The sad reality is that while we might forget to take our medication once or twice, we’re not forgetting when we don’t take our medication for days at a time or stop treatment altogether. We’re making a choice. It doesn’t mean we’re bad or wrong or even reckless. It just means we’re human.

And as humans, we’re hardwired to pick short-term benefits over long-term gain. Behavioral psychologists call this our ‘present bias’.

In a study HealthPrize did a few years ago, 47% of the people surveyed said they’d rather take out the trash than take their medication. Forty-five percent said they’d rather do their laundry. Ten percent actually chose getting a cavity filled over taking their medications!

We don’t take our medications because we don’t want to have a chronic disease.
Or we don’t like the side effects of the drug.
Or we just can’t use the injector correctly.
Or there aren’t any symptoms so what’s the drug really doing for us anyways?