What to Do if You Miss a Therapy Appointment

When the time comes, ask yourself: Are you willing to keep your committment? 

Or are you more likely to give up and retreat? Which of the two is more likely?

Keeping up with therapy appointments is a challenge itself. The work in therapy is demanding and emotionally taxing, so there is at least to some extent a risk of clients dropping out in exhaustion.

More than not, your therapist can coax you of such an outcome, but eventually, a time will come when you have to skip an appointment. 

When all else fails and there's no making it to the office, make sure you know what's coming. Keep reading to move forward. 

Missing an appointment without cancelling causes a hassle for the office. 

Your time slot becomes unavailable to other clients. That's why therapists request you cancel ahead of time--so they can help someone else in your place.

It's also disrespectful and signals that you're not serious about your treatment. Any kind of resistance or non-adherence may interrupt or degrade the quality of your treatment. 

Missing appointments also stops you from building consistency. The more appointments missed, the more spaced out your progress. Ultimately, this tendency accounts for much slower growth.

Think of it he disaster this way:

• Lost emotional support
• Lost self-discipline
• Lost consistency
• Lost progress

All of this loss leads to catastrophic consequences. 

Namely, you have to worry about your symptoms getting worse.  But for therapy involving families, you should rethink your decision to cancel to preserve the integrity of your relationships.

That said, we're all human and situations arise. If you have to cancel or miss an appointment, you'll need to know what to do. 

Always use your best judgment and cancel within 72 hours. Reschedule within one business day to prevent late fees from accumulating. 

Additionally, there are some decisions you should take before and after you cancel that will help you remain stable.. Your priority should be taking responsibility, which has two notable effects:

• Responsibility promotes stability
• Responsibility promotes growth

Even when you miss an appointment, you can still move forward. Step up to the plate with the steps I've provided below to continue improving.

You can do a wellness checkup on your own if you can't make an appointment. Your goal should be to complete a self-assessment to identify your current state of health.

Once you've completed your self-assessment, you're in a position to pursue actions that align with daily management. To get started, understand first and foremost that your wellness checkup needn't be complicated.

Your priority should be to focus on questions that are addressed in a typical mental status exam. Basically, you're assessing a bunch of areas of mental health:

• Daily living abilities
• Mood
• Daily living abilities
• Sleep
• Appetite
• Appearance
• Behavior
• Stress
• Symptoms
• Attention, memory, reasoning, and judgment

A casual reflection of how you're doing in these areas will help you spot changes or unhelpful patterns that are developing. Your goal is to determine how well you're doing, but you'll also identify any setbacks that may arise due to you missing an appointment. 

There are a few questions you might ask:

Might your stress increase?

Will your work, relationships, or social functioning be impacted?

What about your overall mood and well-being? Will you feel significantly worse by the time you arrive to your next appointment?

If you notice your mental health on the decline, remember these four tips to stay safe and regain a sense of balance.

1. Get plenty of rest and relaxation
2. Make sure you're eating healthy foods and limiting your sugar intake
3. Avoid alcohol or drugs until you're next appointment
4. Avoid major lifestyle changes which could increase stress. 

Keep your life as close as routine to possible to avoid major disruptions that could interfere with therapy. 

An early onset of symptoms can cause you to deteriorate, leading you to experience a depressive episode, psychotic break, or any other form of psychiatric crisis. These emergencies tend to be severe and life-threatening and require emergency treatment to ensure your safety.

Since you've missed an appointment, it's important to prepare for distress. Simply reviewing your approach to an emergency will ensure you're prepared to advocate for yourself if your symptoms get worse. 

You should have prepared such documents or went over a plan like this at some point in your treatment. If not, I've listed the following guidelines to help you ensure you're ready for a crisis.

Double-check to ensure you have the following either in writing or in your head.

• The names and doses of your medications
• A description of your diagnosis and symptoms
• An emergency contact number
• A list of emergency rooms within your approximate range

Going forward, remember: safety is prevention. Depending on your reasoning for therapy, it helps to have emergency information on hand. Even if you're not going to therapy or counseling for treatment for a mental health disorder

There is no sense doing all of this work if you will continue skipping appointments. You need a firm reminder to keep the next one. Going forward, you should experiment with one or more apps or resources to remember your upcoming appointment.

Keep in mind that your therapist will be eager to check in, both to assess your stability and to ensure you haven't become overwhelmed. Sticking to your plan to make your next appointment keeps you honest and sincere about your treatment regimen.

Consider utilizing any available apps in the Apple or Google Play Store for customization options. Depending on your difficulty juggling multiple responsibilities, you may want to experiment with alert sounds, frequency of alerts, scheduling options, or features that allow you to capture details related to your next appointment.

Don't make the mistake of getting in the habit of missing appointments. The risks significantly outweigh most advantages. 

In the meantime, you'll want to make sure you're prioritizing your physical and mental health. Overworking, juggling extra responsibilities, or engaging in self-destructive acts are especially risky, given the extra time you're away from the therapist's office. 

Practicing self-care when you've missed a therapy appointment isn't as simple as self-care on a daily, routine basis. This time around you'll want to pay attention to some of the areas we discussed earlier, such as consistency, growth, and stability.

Self-care must be about energy, not simply comfort. Missing your appointment means you must stay motivated, recharged, and ready to take action.

Do these things:

• Get outside of your comfort zone at least once
• Drink warm beverages while relaxing
• Take extra naps or go to bed early
• Get extra exercise to maintain energy

With these tips in mind, you'll be healthy until you return to therapy. You might even shock your therapist with your effort!! 

Let's reflect on what we learned:

• Skipping therapy appointments increases your risk of incurring fees and places the facility or provider in an uncomfortable position. 
• Skipping therapy appointments stalls your progress, prevents you from staying consistent, and increases your risk for more severe mental health problems.
• You can't manage your life, your relationships, your health, or your progress if you skip therapy appointments.
• If you must skip a therapy appointment, cancel within 72 hours, reschedule within 24, and take the best steps to ensure your safety and progress.
• Practice self-care, complete a wellness checkup, review your crisis toolkit, and set a firm reminder to make your next appointment.

If you take these steps, you're more likely to stay on top of your problems. The problems won't define you. More importantly, you'll be ready to jump back into action .

What's your experience with missing a therapy appointment?