take a better and more honest look at my life and past. Its bad because I am now obsessively thinking about the label, reading about the label, buying zillions of books about the label. I have been trying to control myself and at least not purchase any more books, but to be honest, even being on here and reading all the posts in the bipolar forum sort of feed into my obsession. I now know though, that the obsessiveness is part of the bipolar, so its kind of ironic in a weird sort of way that my obsessiveness led me to learn about my obsessiveness. Ag, sorry that was very circular.

So, I do want a label, but its not so good for me. I cannot see the forest (myself) for the trees (bipolar label).