I am a (38/F). I have been on depression/anxiety meds for the better part of the last 20 years. I had a great relationship with my primary care doctor who would listen to what I needed based off of my current symptoms and was always willing to adjust my meds as needed. 

A little under 2 years ago, I wanted to get off of my daily 2mg Xanax dose. My primary care doctor wanted me to use a psychiatrist to do this safely. He referred me to a fabulous doctor who also paid attention to my needs and we made a plan together that worked for my anxiety. 

The first plan was to switch me from Xanax to Klonopin. Same dose. She said that the Klonopin is longer acting and when we dose down it will be easier. We did that for a few months. Then, we started the actual dosing down. We started it super slow, and that worked great. Together, we had me down to taking 1 mg of Klonopin at night. 

Well, this year, my husband and I made a life changing decision to move across country and start over somewhere else. I worked with my doctor and we made a plan to make sure that I wouldn't run out of meds before I could get established with a new provider. And we also made a back up plan in case that did happen. 

Thanks for listening to the "before" problem.... Here I am, 6 months later. I have established care with a new provider. At the first appointment, I thought that I made it extremely clear what I needed, what I wanted the plan to look like, and how I handle my stress/depression/anxiety. He said that he was happy to help with this process, but he couldn't prescribe controlled substances on the first visit and I needed to come back. When I went back for my second appointment, He laid out the "clinics policy" of prescribing controlled substances. The policy included weekly urine drug tests and no longer than 3 months. I started to freak out and he proceeded to tell me that my doctors in the past have just fed my issues and that isn't the way to get someone off of meds. He said he would get me off of Klonopin in 60 days and it would be safe and fine, with ZERO mention of addressing my depression/anxiety after that. 

I am treated like a drug addict. Never in my history have I "abused" the medication. I've never taken more than prescribed and I don't have a history of suicide attempts. 

Is this normal treatment of patients? We moved from a small town where the doctors treat the patients like friends. Now we are just outside of Detroit and I am truly being treated as "drug seeking" and "drug addicted". The worse part is, that is now in my electronic medical chart which will follow me to any other provider that I go to. 

What are other peoples experience with switching providers and is there a way to lose the stigma associated with "drug seeking" once it is in your chart?