Labels are a necessary part of being human, in the OP it was mentioned "why we can't look for the good in people". If you see someone as good then you are labeling that person as good. Are labels good/bad is the wrong question, the question should be how can we make labels work for us instead of against us.

I was bullied all through school too, I was in my mid 20's before I reversed the damage that was done. The negative labels you're giving yourself is your self talk. I found the negative labels I gave myself disappeared as my self esteem grew, check out my response to another thread on the single biggest thing I did to improve my self esteem and change my inner self talk from mainly negative to mainly positive.

I'm unable to post links at the moment, you can find my response in the thread 'Is It Possible?' in 'Steps-to-better-self-esteem'. When I'm able to I'll revisit this thread and change the link.