While  this label has been never been used to describe me  I know that if I had been in psych wards today instead of 25 years ago, I would have certainly been labeled with it. It was not as commonly used when I was frequently hospitalized. I did, however at the time, not make doctors happy. I, indeed, as Ruth writes in her post, perpetrate the "bitch pisses off doctor" sin. I pissed off all the staff . I couldn't stand being treated with so little respect when I was hospitalized, so I did not "behave" well. I'm going to write about the label from a slightly different perspective. I've not said much, except in passing, that I was a social worker in mental health. I no longer identify with the role that took front and center stage in my life for so long. I was a social worker dammit, not a psych patient! In any case, in truth, I was a social worker and a psych patient and in practice I really did behave as both, though my employers never knew it. Looking back I now see I may have gotten burnt out for a reason. I identified with my clients. You are always told not to identify with "them".