You Are Not Your Label: Finding Identity Beyond Mental Health with Erin Kerry!

You Are Not Your Label: Finding Identity Beyond Mental Health with Erin Kerry!

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety and mental health recovery when the labels feel crushing? This conversation on Anchored by the Sword brings together host Gina Fox and guest Erin Kerry, who calls herself “a survivor of mental illness,” to unpack that question with raw honesty and gentle humour. Erin shares being diagnosed with PTSD, depression, and bipolar disorder by 18, and how those words quickly became her whole identity.

She talks openly about self-destructive behaviour, mixing heavy psychiatric medication with alcohol, memory loss, and the long shadow of shame. Her story includes spiritual struggle too: anger at God, feeling abandoned, and trying to work out “what’s a sin issue and what’s my illness?” At the heart of the episode is the idea that diagnoses can both help and hurt. A name can validate your struggle, yet it can also become a cage.

There’s a strong faith thread throughout as she and Gina talk about verses that keep them anchored, such as Romans 8:1 and Zephaniah 3:17, and the freedom of stepping out of the “shame box.” If you’ve ever used alcohol or other coping mechanisms to escape your own mind, felt dismissed by church responses to mental health, or wondered whether you are more than your diagnosis, this episode offers compassionate clarity, practical ideas, and a reminder that, as Erin says, “Trauma wires us for brokenness, but God wires us for healing.” What label have you been wearing that it might be time to hold a little more lightly?

As Erin puts it, she now sees herself as “a survivor of bipolar disorder” rather than saying “I am bipolar,” and roots her identity in what God says about her instead of in medical labels. You’ll also hear a very practical angle. Erin now works as an integrative health coach and functional nutritionist, and she explains how things like sleep, movement, and nutrient-dense food affect neurotransmitters, mood, and trauma recovery.