Identifying ourselves as a certain thing?

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Hi
I have always kind of thought to myself (well as far as i can remember - from teens)
had this kind of thing where i identify to myself like 'i'm a Hippie' (as a drug using teen) 'I'm Schizophrenic" (when i was diagnosed)
I'm going to be 'an accupuncturist' or 'an artist' as an art Student
I'm now majorly going through "i'm a triathlete" or 'athlete"
I'm really really struggling with WHY i have to identify as somethihng

It's always been there since i was a teen (self esteem thing maybe?)

whatever it is i get a lot of self worth from the thing i am or will become

Can anyone relate?

I hate to use this as a negative but to me it sounds so disabled to hang everything on a word and go around wearing it like a badge to myself

Things have names. Get used to the idea. Otherwise you'll be standing around all day grunting and pointing.

If you don't want to tell someone about yourself then DON'T, but face the facts. Things have names and that's the way it is. You are what you are and various things about you...there are ways to describe them.

Careful. You're becoming a linguistic anarchist, or in the least scofflaw.

Major relate. Artist, poet, postpunker, journalist, communist, transfemale, alcoholic novelist, and back around again. I used to consider myself some sort of mad method actor subsumed by my "projects" (lost jobs, lost marriages, etc.). One day I read about "special interests" and saw the pattern. I've lived my entire life (50+) in a Warholian funnel.

I am the opposite. I find it difficult to identify with a label. Labels seem too external to myself. For instance, I would rather say I am artistic than label myself as an artist. I would rather say I am autistic than label myself as a person with autism.

Yes. Accept the names, and accept the names being part if your self-identity, but don´t let the stereotypes get you!
You bet I can relate.

I do use labels on myself, but more often than not I'm wary about giving myself labels. This is because I feel pressure to live up to the stereotype of the label and then I get worried that when I change my views or whatever the label entails I'll be stuck having to live life under the label, because I won't want to disappoint people by changing and I'll get nostalgic about leaving the label behind.

You're playing games. In some languages (for example, Spanish) if you add the adjective to their word for "the", you have a noun.

Saying you're autistic is saying you have autism.

Maybe it's just semantics. What I said makes sense to me. I'm not playing games. Language and meaning can seem arbitrary sometimes and it is hard to express a thought.
Posting on WP helps me to understand myself and express myself. I am terrible at expressing myself but it is never my intention to play games.

Psychologically self-labelling stems from our human need to determine for ourselves precisely who and what we are, and where in society we fit. Labels aren't a bad thing, at least until they start limiting the things you will do or try, or they narrow your mind to possibilities of ideas that people within your label don't normally accept. I never really had a problem with labels until I started discovering that I was different. I inadvertently picked up a book on high sensitivity three years ago, discovered I matched a lot of the traits, and that's when the labelling begain. Faster than I could keep up, I became "an HSP", "shy" and "an introvert", then later, "an aspie" and "a synesthete". Sometimes I look at all the labels hanging on me and wonder if I could really have so much distinction and difference, as it seems like a lot for just one person, but when I take a step back, forget the labels and just look at me, all those labels make sense, and they suddenly don't feel so encumbering.