Supanova, I know exactly what you mean and though I have not been hospitalized since I began my Pain Mgmt treatment, I have on occasion seen a new Doc when my regular one was away. One looked at my chart and loudly announced that I'm addicted! I nearly blew up at him. I actually had to explain the difference between addictin adn Dependence. Honestly, I don't think I would care one way or another what terms any Doc used to describe my narcotic usage as long as it was not addiction. The plain truth is that I am dependent on it.
What worries me is the possibility of having some type of accident of surgery and not having my pain meds increased accordingly. Yes, I take a lot of meds, but that's what my body needs to get me through a day of my usual pain. If you add more pain to the picture, you must add more pain meds to cover it.
Prior to my Mom's open heart surgery she had been taking 20mgs of oxycontin. She was stable on that dose and had been taking it for almost a year. I didn't find out until post op day 3 that the Cardiac Surgeon had discontinued her Oxy and ws giving her only 5mgs of Percocet every 4 hours. I blew a gasket! Certainly I understand the risks of lowering lung capacity while using narcotics, but that applies when the dose is new, not once someone is dependent. She was suffering in so much pain and they kept assuring me that she was getting all her meds. I had to ask specifically what she was getting to find out about the change.
It took so long to finally get Docs to accept the need for pain meds, but so many still don't get it. The real problem here is the lack of education the Docs get about this issue in med school. Perhaps some of the younger Docs are catching up, I but I seen some terrible things from some of the older Docs.