Labels are important to me under two conditions: first, I was misdiagnosed for 19 years and given the wrong medication for 19 years and therefore, never felt better for any consistent length of time for 19 years until one angel of a nurse practitioner bothered to look at my file which was five inches thick and actually read it. She said, I don't think you have major depression, I think you are bipolar, according to the pattern of behavior I see here. Consequently, we changed my medication and my life changed forever.

Second, I never, EVER pay any attention to what is put on the insurance forms regarding my diagnosis. Labels on insurance forms and labels used by insurance companies are a different language altogether. They mean nothing. They only mean what the insurance company say they mean. You have to know the language of the insurance company. The only label that matters is the one the doctor gives you in his office and, as a result, prescribes medication for you. The employees in the doctor's office know how to fill out the insurance papers so that they speak "insurance speak" and everyone gets paid and everyone's happy.