Labels once Served a Purpose

Blog Series - Beyond the Labels

They gave meaning to chaos, language to pain, and structure to a world that felt unpredictable.

Survivor. Chronically ill. Strong one. Mother. Fighter.

For a time, these identities held me together they helped me understand my story and explain it to others.

But what once protected can eventually confine.

There comes a moment where the same labels that once gave grounding begin to feel like walls.

A box that’s too small.

A name that only tells a fraction of who I now am.

Because healing asks a difficult question

Who am I without the struggle that shaped me?

And that question is both terrifying and liberating.

Stepping out of identity boxes means facing the unknown

• no longer relying on trauma to explain why I am the way I am,

• no longer leaning on illness as the only story,

• no longer carrying survival as proof of worth.

There is fear in that: If I am not my pain, who am I? If I stop performing strength, will people still value me? If I outgrow the version of myself others are comfortable with, will I still belong?

But there is freedom too: The freedom to rediscover softness instead of survival.

The freedom to build a life from desire instead of defense.

The freedom to grow into someone who is not defined by what they endured.