Why do we need labels?

I had another busy day in clinic this morning. I didn't sleep well last night and am still recovering from call. We had Grand Rounds today, which was about recovery in mental illness. I had to fight to stay awake despite that I find the topic rather interesting. The speaker sang some popular songs in his talk and I can now see why he went into Psychiatry. The debate was brought up about what to call those with mental illness. Some of the suggestions are patients, clients, people, and consumers. I have used the word/label consumer in the past, but now that I am a doctor and typically have a doctor/patient relationship with these people I am more inclined to say patient. If this was a family medicine clinic, then you would say patient, so I am not sure as to why a Psychiatry clinic with a doctor prescribing medications would be any different.

Despite being tired (pretty much because I had already said I would), I went to Heath's for dinner. His neighbor was cooking shrimp alfredo. She made chicken for me due to an annoying shellfish allergy of mine. It was raining last night, so it took me 40 minutes to get home and another 45 minutes to drive to Heath's. He said I kept staring off in space, but I had a great time. I'm sure it would have been better if the migraine and rain had stayed out of the picture.