Essential
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4 min
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Esther Omotosho
If you’re living with a chronic condition, chances are you’ve missed a dose of your medication before. You’re not alone, and it’s not because you were careless. In fact, globally, half of people with chronic conditions don’t take their medication as prescribed. In a survey of about 24,000 adults, up to 62% admitted to forgetting a dose at some point.
Medication adherence means taking the right dose, at the right time, for as long as it’s prescribed. But the gap between that definition and real life is where most of us get stuck.
Take the refill date as an example
Ever notice how some refill dates keeps moving? If you were supposed to finish your medication by the 25th but still have some left by the 30th, that’s not random. It’s often a sign of missed doses adding up quietly.
Here’s how it happens: You miss a day, catch up the next, then miss a couple more during a busy week. Your pill bottle doesn’t judge, but it does keep score. By the time your refill date has shifted by a week, your body may have gone without consistent medication longer than you realise.
Pharmacists and care teams see this pattern all the time. A shifted refill date is often the first visible sign that a routine has broken down, sometimes even before you notice any symptoms.
Why do people stop taking medication they know they need?
Most of us don’t stop because we forgot. We stop because:
We feel fine. When medication works, there’s nothing dramatic to see. You just feel normal. And “normal” can start to feel like proof you don’t need it anymore.
The side effects are harder to talk about than we think. Maybe your medication makes you feel sluggish, affects your weight, or changes your sleep. Instead of telling a doctor, it’s easier to quietly skip doses or reduce how much you take.
The daily reminder of your medications is exhausting. After months or years, the weight adds up. Sometimes, people stop not because of inconvenience, but because they need a break from what the pill represents.
So, what actually helps?
Alarms? Not as much as you’d think. Research shows many of us turn off medication alarms without even realising it — we swipe, forget, and two hours later, the dose is missed.
What does work is attaching your medication to something you already do without thinking. Think of it like an anchor.
Ask yourself: What’s the one thing I haven’t missed in the last 30 days?
For most people, it’s brushing their teeth, making the first cup of coffee, or unlocking their phone in the morning. If your medication lives next to your toothbrush, you don’t need an alarm — the toothbrush is the alarm.
Studies on patients with epilepsy found that those who linked their medication to a specific time, place, or activity were far more consistent than those who relied on memory or reminders. The medication stops feeling like a task when it’s part of a routine that already works.
Facts worth knowing
Half of all people with chronic conditions don’t take their medication as prescribed.
Up to 62% of adults with chronic diseases report missing at least one dose, so you're not alone.
The most effective way to improve adherence isn’t pill organisers or reminders, but linking your medication to an existing daily routine.
Most of us don’t connect missed doses to how we feel weeks or months later. The damage is usually quiet and gradual.
If you don’t feel immediate results or believe your condition has improved, you’re more likely to stop treatment without telling your doctor.
The reason it's important to know this is so you can also spot the patterns, which will make it easier to break them in the long-term.
One thing to try today
Don’t set a new alarm. Find your anchor.
Think of the one daily habit you haven’t broken in the past month. Put your medication next to it, so that becomes your system. You don't need a whole new routine.
In fact, a new routine also adds to medications being overwhelming to keep up with because you're adding to an already packed schedule.
Final thought
You’re doing better than you think. Missed doses don’t define you; they’re just signs that your routine might need a tweak. Try the anchor method, and let me know how it goes. I’m here to help.
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